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  • Turkey losing enthusiasm for joining European Union

    Turkey losing enthusiasm for joining European Union
    Many citizens think member nations are biased against them
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Seth Rosen, Chronicle Foreign Service
    Friday, June 17, 2005

    Ankara, Turkey -- With Europe still reeling over the "no" votes in
    France and the Netherlands on the European constitution, many Turks
    are also having second thoughts about their 40-year drive to join
    the European Union.

    "If the Europeans are backing out of their own project, then why should
    we be so enthusiastic?" asked Dogu Ergil, a newspaper columnist and
    professor at Ankara University.

    For Turks, the French rejection of the constitution occurred on an
    ironic day -- May 29, the anniversary of the Ottoman Turks' capture
    of Constantinople in 1453 and their emergence as a power extending
    into Europe.

    To many Frenchmen, the referendum seemed to be a way to repel another
    Turkish invasion of Europe.

    "Europeans are frightened of us and have prejudices against us,
    but they don't know anything about Turkey or our experience over the
    last 100 years," said Dogan Selcuk, a 31-year-old computer engineer
    in Istanbul.

    One of the central themes of the "no" campaign in France and the
    Netherlands was opposition to enlargement of the bloc, and especially
    to the membership of predominantly Muslim Turkey.

    In the days leading up to the French referendum, posters reading
    "Turkey in Europe ... I vote No" were plastered on walls in
    France. Dutch voters turned down the proposed constitution three days
    later, on June 1.

    Now there is concern that the fervent anti-Turkish tenor of the debates
    in both countries foretells setbacks for Ankara's aspirations and
    will further erode Turkish support for membership, which had already
    dwindled as the Europeans demanded a string of concessions on human
    rights and judicial and political reform.

    In the most recent poll, conducted just weeks before the referendums,
    support for EU membership had fallen to 63 percent, from 75 percent
    in December, when Turkey finally secured a date to begin negotiations
    for membership.

    "Europeans don't fully understand the limits to patience on this
    side," said Suat Kiniklioglu, director of the Ankara office of the
    German Marshall Fund of the United States. "The euphoria is gone."

    On Wednesday, EU President Jose Manuel Barroso said members of the
    coalition must honor its commitments to Turkey despite public concern
    about the expansion plans, calling it a question of "good faith." He
    made the comments in Brussels at a press conference on the eve of
    the first all-member EU meeting since the two "no" votes were cast.

    To many Turks, the EU has long been seen as an elixir for all that
    ails the nation. Proponents still believe that EU membership will
    buttress the burgeoning democracy and transform the country into a
    potent economic force, as it did for Spain.

    Under pressure from the EU, the governing Justice and Development
    Party has abolished the death penalty, curtailed human rights abuses,
    reduced the role of the military in civilian affairs and granted
    ethnic Kurds more cultural rights.

    But reform fatigue has set in, said Omer Taspinar, a Turkish expert at
    the Brookings Institution in Washington. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
    Erdogan did not appoint a chief negotiator for the process until
    mid-May, and to the chagrin of the EU, the Turkish parliament was
    slow in passing a new penal code that further protects women's rights.

    Although EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said negotiations on
    Turkey's admission should begin in October as scheduled, despite the
    referendum, many in this nation of 70 million have become disillusioned
    with the stringent stipulations of the EU.

    "Enthusiasm about membership is eroding, and as the EU demands become
    clearer, the public will shy away more and more," said Hasan Unal,
    a professor of international relations at Bilkent University here in
    Turkey's capital.

    Since the EU's go-ahead in December, many Turks have seen a sea
    change in the attitude of Europeans. As public opinion across the
    continent has crystallized against Turkish accession to their club,
    European politicians have started taking a firmer stance as well.

    "There's a panic in Europe right now because they didn't think
    Turkey would implement the reforms so quickly and meet the EU
    challenges," said Zekeriya Akcam, a lawmaker from the ruling Justice
    and Development Party who participated in the convention that drafted
    the EU constitution.

    In an attempt to bolster the pro-constitution campaign, French
    President Jacques Chirac even pledged to hold a separate referendum
    on Turkey's membership. And to ease the fears of member states that
    unskilled laborers will inundate their countries, measures also have
    been promised to prevent the free movement of labor in the initial
    years of Turkey's membership.

    Such moves are seen as evidence of increasingly unjust treatment
    of Turkey's application, said Onur Oymen, the vice chairman of the
    Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee and a member of parliament for
    the opposition Republican People's Party, who points out that French
    citizens did not vote when Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania applied to
    join the EU.

    In the latest volley, the European Court of Human Rights, based in
    France, ruled last month that the 1999 trial of Kurdish rebel leader
    Abdullah Ocalan was unfair because of the participation of an impartial
    military judge.

    Though the court is not an EU institution, the Ocalan case is seen as a
    litmus test of Turkey's commitment to improving its human rights record
    and implementing painful reforms that are a prerequisite to membership.

    Some analysts believe the EU is meddling in Turkey's internal affairs
    to dissuade it from continuing down the negotiation path. "What
    the EU is trying to do is frustrate us with unacceptable demands so
    that Turkey will say, 'We give up and don't want to be a member,'
    " said Unal, the professor at Bilkent University. "This way they
    don't have to turn us down."

    The prospect of having to make concessions on politically sensitive
    topics has also made more Turks question the price of membership.

    Some European politicians, emphatically led by the French, have called
    on Turkey to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
    Turks in 1915 as "genocide" -- a red line for all Turkish politicians.

    The EU also insists that Turkey extend its 1996 customs agreement
    with the EU to the 10 member states that joined in 2004, including
    Cyprus. This would amount to unprecedented recognition of Cyprus by
    Turkey, which backs the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern
    Cyprus on the divided Mediterranean island.

    "People are disappointed with the double standards we are facing,"
    said Hasan Ali Karasar, a researcher at Ankara's Center for Eurasian
    Strategic Studies. "What they ask for is against our tradition,
    culture, history and strategic location."

    A growing chorus of pundits in Turkey, frustrated with perceived
    EU meddling in internal affairs, is beginning to see a "privileged
    partnership" - - a category that would cement economic ties while
    leaving contentious political issues aside -- as an alternative to
    full membership. The formula is advocated by many anti-constitution
    campaigners in France and the Netherlands, and by Germany's Christian
    Democrats, who are favored to win elections in September.

    The government is still insisting, for now, that the final target
    must remain full membership.

    "A privileged partnership is not on the agenda," said Kiniklioglu of
    the German Marshall Fund. "We must continue the drive toward reform
    and membership. We go all the way or bust."
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