TURKEY: Turkey still sceptical about implementing all the necessary reforms for European Union membership.

While the European Union keeps on urging Turkey to keep up with the reforms, the public support decreases for the membership. European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn who visits the country on the anniversary of the start of entry negotiations said Turkey can still avoid a crisis in its membership talks with the European Union if it speeds up political reforms and shows flexibility over the sensitive Cyprus problem. Rehn pointed to the strategic benefits of taking in Turkey, a large Muslim but secular democracy at the gateway to the Middle East, but also made clear Ankara had to rein in its powerful military and lift curbs on free speech. Rehn said he would urge Turkish ministers to "relaunch" reforms and meet a commitment to open Turkish ports and airports to traffic from EU member Cyprus. "The biggest challenges are related to the necessity to relaunch the reform process again, adopting ninth reform package as well as redressing and addressing the problems related to free speech and in parallel solving the Cyprus issue and specially meeting the obligations related to the Ankara protocol. With these methods we can avoid the 'train crash' and we can return to a 'full driver' on the EU-Turkey access negotiations," Rehn said referring to the danger of a possible suspension in entry talks. Cyprus's internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government has threatened to block Turkey's EU entry bid if Ankara does not act soon. Turkey says the EU must first lift trade sanctions against breakaway Turkish Cypriots in northern Cyprus. Despite those urges from the EU, government side is still showing its will and enthusiasm for membership. Yasar Yakis, Turkish Parliament EU Affairs Committee Chairman, says there is no reform fatigue in government after one year. "We believe there is no EU reform fatigue in Turkey. What has taken place in Turkey regarding the implementation of passing the reforms is the following. When Turkey had to reach a critical mass in its reforms, it had to put to the second priority to the back burner a lot of put in laws that need to be passed in the Parliament," says Yakis. Another key obstacle for Turkey is an article in its penal code used to prosecute writers and journalists for insulting Turkish identity or state institutions. The EU says article 301 must be amended or scrapped, but Turkey has asked for more time. Rehn said that those who oppose repealing the restrictions of free speech in article 301 and other parts of Turkish law are effectively opposing a key condition of EU membership. A rise in nationalism ahead of next year's general elections has split Turkey's ruling AK Party over whether to make the change at a time when support in Turkey for EU entry is waning. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says he is ready to consider doing so, but Justice Minister Cemil Cicek opposes change. Turkey's centre-right government, which began EU entry talks on Oct. 3 last year, says more time is needed to assess whether it is necessary to change article 301. The EU is pushing Ankara to improve freedom of expression as a condition of the Muslim country's entry. Elif Shafak whose case for insulting Turkishness has been dismissed in the first trial, says that it is not possible to mention a total freedom of speech in Turkey due to the presence of article 301. "Even translators, people who translate a book from English let's say into Turkish, are being tried, are being sued under article 301. So, until that has been solved I cannot be fully happy or fully relieved because that danger is always impending, is always out there," says Shafak. Defenders of the law point out that freedom of expression cases have so far not ended in jail and that the judiciary must also respect verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights. The author of this summer's best-seller in Turkey, Ipek Calislar, goes on trial on Thursday for allegedly insulting the republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in her biography of Ataturk's wife Latife Hanim. While, EU keeps on putting pressure on Turkey for the reforms, the public support for entering EU is not as strong as it was last year. One recent opinion poll showed support for joining the EU had dropped as low as 43 percent compared with over 70 percent a year ago when Turkey began its long-delayed entry talks. "The Turkish government did not work as it did until 2004 and in the European side, some countries, some institutions, not least the European parliament, did everything to cool Turk enthusiasm vis-à-vis the EU process. So at the end we have today in Turkey we have a Europe which in the mind of the man in the street, looks like a big stick and there is no carrot," said Cengiz Aktar, professor of European Union Studies in Bahcesehir University. In a year a lot has changed in this large, relatively poor and overwhelmingly Muslim country. Europeans are also increasingly questioning whether they want Turkey in the Union. Turks, sensitive on national issues, feel offended by a stream of EU criticism on issues ranging from the role of the revered military to the massacres of Armenians in World War One. This has made it harder for the centre-right reformist AK Party government to push through controversial reforms, especially ahead of parliamentary elections due in 2007. The European Commission is threatening a setback in talks unless Turkey opens its ports and airports to vessels from EU member Cyprus, whose internationally recognised Greek Cypriot administration is not accepted by Ankara. Turkey, which must appease rising nationalism at home, says the EU must first honour pledges to end trade sanctions against breakaway Turkish Cypriots in northern Cyprus backed by Ankara. On the street also it is easy to sense the loose in the trust. Fisherman Phran Kara, who never believed that the EU will accept Turkey thinks the support has decreased in one year. "There are still supporters but each day it is decreasing. If they (EU) continues with this attitude, i think it will decrease more and finish after a while," he says. Another fisherman Sinan Demirel added: "In general manners we can talk about a decrease, but our government is doing the right thing." The European Parliament has also irked Turks by demanding Turkey accept 5 million Armenians died in a "genocide" allegedly committed by Ottoman forces in World War One. Ankara denies genocide, saying large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died during a partisan conflict.

ITN Source | October 5, 2006

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