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4/2/13

Turkey: "why Europe should be cautious to accepting Turkey into the EU at this point in time"

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan rejected calls by a minister and businessmen to withdraw from the EU customs union negotiated in 1996, which they say crimps Turkey's export competitiveness.

"It's not that easy to say we're angry, and we're out…He who rises in fury reaps damage from his fall. We always have to think strategically," said Mr. Babacan, who also oversees Turkey's economic policy.

The intervention comes after an announcement last week that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to visit Brussels for the first time in three years. That news followed France's move in February to lift a block on Ankara's membership negotiations after years of deadlock, effectively relaunching the EU's strained relationship with Turkey.

To be sure, officials in Brussels and Ankara remain concerned that more than seven years after Turkey's accession talks formally began and with most of the negotiation issues still paralyzed, there may be little time to breathe life into the process. The EU is deeply divided over whether eventually to admit Turkey as a full member. The bloc's attractions for Ankara, meanwhile, have also diminished as a result of the so-called euro-zone crisis.

But one should be honest about it. In reality Europe should continue to be concerned based not only on what the Turkish Government is saying, but on what is really going on Turkey.

It is easy to say that those are internal matters, but when you want to become part of the EU there must not be any hidden agendas.

In Turkey today there are more journalists detained without charge than anywhere else in the world. Many have been detained for years without knowing why. Turkey has recently made itself known for imprisoning journalists and opposition members to such an extent that the country now stands first among countries with state censorship. Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, has even passed dictatorships like China and Iran in the number of imprisoned journalists.

When Turkey's President Abdullah Gül visited to Sweden last March, he spoke on several occasions about the success Turkey has had on the democratization process affecting the country.

Reality is usually boring but sometimes certainly more important. During the Turkish press conference on the occasion of President Abdullah Gül,  two journalists, Murat Kuseyri and Dikran Ego experienced in the heart of Liberal and Democratic Stockholm what Turkish "democracy" and "censorship" really means in practice.

Both journalists were denied entry to a  press conference at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.where journalists were given the opportunity to direct questions to President Abdullah Gül. The reason for the rejection of the two journalist by the Turkish Press officer that was given was that one of the journalists represented an Assyrian TV channel who represent a minority in Turkey and the other a "libera"l newspaper Evrensel, which the Press officer classified classified as part of the opposition.

Meanwhile in Turkey retired General Ilker Basbug, the highest-ranked defendant in one of Turkey's two coup-plot trials, is among 275 people on trial over charges that they formed a terrorist organization called Ergenekon to spur unrest and prepare the ground for the military to force the government from power.

The Ergenekon trial has gone from enjoying broad-based support in Turkey to now becoming a highly controversial focus of protests as well as a cause of deep splits in the conservative coalition that has helped Mr. Erdogan cement his power over the past decade.

The prosecution's heavy-handed treatment of the defendants—in terms of requested sentences and imprisonment during the trial—is a warning to the prime minister not to sideline old allies, analysts say, as he is taking historic steps to end a three-decade Kurdish insurgency, while also pushing for a constitutional reform that would restructure the state under a strong presidency Mr. Erdogan could occupy until 2024.

Mr. Erdogan is banking on a successful resolution of Turkey's so-called Kurdish issue to also gain enough support for his constitutional reform and strengthening of the presidency, analysts say.

Kurds make up about 20% of Turkey's 75 million citizens.

Mr. Basbug, the former chief of Turkey's military who has been imprison since January 2012 under the Ergenkon case, said the mere selection of witnesses illustrates that the trial is a farce.

"On the one hand, there's the accusation that the 26th chief of General Staff and one-time general in Turkey's armed forces 'formed and operated a terrorist organization,' on the other hand, there's the testimony of a witness, a terrorist with bloodstained hands who is an enemy of the Republic of Turkey and the defendants, who is being heard in a Turkish court," Mr. Basbug had said. "Let the great people of Turkey decide."

To make matters worse, with the military apparently sidelined, analysts say ties are fraying between Mr. Erdogan and Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam based in the U.S. and leader of a movement widely believed to dominate Turkey's prosecutorial authorities.

Mr. Gulen's followers, comprising Turkey's most powerful religious movement, may also not let the premier act alone in dealing with the Kurdish issue and possibly will want to partake in the process, according to analysts.

All by all, and in all sincerity, Turkey's democratic and political environment can presently not be described as one in which the EU can have too much confidence.

EU-Digest








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