Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkey''s relations with EU reach crisis point
by CNN - 27/11/2000
Posted: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 07:23 pm CST

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkey''s relations with the European Union have reached a critical point after the latest talks on the future of the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus have collapsed and the Turkish government accuses Brussels of "dishonesty."

Turkish Cypriots as well as the Turkish government accuse Brussels of having gone back on earlier pledges that the Cyprus issue and territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean would not be included in a list of short-term conditions that Turkey must meet ahead of possible full EU membership.

As the situation stands, nobody in Turkey now knows which turn relations between Turkey and the EU will take.

The most damaging outcome of the current crisis, however, is that all debates within Turkey on human rights issues have now come to a grinding halt.

Last week''s fierce debate over the issue of whether TV broadcasts in Kurdish should be allowed or not has already evaporated. And the debates that were most likely to have followed on similar issues are now unlikely to take place.

Turkey''s tough conditions
In the EU''s roadmap for membership, there is a long list of tough conditions that Turkey must fulfil before the end of 2001. Turkey is expected to take measures to prevent torture, lift the obstacles to freedom of association, abolish the death penalty, allow citizens to receive education in their mother tongue and allow TV broadcasts in languages other than Turkish.

However, the Cyprus issue is holding such issues at ransom now. And that will no doubt be a big disappointment for the 70 percent who have come out in support of EU membership in a recent opinion poll.

Cyprus has been divided into an ethnic and Turkish section since the 1974 invasion by Turkey -- a military move that came in response to a short-lived coup by supporters of a union with Greece.

Many Turkish Cypriots believe that the solution for Cyprus should be a loose confederation of the two zones. But Greek Cypriots would like to see Cyprus reunited in a two-region federation with single sovereignty.

The EU has admonished Turkey -- which supports the Turkish community on Cyprus -- to rethink its position and show more support for United Nations-led efforts to find a lasting political solution for the island.

But Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has made his view clear. "We''ve reached the decision that these talks are nothing but a waste of time as long as our parameters are now accepted," he said after the talks. And Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit immediately declared his support for that stance.

What mostly angers Ankara is the perception that Cyprus, which is now a front runner in EU enlargement talks, has forced the issue of Cyprus'' future on the list of short term demands that Turkey must meet if it ever wants to stand a chance of joining the EU.

Ecevit has accused Brussels of behaving "dishonestly." He said earlier this week that the EU had turned back from its stance at the 1999 Helsinki summit, when Turkey was assured that the Cyprus issue as well as territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean were not going to be short term conditions that Turkey must meet.

Ecevit said he hoped the EU would take into consideration the sensitivity of the Turkish public and he warned that otherwise it would be necessary for Ankara to review relations with the EU.

Part of the anger in Turkey has also been prompted by a recent European Parliament resolution, which formally accused the Ottoman Turkish empire of committing genocide against Armenians 85 years ago.

This move on a highly sensitive issue has raised temperatures in Turkey. Ankara feels that the EU is, yet again, lecturing Turkey and interfering in domestic affairs, passing judgement on a historic issue the complexity of which Brussels does not understand.

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