FDP’s Tören: German gov’t should take steps to continue EU-Turkey negotiations

“For the FDP, the important thing is the fulfillment of the EU’s Copenhagen criteria,” he said.

He noted that when the FDP made a coalition agreement with the Christian Democrats, they indicated in their coalition protocol that the German government should take steps in line with continuing EU-Turkey negotiations for membership in the union.

“We expect steps from the government in that direction,” he said yesterday in an interview with Today’s Zaman while he was in İstanbul on the occasion of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s visit to Turkey on July 27-28. Westerwelle angered conservatives in his own government coalition this week by keeping open the possibility of full European Union membership for Turkey.

The German media reported that the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), demanded recently that Westerwelle take a stronger and clearer stance that Turkey should remain a “privileged partner” of Europe, rather than a full member.

Westerwelle, in the Turkish capital of Ankara this week, called for “an open-ended process, which is not an automatic process” towards Turkey’s membership as he said that “Turkey’s direction is Europe” and that they “place great importance on deepening mutual ties and binding Turkey to Europe.”

Tören indicated that there are supporters of Turkey within the Christian Democrats but that there is opposition to Turkey’s full membership as well.

“What we tell them is that Turkey is geostrategically important and that it has been our NATO partner for many years. It also has a young population, which is to the benefit of Europe, to the benefit of Turkey. And we already have great economic relations,” said Tören, who moved to Germany from Fatsa, near Ordu in Turkey, with his parents when he was a 10-month-old baby in 1972.

Tören said Germany also attaches great importance to Turkey’s role as a mediator in the region, especially when it comes to relations with Iran.

“Sanctions against Iran are not against the Iranian people. We want Iran to come to the negotiating table. And for that Turkey can talk with Iran,” he said.

Regarding the long-debated claim that Turkey has been changing the axis of its foreign policy and leaning towards the East, Tören said it is not true.

“Turkey is not moving away from Europe. Turkey is trying to strengthen its economic position in the Near East, like any other state,” he said, adding that Turkey has moved closer to some states in the East that it has not been close to in the past, but that this is not against the West.

“Turkey has been following parallel politics with the West and the East. It has its own right to strengthen its relations in other regions like all other states, like France and Great Britain,” he said.

While studying law in Hamburg Tören decided to join the FDP in 1993, and he serves as the party’s spokesperson for the issue of integration.

Regarding integration, he mentioned two important bills that are being drafted, one about a more streamlined and easier process for the recognition of foreign diplomas in Germany, and the other about an immigration law that is aimed at increasing the immigration of skilled workers to the country.

He said the bill about the easier recognition of foreign diplomas is likely to become law in September but that the immigration law has been resisted by the Christian Democrats in the coalition government.

“We know that the population of Europe will be much older in 20 years. We need a lot of qualified workers outside Europe, and we have been saying that for years as the FDP,” he said. However, he noted, some Christian Democrats wear an old hat and think that people will flee to Germany. “They think like in the old days and as if everybody wants to come to Germany and are not aware of the fact that we now have a lot of Turkish-Germans who go back to Turkey to live and work,” he said.