2008: Yet another ’lost year’

While Ireland agreed with the "guaranteed seat on the Commission" concession offered and Prime Minister Briand Cowen pledged to hold a new vote by October on the Lisbon Treaty -- a key document which was rejected by the Irish voters earlier this year not only aims to make the 27-nation bloc a stronger player on the world stage but carries a crucial importance for countries in the accession talks process, Croatia and Turkey, as the bloc’s enlargement requires its enactment -- Turkish leaders, as always, preferred to brush aside the complaints with a "reforms are continuing" cliché...

However, it was not only the European foreign ministers and leaders who complained in Brussels that there was a serious letup in the Turkish reform drive, many Turks who have been aspiring to see European norms and values coming to life in Turkey have been even more seriously critical of the slowdown of the reform process in the country since the 2005 Leyla Şahin verdict of the European Court of Human Rights -- declaring the ban on Islamist headgear compatible with the Turkish Constitution and thus not a violation of human rights - or since the 2006 start of the accession talks process...

Over the past week, as guests of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Professor Ahmet Evin of the Sabancı University, Cem Toker, the chairman of the Liberal Democrat Party, or LDP, of Turkey and this writer had the opportunity to come together with local and federal politicians, bureaucrats, academicians, and students at several German cities for an assessment of "Turkey’s march" toward the EU over the past year period. While European leaders were very much concerned particularly with the failure of Turkey to implement the additional protocol to the Ankara Agreement -- opening Turkish ports and airports to the Greek Cypriots -- and called on the Turkish government to take urgent measures in that direction and to normalize its relationship with the Greek Cypriot administration.

Reform: Son killed, father persecuted under 301
For example, could continued police violence compatible with the EU process? If 48 Turks fell victim to police bullets or "ill treatment" at police stations or at detention places or prisons over the past three years or since, with a "deform" police was given the right "shoot to kill" three years ago? Or, was it at all compatible with the EU norms for a father whose son fell victim to a police bullet -- just because he did not obey an order to stop his car -- and in the pain of losing his son he cried "State killed my son" is now facing prosecution under the notorious Penal Code Article 301 -- that regulates penalties against defaming the Turkish nation... The justice minister might be determined not to let anyone curse at the Turkish state and get away with it, but can you explain that to the hearth of a father who lost his son to a police bullet? Or, can we say that the government, which is preparing to make an amendment in the public tenders law for a 17th time is in line with the pledges of transparency in administration? What about the ombudsman law? Has anyone heard about abolishing of military courts or at least stopping civilians facing military courts?

The justice minister and his undersecretary are still members of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, the top body that decides postings, promotions and punishments for the judges and prosecutors. There has been no reform in the elections law and the 10 percent threshold, or in the law on political parties that allow tyrant party leaders. Violation of freedom of press continue... But the premier and the foreign minister say Turkey is committed to the reform process and indeed the process is continuing...

We love fairy tales, but the fact is 2008 was as well a lost year on the path to EU...