Yes, says Secretary-General of EU Affairs Volkan Bozkır. He says Turkey has decided to reach European Union standards in all 35 chapters by the end of 2013 and that 2010 will be the first year of a new strategy to do so.Well, for the last three years we have been hearing that the government had declared “Year 2007, 2008 and 2009 the year of the EU.” That part of Bozkır’s statement has already lost its credibility. There is nothing personal here. It is about the “text,” about the wording. We all want to believe that 2010 will be the year of the EU, but… It’s already unbelievable!
Secretary-General Bozkır was speaking to Kriter, a monthly pro-EU membership periodical published independently of, but distributed together with, the Radikal daily. If all what the secretary-general said was about declaring 2010 “the EU year this time,” our cynical response is totally legitimate. But Bozkır does something extra. He claims that what we thought about “blocking of the chapters by France and southern Cyprus” does not count as blocking or suspending at all. Bozkır warns that suspension of chapters is a decision that needs to be made through the consensus of all EU members and that this is what happened to the eight chapters that are suspended.
“This was done with the claim that Turkey was not implementing the Additional Protocol as it should,” he said. Apart from this suspension -- and this can be overcome only by Turkey -- there is nothing written in official EU documents that this or that chapter is blocked or suspended. “Individual countries can slow down or even completely stop improvement on about 300 points of the 35 negotiation chapters. But these are not really important. We shouldn’t forget that all the improvements that were realized in the negotiation process were possible only because Turkey managed to surprise the EU,” he said.
The overall message of the interview he gave to Kriter was that Turkey is going to surprise the EU in 2010 and the following three years. Well, that will surprise even me!
But it seems that in 2010 the government will surprise both us and the EU on issues not totally unrelated to the EU membership process. The prime minister promised on a TV discussion program on Sunday night that the Protocol on Cooperation for Security and Public Order (EMASYA), which is used by the military as the legal basis of its interference in political and civilian issues, will be altogether annulled. He also stated that the National Security Policy Document would be rewritten and that the National Security Council (MGK) will no longer be in a position to “advise the government” on “domestic threats.” The prime minister is apparently willing to change Article 35 of the Internal Service Law of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), but he is aware that he needs the support of opposition parties for that also.
If the government is really willing to write a new civilian constitution, to get rid of EMASYA and other seemingly pseudo-legal documents giving the army the pretext to intervene in political processes and to reform the legal system so as to prevent the emerging juristocracy, it will certainly surprise the EU.
But will the opposition parties surprise us? Will they come out and support democratization efforts? Will the government be able to turn to the public and ask for a referendum on issues the government and the opposition parties cannot decide on? Will the top courts bow to the will of the nation?
If yes, Turkish businessmen will certainly do their part to surprise the EU. If yes, as part of the Turkish media and as a citizen, I promise that I will do my best to surprise the EU also.
