” “The process of Turkey’s ” “integration in the EU is too important ” “to be abandoned with confessional ” “pretexts ” “
During the first half of 2003 the European Union will be led by the presidency of Greece. If the European Council of Copenhagen on 12/13 December lays down the criteria for the negotiation of Turkey’s membership of the EU, it will thus be Greece that will have to manage the first phase of this negotiation with the new Turkish government. “In this regard it should not be forgotten that among all the states of the Union it is perhaps Greece that most wants the entry of democratic Turkey into the Union, once the membership criteria have been met”, says Periklis Dionyssopoulos , EU administrator and chairman of the Academic Group of Greco-Turkish Friendship. We interviewed him. How do you evaluate the AKP’s victory in the Turkish elections? “What’s surprising is not so much the AKP’s good numerical result, but the collapse of the other parties, with the exception of the secular left: the Turkish electoral system with its 10% threshold turned the AKP’s victory into a triumph which permits Erdogan’s party to govern alone. As far as a political judgement is concerned, it is still too early to make pronouncements. Of course, the new situation authorizes Europe to raise its own degree of attention. But it’s not a foregone conclusion that the AKP’s moderate Islamism, if put into practice as the basic principle for the country’s leadership, necessarily signifies a step backwards. The process of integration with the EU, NATO and the IMF is too advanced and too important for Turkey’s interests to be abandoned with confessional pretexts”. At what stage is Turkey’s “pre-membership” of the EU? “The progress made by the accord of association is enormous and wholly to Turkey’s advantage. Sectors such as defence, joint security, or customs harmonization have reached an advanced stage of integration. Of course, a lot still remains to be done: the reform of the public administration, internal security and control of the frontiers, legislation on the police forces. Other key issues are human rights and the question of Cyprus. In this regard, we don’t consider that the policy adopted for the abolition of capital punishment or of so-called ‘political’ offences can be reversed. On Cyprus, on the other hand, moderate Islamism could lead to a hardening of the Turkish position on the control of the northern part of the island. That would be something the EU would not welcome”. What will be the next stages? “We wait to know the composition of the new government and the result of the announced missions to Western governments, aimed at convincing them about ‘Turkish good intentions’, also in relations with the USA and Turkey’s fidelity to the Atlantic Alliance. These are decisive meetings in view of the decisions that the European Council of Copenhagen will be expected to make”.
