The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "It was exhausting, but it concluded happily." The Cyprus obstacle was set before Turkey unexpectedly as the condition for setting October 3, 2005 as the date to start full membership negotiations. The fact that the European Union (EU) officials had admitted Turkey had done all of its homework and Chirac's supportive statements before he came to Brussels caused optimism and thoughts that the job was already done.
Despite his optimism, Erdogan insisted on the 'text'. When the presidents and prime ministers of the EU gathered around in the historical summit, the optimistic atmosphere was spoilt suddenly with the signals coming from the summit. Then heavy black clouds started to gather above the Turkey-EU relations.
The Cyprus issue, which Erdogan had defined as a red line which he would never cross was put before Turkey as an obstacle. The Turkish committee was discouraged and tension increased. Heavy diplomatic traffic was started to recover the situation, during these critical hours, Brussels witnessed heated negotiations and hot debates.
Along with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his officials, the Prime Minister Erdogan went to the European Council at midnight and met with the EU Term-President Balkanende there. The negotiation, which lasted for hours, took place in a tense atmosphere. At one time, Erdogan raised his voice saying, 'Are you aware that you prefer the 600 thousand Cypriot Greeks to 70 million Turkish?" and added, "We cannot go on negotiating under these conditions". Then, apparently, Erdogan stood up and moved towards the corridor, but was stopped by the arrival of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. Another member of the delegation said, 'The negotiations have been blocked, we may leave Brussels tonight, stop the presses'. In the lobby of Conrad Hotel where Erdogan was staying and where the Turkish press had gathered, there were rumors that Erdogan might leave the table at any time and had asked to 'prepare the plane'. Shortly after, Europe saw Erdogan's determination, and started to look for a middle way. The influential countries of the union held a mini summit to solve the Cyprus crisis. After the hard negotiations, at the end of a long day, a consensus was reached. The Prime Minister and his officials finally had time to eat some sandwiches in the Council building where they stayed throughout the day.
After the agreement, Erdogan left the Council building and came to the Conrad Hotel. Although a press conference had been announced, he appeared two hours late. Erdogan and Gul were smiling again and the press showed a great deal of interest in the meeting in which deputies from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Republican People's Party (CHP) participated as well.
Erdogan disclosed that he had conveyed to the EU that signing the Ankara agreement with new members including Cyprus was a technical procedure and signing the Harmonization Package would not mean the recognition of Cyprus. This was accepted by the EU officials.
The end result does not completely meet Turkey's expectations, but it is a huge improvement on what was first offered. In fact, Erdogan explained that the intermediary formula was 'acceptable'. A new and difficult process has now started in which the government has to take steps on the sensitive and fragile Cyprus issue.
