Turkey: We are about to ruin it all

Turkey: We are about to ruin it all

Those who have been reading this column must
have seen that a certain issue has been repeatedly underlined at
the risk of boring the readers. We have been writing over and over
that 2002 is the most critical year in the history of the Republic,
that if the two problems we are faced with can be overcome Turkey
can become one of the first league countries.

One of these issues involved the adaptation to
the EU bills. We have stressed that if a number of bills involving
especially the abolition of the death penalty and introduction of
the right to learn and broadcast in the mother tongue can be passed
quickly we could get from the EU’s Dec. 22 Copenhagen summit a
signal if not a specific date indicating when the accession talks
with Turkey would begin.

There have been those who argue that there is no
need to hurry so much, that legislation of the adaptation bills
could be completed in time, that is, by the three-year
deadline.

We countered this argument always with the same
rationale, saying, “If the EU’s Dec. 12 summit gives a membership
perspective to all the candidate countries while making no binding
statement towards Turkey, the EU train will have to be considered
to have been missed to a great extent. Turkey will have missed the
train altogether if, by the end of 2004 when accession talks start
with the other candidate countries, it cannot sit down for
accession talks.”

At the spot things have reached by now, it is
getting increasingly more difficult to pass the EU adaptation bills
by the Nov. 3 election in Turkey. It is a strong possibility that
rather than engaging in long-term thinking, our political parties
will be preoccupied with sterile bickering and they will fail to
pass the adaptation bills “to a satisfactory extent”.

In such a case we will have to content ourselves
with getting from the Dec. 12 Copenhagen summit a meaningless
message such as, “You are on the right track. Keep going.”

We will be helplessly waving goodbye as we watch
the European train as it leaves the station with countries such as
Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus.

There is also the Cyprus problem.

I think that Cyprus is even more important than
the adaptation to the EU bills. This is because, for the first time
in 28 years we are faced with such an historic opportunity. Never
before had a situation forcing the parties concerned to reach a
solution been created. In the past, things had never gone beyond
the pressure exerted by the United Nations.

This time Cyprus will be a full member of the EU
and this will be the end of the matter. In the long run, the
Turkish side will lose.

For the time being the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus (KKTC) holds strong cards in its hands. Unless the
Turkish side comes up with impossible-to-fulfil kind of demands,
pressure can be put on the Greek Administration. However, as of
Dec. 12, 2002, things will be different.

In the future, the Turkish side will regret not
having accepted many proposals it does not find satisfactory
today.

At such a critical point the Cyprus talks have
come to a halt with the Nov. 3 storm.

Denktas and Clerides may still be talking but
that is hardly meaningful. In a Turkey where the election
atmosphere prevails, no one would be willing to take risks
concerning Cyprus.

I wonder whether the new coalition to be formed
in the wake of the Nov. 3 election can do something. Would there be
enough time left for that? Or would the train be missed?

For the time being it seems that Turkey is about
to make a mess of it all.

This may be less harmful. I look at the
situation also from another angle and I conclude that it is a
lesser evil that this mess is being caused by the decision to have
an early election. If we did not have the early election excuse
what would we have told the world?

We would have to say, “We cannot pass the
adaptation bills. So as to stay in power for a little more, the
coalition partners are not willing to have a solution in Cyprus or
to work towards EU membership.”

We would be reduced to the position of a country
that does want to become civilized.

Now, at least we will be able to say, “Holding
an election is the most basic rule in a democracy. Since we have to
go to the polls, we are sorry to postpone work on Cyprus and the
adaptation bills.”

This way we will have saved the appearance (!)
We will have slipped out of this spot without showing our true
colors, ignoring the fact that in the long run we, ourselves, will
be losers.

There must definitely be other people in the
world who are like us. However, only few of them would have that
much capacity for self-deception and self-destruction for the sake
of staging a show.

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