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ANKARA: 42-Year Old EU Journey at Critical Crossroads

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  • ANKARA: 42-Year Old EU Journey at Critical Crossroads

    Zaman, Turkey
    Oct 2 2005

    42-Year Old EU Journey at Critical Crossroads
    By ALI IHSAN AYDIN

    Turkey's European Union (EU) journey began with the Ankara agreement
    signed in 1963. If accession negotiations begin on October 3, the
    long period of "promise for marriage" without engagement will finally
    be concluded.

    The engagement period, which is predicted to last 10 to 15 years,
    will begin, but no one knows whether this process will end in
    marriage. Ankara says, "Let's not water down business from the start;
    engagement is for marriage." EU is confused. It wants to insert the
    condition, "Let's remain friends if we do not marry" to the treaty.

    The relations were frozen following the coup

    Turkey, which preferred to stand with the West in regards to its
    foreign policy following the World War II by becoming a member of the
    European Council in 1949 and of the North Atlantic Treaty
    Organization (NATO) in 1952, applied to the European Economic
    Community (EEC) for membership in 1959, during the premiership of
    Adnan Menderes.

    The EEC accepted the membership applications of Ankara and Athens in
    the same year. The Ankara treaty, which is considered to be the
    starting point of Turkey-EU relations, was signed three years later,
    in 1963.

    The Treaty, seen as a mark of Europe's positive answer towards
    Turkey's marriage offer, envisaged a three-staged process of
    preparation, transition and conclusion. Turkey would become a member
    of the EEC only after passing through these stages.

    Turkey could complete the transition period, which began with the
    Value Added Protocol signed in 1973, with a 10 years delay, in 1995.

    According to the Ankara Agreement, the transition period could last
    up to 12 years. The relations with the EEC followed a path with ups
    and downs bearing on the political developments in Turkey. EEC
    decided to freeze its relations with Turkey on 22 January 1982,
    following the military coup in Turkey.

    Ozal's demand satisfied in 1999


    In the meantime, Greece, which had applied for EEC membership
    together with Turkey in 1959, obtained full membership in 1981.

    Three years before Greece was accepted, EEC called Turkey to
    immediately file an application for full membership. However, Bulent
    Ecevit, the Prime Minister of the period, declined the offer,
    addressing the EEC representative who came to communicate the
    invitation with: "We do not think to enter the EEC. For, if we enter
    the EEC we will become your market. Our economy cannot stand this
    partnership."

    Ankara made its application to the union for full membership in 1987
    during the prime ministry of Turgut Ozal. However, the European
    Commission (EC) rejected Turkey's application in 1989 on the grounds
    that the EEC could not accept it as a new member until it created its
    own internal market.

    Turkey continued to knock on EU's door in the following years and
    accomplished the 22 year period of transition on its way towards the
    EU with the Customs Union Agreement in 1995 and started the final
    period. The only target forTurkey from then on has been full
    membership, which was also a target in the Ankara Agreement.

    Turkey's manner reflected

    The EU announced Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria,
    Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Greek Cyprus as candidate
    countries in the summit of presidents and the prime ministers in
    Luxembourg in 1997. However, it did not give the candidacy status to
    Turkey. In the summit, it simply noted Turkey was able to become a
    candidate. As a response to this decision, Ankara suspended its
    political relations with the EU.

    The EU summit on 10-11 December 1999 in Helsinki started a new period
    for EU-Turkey relations.

    Turkey was accepted as a candidate in the summit. However, it is
    noted that there were several reforms that Turkey had to accomplish
    before becoming a member of the EU. Turkey started an expansive
    reform process after the summit in order to accomplish the EU
    criteria and has been continuing this process ever since. The
    coalition government under the prime ministry of Ecevit abolished the
    death penalty in 2002 as a historic step towards the EU. The
    Copenhagen Summit on 12-13 December 2002 moved Turkey closer to the
    EU. The council finally decided that negotiations would start without
    any delays if Turkey accomplished the Copenhagen political criteria
    by the December 2004 Summit. The Summit also decided that 10 new
    candidates including Greek Cyprus would be members of the EU on 1 May
    2004. As Greek Cyprus became a member of the EU, the, principle that
    countries with boundary problems cannot be members of the EU was
    violated.

    December 17: Maddening night

    The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, that took office
    in November 2002, showed great determination in the EU proccess and
    passed the reform packages, which enabled Turkey to accomplish the
    Copenhagen Criteria.. The European Commission noted on 6 October 2004
    that Turkey fulfilled the political criteria and advised that the
    negotiations should start.

    The European Council (EC) decided on 17 December 2004 in Brussels on
    the recommendation of the Commission that Turkey's full-membership
    negotiations should begin on 3 October 2005. The Council, however,
    stipulated that Turkey must sign the Additional Protocol, which
    extends the Customs Union Agreement to the new ten countries
    including Greek Cypriots. The summit saw some crisis for a while due
    to the fact that some members tried to win further concessions from
    Turkey. The Turkish group, under the leadership of Turkish Prime
    Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, set forth their final opinion in
    scathing terms and left the room. British Prime Minister Tony Blair
    managed to convince Erdogan to return to the meeting.

    Last minute again, war of nerves again

    Turkey signed the Additional Protocol on 29 July 2005, which
    stipulated that the Customs Union should cover the 10 new European
    Union (EU) member countries. Ankara issued a declaration saying that
    the signing of the protocol does not mean the recognition of the
    Greek Cypriots. As France showed a huge reaction to the declaration,
    French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin just emphasized the need
    for Turkey to recognize the Greek Cypriots in order to be part of the
    EU. The European Council did not, however, specify that Turkey's
    recognition of the Greek Cypriots was a prerequisite for the
    negotiations, but the pressure on Turkey just began to increase. The
    EU decided to publish a "counter declaration" in response to Turkey's
    refusal to acknowledge the Greek Cypriots. The EU member countries
    had difficulty in reaching an absolute agreement about the counter
    declaration, which specifies that Turkey should allow the Greek
    Cypriots to use airports and seaports. Twenty-five EU member
    countries were also unable to reach a definite agreement on "The
    Framework Document", which is intended to be a set of specifications
    of the negotiations. The reason for the lack of agreement between
    these countries resulted from Austria's proposal of privileged
    partnership. It is argued that Austria intended this proposal in
    order to make it possible for Croatia to resume its previously
    suspended negotiations. The EU Public Works Council will meet on
    Sunday October 2 in Luxemburg to approve the Framework Document. The
    document discloses that Turkey will not be eligible for a
    full-membership before 2014 and the negotiations are open-ended.
    Turkish officials refuse to go to Luxemburg as long as the content of
    the Framework Document is unclear, adding that Turkey will not agree
    to any option other than full-membership.

    On the other hand, the EP took a decision at the general meeting on
    September 28 in Luxemburg to postpone the approval of the Additional
    Protocol to a later date, asking Turkey to acknowledge the so-called
    'Armenian genocide'.
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