Brussels, 26/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was in Brussels on Friday 26 June 2009 to receive an award from the Crans Montana Forum. In the evening, he met the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, after speaking with a small group of reporters on several important issues:
EU accession negotiations. As far as Turkey is concerned, it is hard to understand why the talks are not advancing more rapidly, particularly because several issues could already be dealt with on the technical front, explained Recep Erdogan. To date, only 10 of the 35 chapters have been opened and a only one chapter has been closed. He said the main reason for this lack of progress is that some EU Member States are holding back the negotiations for political reasons. A dozen chapters are currently blocked, five of them by France because they are directly connected with accession (France does not want Turkey to join the EU). Eight chapters were suspended by the EU in December 2006 because Turkey refused to apply the Ankara Protocol on customs union. The suspension of these eight chapters will be reviewed in December 2009. In the meantime, will Turkey open up its ports and airports to Cypriots to enable the eight chapters to come out of deadlock? “Everything is reciprocal. If there is no positive sign from the EU, no one should expect one sided efforts from us,” explained Erdogan. Turkish negotiator Egemen Bagis said on Thursday that the opening of direct trade between the EU and Cyprus was a prerequisite for opening up Turkish ports and airports (see EUROPE 9929). Erdogan hinted that he did not share the European Commission's view that the reform process in Turkey had “slowed down”. Erdogan said he was astonished to hear such talk from the Commission, adding that strengthening fundamental rights and liberties and reforming the legal system were priorities for the Turkish government and the Turkish parliament was working “very hard” in this domain. Turkey had not given itself a deadline for joining the EU. Erdogan said that some people talked of 2013 or 2015 but the government was patient. One thing was sure, he said: “Turkey will never give up its aim”. “We'll do our homework,” he added.
“Privileged partnership”. This idea, promoted by France and Germany, is “unacceptable” to Turkey, which has only one strategy - to join the EU, explained Erdogan. He said it was not possible to agree to something that doesn't even exist in the EU and is not foreseen in EU law. Asked about Nicolas Sarkozy, the Turkish prime minister said he detected “inconsistency” in the French president, being very conciliatory towards Turkey in one-on-one meetings while taking “quite different” views in public. Erdogan said ruefully: “It's very sad to see that”.
European elections. Erdogan said that in several unnamed member states “narrow-minded politicians” had used Turkey as an election issue, and this was “wrong and populist”. Does Turkey fear the outcome of referendums in the future in some member states on its membership of the EU? No, not really, but member states bore a heavy responsibility because if the attitude of governments towards Turkey is positive, then people will also react positively, pointed out the Turkish prime minister.
Nabucco. As a gas transit country for European gas imports, Turkey was fully behind the Nabucco pipeline plans, explained Erdogan, hoping the consortium's contract could be signed in July so that a timetable for building the gas pipeline could be decided upon. Erdogan said that if the EU wanted to talk about energy issues with Turkey, it would also have to talk about opening the energy chapter in the accession negotiations (currently blocked by Cyprus). He said it was “very populist” on the part of the EU to expect unilateral concessions from Turkey (support for Nabucco) without offering any concessions in return (opening the energy chapter).
Cyprus. Ankara “fully supports” the current negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations to find a fair and acceptable solution to the problem of the divided island. The EU should do more to “encourage” Greek Cypriots to do the same, added Erdogan.
Relations between the army and civilian authorities. “Relations are much better than in the past and continue to improve every day,” said Erdogan. The civilian authorities are getting stronger in Turkey and the danger of a military coup d'état, which would be “unacceptable” in a modern, democratic, country like Turkey, should be ruled out “forever”.
Iran. “Iran can solve its own problems,” said Erdogan, when asked how the international community should react to events in Tehran. The world can observe what is happening in Iran (Turkey's neighbour) but does not have the right to try to influence political developments within Iran, explained Recep Erdogan. (H.B./transl.fl)