Surprised at Europe's Forgetfulness

Only a day after the EU Progress Report on Turkey was presented, it was clear that the accession talks, barely begun, could be history by the end of the year.

The reason, however, is not so much the harsh criticism of Turkey's halting reform efforts in the area of freedom of speech, minority rights and civilian control of the military, it is also the EU's ultimatum that Turkey open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriots within the coming month.

Resistance to the ultimatum

Immediately after the presentation of the report, prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said that he considered it unrealistic to implement this demand within the stipulated time period. Likewise, none of the commentators in the media the day afterward were able to comprehend Brussels' demand.

On the contrary, all opinion leaders agree that Erdogan, who is facing presidential and parliamentary elections next year, would be committing political suicide if he gave in to the demand from Brussels.

One year after the accession talks began, the Turkish population's approval of the EU has dropped drastically. Thus, the highly critical report no longer met with great fuss or outrage, as in recent years; the majority of Turks shrug their shoulders at it. If the EU wants to break off the negotiations, so be it. "It no longer interests me," Behir Coskun, a prominent commentator at the largest daily newspaper "Hürriyet", wrote yesterday.

Cyprus: a bone of contention

This profound disappointment is due in large part to the Cyprus issue. No one in Turkey understands, much less accepts, the way the EU Commission and nearly all the EU member states are so unquestioningly supporting the demands of the Greek Cypriots.

"We are all surprised at the European's forgetfulness," says Haluk Sahin, writer, EU advocate and a recent victim of the notorious Paragraph 301, which punishes "offenses against Turkishness". "The criticism of domestic policy is fully justified," Sahin agrees, "but in regard to Cyprus, the EU is on the wrong track."

What all the Turkish politicians keep pointing out is that the seemingly plausible formula according to which it goes without saying that a candidate for accession must first diplomatically recognize all the members of the club it wants to join, is highly hypocritical. Turkey has the impression that no one in Brussels wants to know anything about the background of the Cyprus conflict anymore.

Brussels' home-made problem

It was the EU that for years insisted that the accession of Cyprus would only make sense once the island's partition into a Greek and a Turkish part were overcome. At the time, however, Greece threatened to veto the accession of the East European countries if the EU were not prepared, in return, to admit the Greek part of Cyprus on its own. Thus, in May 2004, Europe imported not only the Eastern European states, but also the Cyprus conflict.

This came after two national referendums in the Greek southern part and the Turkish northern part of the island regarding a UN plan for reunification – in other words, a political solution for the country's division – strongly supported by the EU.

Two thirds of Turkish Cypriots voted for the plan, while two thirds of Greek Cypriots voted against it. Nonetheless, the Greeks were admitted to the EU, and the Turkish Cypriots were left out. Not only that, Papadopoulos' government – as a new member of the EU – ensured that the EU did not even lift the economic embargo against the Turkish Cypriots as promised.

Now the majority of the Turkish population has had its faith in the EU shattered by the fact that the EU, after all this, is demanding that Turkey recognize the Greek-Cypriot government and open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriots.

Demands for the lifting of the embargo

According to Haluk Sahin, the Turkish public is waiting for a signal from Brussels showing that the big EU will not let itself be taken hostage by the little member state of Cyprus. In practical terms, that means the lifting of the trade embargo on the Greek Cypriots, i.e. direct trade with the EU via the North Cypriot port of Famagusta and the Ercan airport.

However, the proposal presented by the Finnish EU council president only provides for the opening of the harbor, not the airport. That is too little, for the North Cypriot president Mehmet Talat as well as for the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan.

If Finland is unable to convince Papadopoulos' government to agree to open the airport in North Cyprus, the EU summit in December is likely to close the chapter on Turkey's membership for the time being. As things stand now, it is feared that the negotiations will de facto be put on ice, if not formally abandoned.

Jürgen Gottschlich

© Qantara.de 2006

Translated from the German by Isabel Cole

Qantara.de

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