A decisive year ahead

For example, when often think that there is a European Union policy vis-a-vis the Turkish membership bid. However, a little concentration on the issue demonstrates that even individual parties in individual member countries do not have a clear-cut policy regarding the Turkish membership, though the "no" bloc appears to be more cohesive.

Similarly, we assume that there is a strong commitment in the consecutive Turkish governments in pushing forward the EU bid of the country, but an examination of their performance clearly underlines there have been as many ups as downs and we kept on zig-zagging in between defending "peculiarities" of Turkey and conforming to the rules of the club we say we want to join in.

While we managed to lift the death penalty (excluding times of war) during a coalition government in which the most nationalistic party of the country was a member and at a time when the number one public enemy, the chieftain of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, gang was on the death row, but we just could not eradicate the problems of the religious minorities at a time when we have a government and overwhelming parliamentary majority that we believe are mostly composed of devoted religious people and indeed have a discreet agenda of enhancing influence of religion in state administration.

On the one hand our government vows "no tolerance to torture, ill treatment and degrading attitudes," but on the other hand with claims that labor groups or women’s groups were being made targets of merciless and brutal truncheons of police. Or, the same government who boasts of working the most to bring Turkey at par with European norms and values makes an amendment in the law on police duties and powers and allows it to "fire to kill." Since police regained three years ago that power Ñ which was originally withdrawn as part of compliance with EU norms Ñ 48 Turks lost their lives to police bullets, "died of natural causes" after being released from police stations or detention centers or somehow lost their lives after "banging their head on police cars." And this government still claims it is a reformist one who indeed is trying to promote individual rights and freedoms in the country... It is just like a very bad joke... Since mid-2005 the reform process just ducked down, dwarfed and vanished all together except in statements of the government figures. At the same time as was reflected in the statements of the French, Austrian and German leaders, a new and not so promising climate started to emerge in Europe regarding the Turkish membership.

Report needs to be taken very seriously

The International Crisis Group released recently released a report which said that both Turkey and EU member states need to recall how much they have to gain from each other and quickly reverse a downward spiral that is otherwise likely to produce a breakdown in negotiations and new tension in the Mediterranean. The report stressed that the danger of a breakdown will be especially great if there is no Cyprus settlement in 2009. Some member states could seize on the issue to suspend membership negotiations, especially if Turkey does not open its ports to Greek Cypriot vessels by the fall.

I could agree less with the stress made in the report that global rankings show that Turkey is seriously under-performing in terms of development, rights, transparency and democracy; EU-driven reforms have stalled, due to anger that Brussels accepted the Greek Cypriot-run Cyprus Republic as a member in May 2004 even though it was the Greek Cypriots who rejected the U.N. plan for reunification of the island; domestic political crises; institutional resistance to change; and the reluctance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and main opposition parties to take political risks to move forward.

What the report underlines are indeed nothing further than what we have been complaining and warning about for the past year... Because of the strong admiration for foreigners (was it an inferiority complex reflection?), let us hope that the government takes it more seriously than what domestic critics have been saying before it is too late...