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Turkish Press Review, 04-12-10Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr><LINK href="http://www.byegm.gov.tr_yayinlarimiz_chr_pics_css/tpr.css" rel=STYLESHEET type=text/css> e-mail : newspot@byegm.gov.tr <caption> <_caption> Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning10.12.2004CONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN DISCUSSES TURKEY’S EU TALKS WITH DUTCH FM BALKENENDEPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently in the Netherlands seeking support for Ankara’s European Union accession talks, yesterday met with European Union Term President the Netherlands’ Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. Speaking afterwards, Balkenende said that a lasting and balanced decision on Turkey would be made at next week’s pivotal EU summit. “The upcoming process will provide a strategic advantage for both Turkey and the EU,” he said. “It should be a fair game, and the rules shouldn’t be changed since the game has already begun.” For his part, Erdogan said that Turkey’s only goal was full EU membership, expressing hope for its talks beginning in the first half of next year. /Aksam/[02] ERDOGAN: “OUR MEMBERSHIP TALKS SHOULD BEGIN WITHOUT FURTHER ADO”Before leaving yesterday for Brussels, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters at Esenboga Airport that expects Brussels to announce a date for the beginning of Ankara’s membership talks and to start the negotiations process without further deliberations. “We now expect the EU to set a date and then commence our membership talks; I don’t think that a new resolution is necessary,” he said. Asked about Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot’s recent statement on the Cyprus issue, Erdogan stressed that there is nothing left on the table concerning the Copenhagen criteria, the designated requirements for EU entry. “Turkey has successfully completed all the necessary reforms and taken all required actions to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria,” he said. “Now, there are three important issues for us: First, we can only accept full membership. Second, the negotiations should begin immediately. Finally, we cannot accept the EU pressuring us on an issue which isn’t directly related to our membership bid.” The European Union's presidency yesterday said that it was sure it could resolve a dispute over Turkey's refusal to recognize the Greek Cypriot administration before the Dec. 17 summit where EU leaders are to decide on opening entry talks with Ankara. “We’re discussing this with both [Greek] Cyprus and Turkey and as the presidency, we’re trying to find a solution to this problem,” said Bot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency. /Hurriyet/[03] GUL: “ANKARA WON’T ACCEPT ANYTHING BUT A DATE TO BEGIN TALKS AIMED AT FULL EU MEMBERSHIP”Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday that Turkey would not accept any proposal from the European Union at its summit next week other than beginning accession talks with the aim of full membership. Gul, who is currently in Brussels to meet with his fellow NATO foreign ministers, yesterday spoke with Olli Rehn, the European Union commissioner for enlargement. Afterwards, Gul told reporters that he had reiterated Ankara’s expectations from next week’s pivotal summit. “The only thing we expect is that the EU leaders will stick to their commitments and declarations and keep their promises,” said Gul. During separate talks with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Gul underlined that Ankara wanted a “clear and unconditional date to begin membership negotiations.” /Turkiye/[04] BABACAN TRAVELS TO MOROCCO FOR REGIONAL FORUMState Minister Ali Babacan yesterday traveled to Rabat, Morocco to attend a regional meeting called “The Forum for the Future.” During the two-day gathering chaired by Morocco’s foreign minister and the US secretary of state, finance and foreign ministers from a number of regional countries as well as representatives from international organizations will focus on the topic of “Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa.” /Turkiye/[05] BAHCELI: “TURKEY WILL STRENGTHEN THE EU”Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli said yesterday that in the runup to next week’s European Union summit, further pressure on Turkey was unacceptable. Speaking to journalists, Bahceli said that he disapproved of European leaders’ repeated visits to the southern Anatolian province of Diyarbakir. Saying that Turkey was like a flower garden, Bahceli said that for 81 years many flowers with a variety of colors and scents had harmoniously thrived in that soil. Stressing that Turkey would strengthen the EU, Bahceli warned EU leaders not to pressure Ankara on topics it is highly sensitive about. /Turkiye/[06] FRENCH PM RAFFARIN: “THERE SHOULD BE NO AUTOMATIC LINK BETWEEN ENTRY[07] TALKS AND MEMBERSHIP”French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin yesterday claimed there should be no automatic link between Ankara’s European Union entry talks and full membership, saying the EU should prepare a fallback scenario in case Turkey fails to meet the accession criteria. The EU should be prepared to offer Turkey an alternative to membership if the country’s entry talks falter, he said. “We do not think there should be an automatic link between entry, and entry negotiations,” he told a press conference. “There could be a successful scenario leading to membership. There could be another scenario, one of difficulties, where Turkey could not meet the entry criteria. In that case, one would have to devise another form of link between Turkey and the European Union.” /Hurriyet/[08] LUXEMBOURG PREMIER: “WE MADE A COMMITMENT TO TURKEY, AND THERE’S[09] NO TURNING BACK”Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday said that though he once opposed Turkey’s European Union membership, his views had changed. “As the EU term president in 1997, I was very concerned about the excessive enlargement of the Union and was therefore opposed to Turkey's accession,” he said. “Moreover, Ankara was resisting adopting the EU criteria on human rights. However, Turkey has recently made good progress and displayed a strong political will to reform. We promised full membership to Ankara 40 years ago