EU negotiations cannot proceed with this way of thinking

It was a very accurate assessment.

Later, Yalin Eralp also commented on the matter, saying, "With this frame of mind, we won’t be able to handle the EU negotiations."

We are truly faced with a quandary.

We are about to enter a very long negotiation period with the EU, but our way of thinking is still not up to it. We don’t know what the EU means or what its values are. We, as a nation, seem to be living on a different planet. Let’s just ignore the public for a while. Even our intellectuals don’t know what they are doing or what they are talking about.

Let’s just take a look at the debates going on in our universities. Let’s take a look at what our instructors think about the matter. Let’s listen to our journalists and commentators. And let us take a look at what our politicians are thinking.

The situation we face is very scary.

The way the basis of our society — scientists, journalists, authors and politicians — thinks about Turkey and the EU’s values are very different.

I guess we have no idea where we are going. We don’t know about the values we need to respect. What is even worse is that we have no intention of learning it either.

Whatever we are, the EU is just the opposite:
The concept of sovereignty in the EU is very different from the way we understand it. The era of Ankara ruling over the rest of the country is at an end. Ankara will no longer do as it pleases.
Territorial integrity, opposition to the concept of "minorities," pressure applied on the Alawites and being scared of religious fundamentalists will no longer be excuses to limit human rights or freedoms.
Ankara will not be able to make any economic decision it wants. It will not be able to spend as it deems appropriate. The black market economy will disappear.
In foreign policy, Turkey will have to adhere to certain rules. It will have to ask Brussels for its opinion before taking a decision. It will need to cooperate with 25 other countries.
The Kurdish issue will no longer be ignored. Even if we don’t like it, we need to decrease the election threshold and allow the election of representatives of the Kurds. There will be an amnesty for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK/Kongra-Gel) and Turkey will have to invest in the Southeast.
We need to implement an alternative foreign policy against the ridiculous "Armenian genocide" accusations and courageous steps will need to be taken.
Southern Cyprus will be officially recognized.
We are living on a different planet
We, on the other hand, still believe that things will continue as they have over the last few decades.

When we are faced with requests from the EU calling on us to adhere to the Copenhagen criteria we cry out, "Our sovereignty is in danger!"

We are acting like we are not aware of the fact that we need to transfer an important portion of our sovereign rights to Brussels.

We live in a time capsule that is the Independence War.

We believe foreigners are formulating a conspiracy against our country and we are doing everything we can to resist this encroachment.

We should try to reach an agreement on these matters. We need not wait for the Dec. 17 summit. If not, our negotiations with the EU will be very hard.