CHP office adds voice to Brussels: Bureau chief

The main opposition party's initiative to establish an office in the heart of the European Union and create a direct dialogue channel has received a rousing welcome from Europeans, said the party's bureau chief in Brussels.

"Europeans now have the chance to hear about Turkey from us, unlike the past," Kader Sevinç, representative of the Republican People's Party, or CHP, to the EU, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview in Brussels.

Europeans barely understand what is happening in Turkey, described by some headquarters as an "unprecedented case" given its size and predominantly Muslim population. EU leaders agreed to formally open accession talks with Turkey in October 2005 but relations are characterized by ups and downs due to a number of stumbling blocks that remain on the road to full membership.

Domestic turbulence
Sevinç said the CHP presence would contribute to "pluralism" in Europe, meaning domestic turbulences that shake the country and confuse many minds would be explicated to European counterparts also through the eyes of the CHP.

"Many European political parties are similarly present with their offices in Brussels. We are in the age of communication," she said.

The CHP bureau in Brussels came on the heels of a project to open a number of liaison offices in European capitals and in the United States. CHP leader Deniz Baykal had earlier acknowledged "serious problems" in the CHP's and Turkey's relations with the world. The office in Brussels was opened in September 2008 but the building was officially inaugurated during Baykal's landmark visit last month.

Prevailing concerns
Sevinç said Turkey was seriously criticized by European circles for a slow pace in reforms as mirrored in the commission's annual progress reports, and said that many Europeans shared concerns about the judicial independence, freedom of speech and freedom of press in Turkey.

"This is a worrying picture for Turkey. No prime minister can call for media boycott in a European country," she said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently urged members of his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to boycott the newspapers critical of the government, a move that drew fierce criticism from opposition parties and international media organizations.

Last week, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said, during a debate in the European Parliament about a report on Turkey, that freedom of press, a basic principle of Turkey's democratic transformation process, should be literally respected, while Dutch rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten said things were not going so well in Turkey regarding the freedom of press.

’CHP’s new program praised as a progressive roadmap’

Kader Sevinç said the CHP, a member of Socialist International and associate member of the Party of European Socialists, never became a party that blocked Turkey's EU membership bid and instead called on the government for cooperation. She highlighted that the party's new program was praised by Europeans as a progressive roadmap, enjoying the same standards with European socialist parties.

Some excerpts from the party program are as follows:

ç The complete fulfillment of the European criteria on democracy, human rights, individual liberties, cultural rights and freedom of press, the prevention of censorship in the arts and the radical reform of the judicial system are the priorities.

ç The Kurdish problem will be solved within the framework of democracy and development. Ethical and cultural diversities are part of Turkey's rich historical heritage. Different ethnic identities, cultures, sects and religious beliefs of those living within national borders cannot prevent synergy and the national unity. The rejection of differences can never be a policy of the state. The progress lies in integration, not assimilation.

ç For Christian and Jewish minorities, as defined by the Treaty of Lausanne, the cultural rights will be protected with full force. The diversity of race, religion, language, differences in origin and sect will be a condition of Turkey's pluralism and a prerequisite for our democracy. Alevi prayer houses (Cemevi) will be granted an equal status with the mosques.

ç Special attention will be given to national interests, rejecting any alternative to the status of full membership to the EU. The actual deadlocks in the accession process deteriorate fair competition for the Turkish economy, undermining the sustainability of the existing customs union. The CHP is dedicated to reversing this situation in view of accelerating Turkey’s EU membership process under fair conditions, accordingly with the European values and national priorities.

ç On Iraq, the CHP defends an approach that excludes military occupation, focuses on the causes of terrorism and domestic turmoil and encourages a democratic and secular Iraq.