on the condition that it could fulfill the necessary criteria, so we can’t go back on that now. Therefore, there’s no point in offering ‘privileged partnership’ instead of full membership.” On Jan. 1 Luxembourg is set to assume the rotating EU presidency for six months, a period Ankara hopes will see the beginning of its EU entry talks. /Sabah/[10] DUTCH FM: “I BELIEVE ANKARA WILL RECOGNIZE GREEK CYPRUS BEFORE NEXT[11] WEEK’S EU SUMMIT”European Union Term President the Netherlands’ Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said yesterday that he believed that Ankara would recognize Greek Cyprus before next week’s pivotal European Union summit, when the EU is to decide whether or not to begin Ankara’s accession talks. Speaking to reporters before attending a NATO meeting in Brussels, Bot said that negotiations with both Turkey and the EU on the issue were continuing, but declined to comment further on how the problem might solved. “I’m sure that the EU term presidency will find a formula on the issue which will satisfy everyone,” he added. /Aksam/[12] EP’S LAGENDIJK THROWS WEIGHT BEHIND TURKEY’S EU TALKSEuropean Parliament Joint Parliamentary Commission’s Co-Chair Joost Lagendijk yesterday expressed support for Ankara getting a date from the European Union to begin its accession talks. He stressed that there was no need for concern about the free movement of the Turkish workers in the EU or its agricultural policy, since decisions on these issues would come in a decade’s time, adding that developments should be evaluated calmly. /Aksam/[13] FROM THE COLUMNS … FROM THE COLUMNS … FROM THE COLUMNS[14] EUROPEAN FATIGUE[15] BY FERAI TINC (HURRIYET)Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on Turkey’s EU membership bid. A summary of her column is as follows:“There were actually discussions, just like we have now in Turkey, in other candidate countries during their European Union enlargement processes, but I don’t think their tension was as high as ours is now. I have to admit that I feel a European fatigue. The changes in Europe and the world have loomed large in the difficulties on the decision about Turkey. The world isn’t the same as in the ‘90s when the EU decided to go ahead with enlargement. We face a Europe altered by the Sept. 11 attacks and where multiculturalism has collapsed, hostility against foreigners is rising, and economic growth is stalled. Luxembourg, which is about to take over European presidency from the Netherlands, is already mulling over two issues. The first is a referendum on the European Constitution, something which will be used as weapon in domestic politics. EU policy will face obstacles from its members’ domestic politics. The second issue is Ukraine. How will it proceed now? According to Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the goal shown to Turkey should be full membership, and a ‘special partnership’ for Ukraine. If the decision on Turkey didn’t fall in this period, things wouldn’t be so confusing. The point here justifies the claims that Turkey has to catch the EU’s fifth enlargement wave. A ‘special partnership’ isn’t in play for Turkey, because even the continuity of the Customs Union would be very difficult. If there’s a cloud of uncertainty hanging over full membership, then Europe wouldn’t be a good choice for Turkey. This doesn’t go just for Turkey but also for other countries to which EU will propose special partnerships. Greek Cypriots’ insistence that Turkey accept it has reached a point of threatening a veto, which is ridiculous. It will be very interesting to see how those who accepted the Greek Cypriots’ membership without it solving its most important problem will swallow the veto of one of the EU’s smallest members. The EU always finds some last-minute decisions, which means that the bargaining will continue.” [16] HOPEFULLY IN OCTOBER[17] BY DERYA SAZAK (MILLIYET)Columnist Derya Sazak comments on Turkish-EU relations. A summary of his column is as follows:“In Turkey, the word ‘ohala’ means ‘hopefully.’ European Parliament President Josep Borrel said recently in Brussels, ‘Turkey wants to become part of Europe, but it should see the difficulties. We will accept starting EU membership talks with Turkey. Our watchword to our Turkish friends concerning membership is ohala.’ The EP will convene on Dec. 14 in Strasbourg, just three days before the Dec. 17 EU summit, to approve a decision to start membership talks with Turkey. The importance of this decision in terms of the leaders’ summit is symbolic, that is, it’s not binding. However, a majority of votes favoring Turkey might sway European public opinion. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Turkey’s red lines, and this might influence the Netherlands’ work reviewing the draft statement for the summit. However, the latest draft didn’t dispel suspicions about a date for talks and membership. Paragraphs left blank will be filled by the leaders during next Friday’s EU summit. If the screening process begins next April, it’s expected that an intergovernmental conference meeting will be held in October. Borrell’s ‘hopefully’ is based on this. However, if there’s disagreement among the leaders concerning the nature of Turkey’s membership or a date for talks, the problem will likely be left to the European Commission. Ankara wouldn’t want EU leaders to push the buck to the commission. This is a worst-case scenario, and Erdogan would freeze the EU process, as then Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz did during the 1997 EU summit in Luxembourg. Even if there are certain technical problems in Brussels, such a conclusion is the least likely scenario. Diplomatic bargaining will continue until the night of Dec. 17. Obviously everything won’t end with the beginning of our talks. In Brussels we might face shocks: demands to de facto recognize the ‘Cyprus Republic,’ to find a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue, and to improve relations with Armenia. Everybody in the EP is saying different things. Before the vote on Dec. 14, the submission of more than 500 motions shows this, no?” ARCHIVE <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http:/_www.byegm.gov.tr_statistic/countcode.js"> </script> Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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