The consequences of weakness

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) wanted to solve the Cyprus problem in order to achieve the "higher" national interest of European Union membership. It approved of the Annan plan, which failed to satisfy the interests of the Turkish Cypriots. It accepted Annan’s "filling in the blanks" method, which was in violation of international law. By approving the referendum and its results even before it took place, it abandoned the rights provided to Turkey by the 1960 system. Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Rauf Denktas, who was doing everything possible to further Turkish interests, was sidelined as an "obstructionist."

No serious progress has been made on the lifting of embargoes since the Turkish Cypriots approved the plan; however, the KKTC and Turkish governments don’t want to demand recognition, fearing it would become an obstacle to a possible solution.

By passing the fourth package on Aug. 3, 2002, Turkey had fulfilled all the preconditions for the start of EU membership negotiations specified in the Turkish Accession Partnership Document. Turkey, in order not to provide any further excuses to those who were against its membership, passed another four packages and lastly ensured that former Democracy Party (DEP) deputies Leyla Zana and her colleagues were released. Domestic peace is now threatened.

The failure of Parliament to pass a proposal that allowed U.S. troop deployment in Turkey on March 1, 2003 was a mistake. However, the reaction to the incident of putting bags on the heads of Turkish soldiers, injustices perpetrated against the Turkmens and changes made by the Kurds in Kirkuk’s composition were weak. While the U.S. motive for invading Iraq was combating terrorism, the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) presence in Iraq was ignored. Despite all this, Turkey still attended meetings, where it was assigned duties as part of the Greater Middle East Initiative at the highest levels and failed to make any counter-demands.

And we are here today.

The Greek Cypriots, once realizing that the Turkish side would make more sacrifices in order to be admitted to the EU, voted against the Annan plan in the referendum. They were willing to weather the short-term storm. Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos is saying that if we don’t satisfy his demands at the EU summit in December 2004, he will veto Turkey’s membership. If the large EU countries adopt a public stance, they might prevent this veto. If not, the U.N. Security Council will reassess its Cyprus resolution, which was vetoed by Russia at the insistence of the Greek Cypriots, and change it for the worse. Annan’s report proposes that. And we will make "one final" sacrifice for a solution.

At a time when the PKK is restarting its terrorist activities, Turkey has begun broadcasts in Kurdish and has released Leyla Zana and her friends. Turkey — which is portrayed as a model within the framework of the Greater Middle East Initiative in line with the belief "There can be no terrorism where there is democracy," which has started granting cultural rights to Kurds as part of the Copenhagen criteria — will become a target of terrorism. In addition to the U.S. ignoring the PKK, there are suspicions that some EU groups are also implicitly supporting this terrorism.

If a date to start EU membership negotiations is granted at the EU summit in December, the "political" Kurdish movement led by Leyla Zana will be supported by PKK violence while the negotiations take place. The world will turn a blind eye. Kurdish separatism will progress towards its objective, helped by reports drafted by human rights associations that will engulf the region and the European Court of Human Rights decisions. In return for EU membership, we will be forced to accept this objective.

We are faced with this situation because of our decision to sacrifice national interests in order to be perceived as peaceful. The interests we staunchly defended for many years were abandoned, and some increased their demands in the hope that we might also adopt a "peaceful" or yielding stance in other areas. When we demonstrate that there is no sacrifice we aren’t willing to make in order to assure EU membership, others try to test the limits of our susceptibility.

That’s why we have been saying since the start, "Those of us who seem to be supportive of a solution on Cyprus and EU membership actually want neither." If you don’t act in accordance with the nature of international diplomacy, you’ll be able to neither solve the problems nor reach your objective. You’ll only create more problems.

Turkey is probably proceeding towards a disaster. Those who created this situation cannot save us.