Europe, Headlines

EUROPE: Turkey’s Application Faces a Mixed Response

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jun 15 2004 (IPS) - As the decision on whether to start European Union accession negotiations with Turkey draws closer, political debate around the issue is growing stronger and more heated.

Only six months remain before the European Union (EU) is due to decide whether to proceed to the next stage of Turkey’s candidacy to the bloc.

The European Commission, the EU executive, is due to publish a report in September on Turkey’s progress toward meeting the political criteria for EU membership, which concern human rights, the rule of law and respect for minorities.

On the basis of this report, the European Council under the Dutch presidency will decide in December whether Turkey should proceed to the next stage of its candidacy for EU membership. If approved, Turkey’s accession would most likely happen in 2015.

Turkey was officially recognised as an EU candidate in December 1999.

In recent years Turkey has worked very hard to meet the Copenhagen Criteria – a set of tough reforms for accession countries mandated at the Copenhagen summit in 2002.

Since 1999, and particularly since the election of the AKP (Party of Justice and Development) government in November 2002, there has been radical and rapid political reform within Turkey.

Human right organisations have reported that “major political reforms” have promoted democratisation, and led to considerable steps forward in the area of human rights including minority rights and in the area of civilian control of the military.

The past two years have brought substantial progress, including abolition of the death penalty, a marked reduction in the extent and severity of torture, and better protection for freedom of expression.

Turkish authorities made two historic advances last week with the first television broadcasts in minority languages, including Kurdish, and the release pending retrial of four Kurdish parliamentarians imprisoned since 1994 for expressing their opinions peacefully.

However, concerns over the implementation of reforms and what the country will bring to the EU still remain amongst heads of government and observers.

The European Commission indicated earlier this year its expectation of further progress in a number of key areas before it draws up its progress report and its recommendation to the EU’s leaders on whether to open negotiations.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also warns that more needs to be done. It warned Tuesday that in spite of “significant recent rights reforms”, the Turkish government still has to improve its record in four key areas.

HRW says that “significant additional efforts are needed to demonstrate lasting positive change” in the areas of freedom of expression, torture and ill-treatment, freedom of assembly and internal displacement.

“The government and the judiciary deserve real credit for its achievements. If Turkey can maintain this momentum and take further bold action, June 2004 may well turn out to be the critical turning point for human rights in Turkey,” said Jonathan Sugden, HRW researcher for Turkey.

Sugden warned that Turkish officials needed to understand the “extreme urgency” about the outstanding tasks.

“The remaining human rights problems are serious,” he said. “With the EU calendar so tight, the ministries will have to move decisively this summer if they want to guarantee success. Receding political violence and the growth of civil society have helped to bring about recent reforms, but the EU accession process has clearly been an important engine for positive change.”

However, other analysts are keen to point out the benefits of Turkey’s accession to the bloc.

Kirsty Hughes, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics argues that the political and economic impacts of Turkish membership on the EU are “manageable” and says Turkey should be judged on the political Copenhagen criteria, rather than “fallacious or emotional arguments.”

In her report ‘Turkey and the European Union: the implications of membership’ due to be released in Brussels this Thursday, Hughes says that Turkey’s accession to the bloc will have “significant impacts” on the EU but adds that these impacts can be “managed as those of previous enlargements have been.”

She stresses that Turkey’s candidacy should be judged on the same terms as that of other candidates.

“Opponents say that Turkey is too big, too poor, not European by culture, geography or history, has dangerous borders and will damage the EU integration process,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “But these do not constitute valid blocks to eventual Turkish membership. As long as Turkey meets the political criteria based on strong implementation of its current reforms, negotiations should certainly start.”

Hughes highlights the “important impact” Turkey’s accession will have on EU foreign policy interests given its borders with the Middle East, the Caucasus region and the Black Sea.

“Turkey’s strategic geographical location, and its large Muslim population also have implications for the EU,” the report says. “It is in the EU’s strategic interests that Turkey is democratic, stable and prosperous and a friendly ally. This will shift the Union’s borders to the south-east and increase the Union’s range of interests in these difficult regions.”

Within the EU itself, there are signs that opinion on Turkish accession has softened, despite negative reports on the country’s human rights record.

EU enlargement commissioner Günter Verheugen recently declared that the EU cannot have “double standards” in deciding on Turkey’s readiness to open membership talks. Turkey’s ambassador to the EU Oguz Demiralp said Turkey’s accession is now inevitable, and a “strategic necessity for the survival of Europe in the future.”

However, other influential actors remain cautious.

Last week Tom de Bruijn, Dutch representative to the EU, whose country will lead Turkey’s accession negotiations later this year, said that although Turkey had made “tremendous” progress in recent months, it is “not there completely.”