Perhaps the most important one has been Europe's own reluctance to send Turkey positive signals, and particularly the proposals for a “privileged partnership” coming from Paris and Berlin. In international relations, perception is reality. These negative messages from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel created a perception among Turks that can be summarized along the following lines: “No matter how strongly we work towards EU membership, the Europeans will always find an excuse to exclude us from the club.”This is why the message coming from a report by the Independent Commission on Turkey, which is chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, Finland's 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is very important to disseminate within Turkey. The Turkish government should use such reports for public relations and to change the negative perception of Europe within Turkey. Perhaps the most important facet of the report is its criticism of EU leaders for slowing down the accession talks and giving the impression they do not want Turkey to join the bloc. The report argues that the European Union must keep alive Turkey's membership talks or risk damaging Turkish domestic reforms and harming the EU's own interests. You may argue that this is just a report and that it has no impact on government. But let's not forget that the commission's first report on Turkey, issued in 2004, was instrumental in persuading EU governments to open official membership talks with Turkey one year later.
Most Turks who read this report will see that it condemns EU leaders for allowing the question of Turkey's membership to become a domestic vote-winner, playing on popular fears in Western Europe about immigration, job security and Islam. The report is also highly critical of the EU governments that have frozen or blocked more than half of the 35 negotiating chapters, or policy areas, that Turkey must complete to join the EU. It argues that these negative attitudes and policies of European leaders “constitute a breach of faith with Turkey, stokes up a nationalist backlash in the country and creates the wider impression that the EU has discriminatory double standards when dealing with a Muslim country.”
The timing of the report is critical. It comes at a time when the European Union faces the distinct possibility that the latest UN-mediated effort at producing a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus dispute will fail. The report warns that if current talks to reach a Cyprus settlement fail and Turkey's membership process comes to a halt, this would be the end to the best and probably last chance to end the division of the island. Put another way, if the talks collapse, the Greek Cypriots will be looking at a future in which Turkey's armed forces maintain a presence on the island for the indefinite future. A second unwelcome consequence of failed Cyprus talks would be that co-operation between the EU and NATO would continue to be blocked. This has growing negative ramifications for Afghanistan at a time when better transatlantic coordination is absolutely necessary. It is therefore important that France and Germany, which are so skeptical about Turkish entry into the bloc, show a sense of responsibility. To use the collapse of Cyprus talks as an excuse to punish Turkey and bury its membership aspirations forever would be profoundly unwise for the EU, NATO and the transatlantic partnership.
Finally the EU, as the report rightly argues, should not forget that the prospect of membership is one of the most important levers it has in order to steer Turkish domestic reforms in a positive direction. Let's not forget that Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union motivated it to make a series of remarkable transformations between 2000 and 2005. Ankara amended a third of the country's authoritarian Constitution. Its legislators enacted human rights laws in line with international standards. It abolished the death penalty. It provided greater legal protections for women. It introduced new safeguards against torture and reformed the penal system.
At the end of the day, this report puts the ball on the European side and demands a more strategic vision from European leaders. But it should also become required reading for Turkish politicians and opinion leaders who think Turkey has no friend in the European Union.
