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CHIEF NEGOTIATOR BAGIS: TURKEY'S ROAD TO EU GOES THROUGH PARLIAMENT

Today's Zaman - July 8, 2009 Reforms made by adopting new laws and amendments in Parliament will pave the way to Turkey's eventual European Union membership, Turkey's chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bağış, said on Tuesday. by Mehmet Yilmaz Ankara attaches great importance to the opening and closing of negotiation chapters with the EU, said Bağış, speaking with a group of leading media executives in İstanbul. He stressed, however, that reforms made in Turkey should be the main measure for success. “The road to the EU does not pass through some city or some region. The road to the EU goes through the Turkish Parliament,” Bağış said. His remarks were an apparent reference to decade-old remarks by a former prime minister. Then-Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz, now an independent deputy for Rize province, declared in a speech delivered in Diyarbakır in 1999, “Turkey's road to the EU goes through Diyarbakır.” To conclude entry negotiations, Turkey must bring its government policies in line with EU standards in 35 policy areas, known as chapters. Of these, only 11 have been opened in the past four years. Of the remaining 24, eight face a veto from Greek Cyprus and Greece. When blocking the eight chapters in 2006 due to Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic, the EU pledged to review the situation by the end of 2009. Ankara has so far managed to wrap up talks on only one chapter: science and research. According to Bağış, time is on Turkey's side as various deadlocks have been overcome due to EU reforms. On the other hand, the EU needs Turkey's cooperation in overcoming various problems, ranging from human trafficking to the energy crisis and from climate change to drug smuggling, he added. “The relationship between Turkey and the EU is a win-win relationship. Both the EU and Turkey will gain from this relationship,” Bağış said. Meanwhile, the chief negotiator also stated that the government is principally against suggestions linking the requirements of a protocol on the customs union between Turkey and the EU with the issue of reopening a Greek Orthodox seminary. Ankara is under EU pressure to open its seaports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic as well as to reopen the Halki Seminary, located on the island of Heybeliada near İstanbul. The school was closed to new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military training under state control. Bağış said he believes that there is no “parity” between the Halki Seminary issue and the Greek Cyprus issue. “If one is looking for ‘parity,' then the problems of Turkish minorities living in Western Thrace can be brought to the agenda, and Ankara and Athens can take simultaneous steps to ease these problems,” he suggested. The chief negotiator also touched on the fact that the EU had pledged to review the situation vis-à-vis Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic by the end of 2009. The EU's engagement in trade relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) will not spell Brussels' recognition of the KKTC, while Turkey's opening of its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic will not spell Ankara's recognition of the Greek Cypriot government, Bağış noted. “The isolation of the KKTC needs to be eased. If direct trade with the KKTC starts, then after seeing this good will, we may open our ports,” he said.

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