Turkish road to EU membership is arduous and uncertain
Politicians and analysts today warned that Turkey’s decades-long road to European Union membership will be long, arduous and uncertain of success.
Analysts, business people, the media and politicians all cautioned that Turkey faced at least 10 years of changes if it was to met EU criteria in 35 policy areas that include everything from minority rights to legislation.
It could also force Turkey next year to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and passenger jets, a first step toward recognising the EU member which Turkey invaded and occupied in 1974 following a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece.
Turkey has so far refused to recognise Cyprus, which has been separated into a Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north, where a breakaway state is only recognised by Ankara.
Turkey formally began membership negotiations with the EU yesterday, after the 25-nation bloc’s members held two days of arduous talks to overcome objections by Austria. In order to join the EU, Turkey must meet a series of stringent criteria.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday warned that reforms “in particular will try us and there will be a great struggle to fully implement the harmonisation laws.”
The daily newspaper Milliyet, one of the country’s largest, headlined that Turkey now had a “new life with the EU”.
“Nothing will be the same from now on. We will experience changes in our lives,” it said.
The daily newspaper Cumhuriyet splashed “era of conditions begin” across its front page, and wrote that “with the decision to start negotiations, Turkey is entering a difficult process. During the negotiations, foreign policy, the environment and agriculture sector issues will be especially arduous.”
Former ambassador and foreign policy analyst Gunduz Aktan questioned if the beginning of talks was “salvation or inquisition”.
“Accession talks constitute the most effective process the EU uses to effect change in the candidate country,” he wrote in the Turkish Daily News. “In that case the demands made and the pressure exerted on such a country to change itself could go to extremes, acquiring an irrational, tortuous nature. Monday’s experience has shown that Turkey cannot tolerate such a thing.”
The start of EU membership talks nearly foundered after Austria insisted that Ankara be offered a lesser partnership if it fails to meet entry criteria. Turkey angrily rejected the possibility, saying it would prefer to walk away from the EU.
After EU ministers overcame Austrian objections, a Turkish delegation led by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul made a midnight flight to Luxembourg to begin the talks in the hours before dawn yesterday.
