Last minute-wrangling aside, Turkey’s long-awaited accession talks with the European Union are to finally get under way on October 3 marking a major victory for the Ankara government and the beginning of one of the country’s biggest diplomatic endeavours.
”This is an historic turning point ahead of Turkey,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the nation in a televised address during the week. ”October 3 will be a new and unforgettable date.”
Turks won’t be waking up to find their country radically changed on October 3 but Erdogan is right to call it a ”turning point”.
Turkey became an associate member of the EU in 1963 and formally applied to become a member in 1987. It took another 12 years however before the EU brought itself to actually recognise Turkey as a candidate.
Now, more than 40 years after Turkey first signalled its intentions to join the bloc, the negotiations are finally about to start.
To say that Turkey has changed significantly since it was accepted as a candidate in 1999 is an understatement.
In just six years the country has undergone a revolution in human rights thanks to its efforts to conform with the political criteria laid down by the EU.
The death penalty has been lifted, Kurdish language classes are allowed, torture in custody has dropped considerably, women’s rights have been strengthened, notoriously strict press laws have been relaxed and a completely new criminal code introduced.
These reforms are impressive when one considers that Turks are predominantly conservative, religious and have a high level of respect for the state.
Even more surprising has been the way that the reforms have been pushed through by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), a party with its roots in moderate Islam who just a few years before preferred Turkey to look to the east and its Muslim neighbours.
Before coming to power in 2002, the AKP wasn’t expected to be so keen on ”European values”, but a realisation that the rights of religious conservatives could be easier guaranteed inside the EU led to a dramatic turnaround.
With the strictly pro-secular military and establishment looking on warily, Erdogan has largely avoided issues close to his supporters — such as lifting a ban on the wearing of headscarves at universities or by public officials — instead choosing to focus on the reforms needed to get the EU on side.
Despite the significant progress, officials on both sides acknowledge that the reforms still have some way to go.
Detainees are still tortured in custody, police still resort to their batons almost immediately when faced with an illegal protest and opinions out of line with ”official thinking” can still land you with fines or a prison sentence.
Turkey’s most famous author, Orhan Pamuk, has been charged over comments made about the deeply contentious World War I-era Armenian genocide.
”A million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it,” Pamuk told a Swedish magazine. The author has been charged with ”denigrating the Turkish identity” and faces up to three years jail if found guilty.
However change is evident even on the Armenian genocide issue.
Turkey denies that mass killings of Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire during and after World War I constitute a ”genocide” and has bitterly contested any such allegations.
However just a week before the beginning of EU accession talks a conference was held in Ankara at which such allegations were aired; something that analysts say would have been impossible only a short time ago.
Despite last minute legal hitches the conference went ahead with the blessing of the government. Turkey has realised that open discussion of even the darkest parts of its own history is not as destructive as feared.
”At the conference they said ‘genocide’. The world is still turning. Turkey still exists,” the liberal Radikal newspaper said after the conference.
Analysts say October 3 marks yet another milestone in Turkey’s mission to be fully accepted by the West. However it could be 25 years before the country is ready to join the 25-member bloc.
In the meantime there will be many hiccups and no doubt a few crises over issues as diverse as Turkey’s non-recognition of the Republic of Cyprus, to the first time that a factory will have to be closed due to stringent EU pollution laws.
”In the end it is the process that is important to Turkey,” said one government official.
”We are implementing these reforms both to comply with the EU and for ourselves. Who knows, perhaps in 15 years, when we are ready the Turkish people won’t want to join.”
”Who knows what the EU will be like in 15 years?”
Turkey’s 40-year struggle
Turkey first applied in 1959 for membership in the European Economic Community, as the EU was then known. The following is a chronology of developments:
- 1959: Turkey makes its first application to join the European Union
- 1963: Europeans respond to the request by proposing — and signing — an Association Agreement with Ankara
- 1970: Signature of an Additional Protocol to the Ankara pact focusing on a timetable for eliminating tariffs and quotas on goods traded by the two sides
- 1980: Temporary freeze in relations because of Turkish military government
- 1983: Restoration of relations following multi-party elections
- 1987: Turkey applies for full membership
- 1990: The European Commission and the European Council confirm Turkey’s eligibility for membership
- 1995: Establishment of a customs union between Turkey and the EU
- 1999: Turkey is officially recognised by the European Council as a candidate state
- 2003: The European Council adopts a revised Accession Partnership for Turkey, focusing on preparations for membership
- 2004: The European Council defines the perspective for opening talks, sets October 3, 2005 date for start of negotiations
- June 2005: European Commission sets out negotiating mandate for the October 3 talks
September 2005: EU governments agree a unilateral declaration on Turkish-Cyprus relations and adopt negotiating framework – Sapa-DPA