Turkey, the eternal European Union candidate?

  • 2010-04-01
  • Interview by Francisco Javier Gregorio

Egemen Bagis is the current Minister for EU Affairs and is chief negotiator for Turkey in its attempts to get into the EU. He has a difficult mission: it will have taken 50 years of negotiations for Turkey, if accepted, to achieve full EU membership. Bagis was travelling through the three Baltic countries from Feb. 24 – 26, with an intensive agenda in gathering support for this goal. In Lithuania, he met with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and with Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, who expressed their support for Turkey’s full EU membership.

Bagis belongs to the ruling party in Turkey, Justice and Development Party (AK Party), led by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Bagis is considered one of the top advisers to Erdogan. Some aspects of Bagis’ political ideology are: a defense of Turkey’s full membership in the EU; protection of individual freedoms and a liberal market economy.

Bagis’ task won’t be easy, since some key countries such as Germany and France have expressed their reticence about Turkey joining as a full member, but Bagis remains focused. “Turkey will never accept anything less than full membership,” he says. Nevertheless, he prefers to go step by step in this long process. “I don’t want to give an exact date (for integration). In 2014, Turkey will be considered as a potential member,” he adds. One of the biggest problems for Turkey are in human rights. Bagis is convinced that Turkey has already overcome this issue. “Turkish standards for human rights are much better today, and are much better than in most of the EU countries.
The Baltic Times met with Mr. Bagis to discuss Turkey’s candidacy to become a full member in the EU.

What is your opinion on the position of French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel? They have expressed a negative opinion regarding full Turkish membership in the EU.

When Turkey received an invitation from the EU on December 17, 2004, it was a unanimous decision, it was a decision by France, Germany and the other member countries of the EU. When Turkey opened the chapter for negotiations, we had the support of the 27 members of the EU. Recently I was in Paris, and I met with the culture minister. We decided that it’s important for France to continue with the negotiations, and President Sarkozy has made a promise to my president and my prime minister that he no longer will use that horrible, insulting phrase of ‘privileged partnership,’ because this is something that Turkey will never accept, and Turkey refuses. When Angela Merkel established a new coalition government in Germany with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s Party, in the coalition agreement they had a phrase on Turkey, that the membership should continue and that this is the process of the negotiations; this is more important than the result. We will continue the negotiations and when we complete them Turkey will be a much different country, and the [European] Union will be a much different [European] Union, and that’s why we look ahead. We have to concentrate and focus on the right thing to do in the continuation with the negotiations.

What do you expect of the Spanish Presidency of the EU?
I came to Vilnius from Sevilla where I was with my prime minister. He has had extended meetings with the Spanish government and president. The Spanish presidency is a good opportunity for us, because Spain is one of the countries, like Lithuania, which supports full Turkish membership. We are trying to open as many chapters as possible under the Spanish presidency, we are continuing with our domestic reforms and we are going to be able to open other chapters, like education, culture, energy, competition... all of these with the Spanish presidency.

What about Lithuania’s position on Turkey?
Lithuania is also a country, like Spain, which supports Turkey’s full membership and we are grateful for that. I have had the chance to meet with the president of the Republic, with the prime minister, with different ministers, with people at the university, and all of them support us. People from the government coalition and from the opposition parties also support the European position on Turkey. Lithuanians and Spaniards have the vision that Turkey is going to contribute to the EU, and we are going to be the solution for a lot of problems in the EU.

When do you expect Turkish entry into the EU?
I don’t want to give an exact date. I can say that we have a national program to complete the reforms and to implement the EU requirements completely by the end of 2013. So, in 2014, Turkey will be considered as a potential member. This is a decision which will be made not only by Turkey, but by all member countries. Turkey expects to become a full member when Turkey is ready and Europe is ready, but we have to work for this goal. I have no doubt that one day Turkey will become a full member of the EU and we will become one of the strongest members. Those who are critical with the Turkish candidacy are the same ones who were critical and suspicious of the Spanish candidacy, with the United Kingdom’s, with Portugal’s… but now all of these countries are important contributors to the EU. Europe does not end at Greece’s borders, as some people claim; the real borders are in the minds of people. We have to free our minds. The EU is a club of values, values such as democracy, human rights, a free market economy… we have to give the EU a chance to grow up.

If the Turkish candidacy is finally rejected, will Turkey be happy with some partial EU membership, or some status of an EU associated country?
No, we won’t. All or nothing. Europe has to decide and calculate the cost of having Turkey in, or the cost of having Turkey out. Then, Europe could understand that the cost of having Turkey in is less than keeping us out. Turkey will never accept anything less than full membership. We don’t want to have more privileges than the current members just because we are the sixth largest economy of Europe today. We don’t want any special favors just because 70 percent of the energy resources that Europe needs are in the geographical region to our south, east and north; or because the average age in Turkey is 28 and the average age in Europe is 42; because we are the natural barrier to illegal immigration, to terrorism… but we are not going to take anything less than full membership. We want the rules of the game to be fair; we want the same as Spain received, as Lithuania received… nothing more and nothing less.

What would be the benefits of Turkish full membership for the EU and for Turkey?
The EU will have access to a large consumer base; the EU will have the chance to access 70 percent of the energy resources it needs which run through Turkey. The EU needs Turkey. The EU will have the chance to stop some of these problems like the economic crisis, energy crisis, illegal immigration, terrorism… and for Turkey, we will become a stronger democracy, an enhanced state of law according to European standards…       

If Turkey gets into the EU, the social support mechanisms from the EU to Turkey, considering the size of the population, may bankrupt the EU. Will Turkey accept much lower support levels as a condition of membership?
Turkey doesn’t see the EU as some ‘cash cow.’ Turkey views the EU like a club of values, values that a lot of people have sacrificed their lives for during the Cold War years. Values like democracy, freedom of speech, free market economy… sometimes people ask me in Turkey - why were we good enough to die for these values, [ones] which we brought together. Today, some countries are questioning whether we are good enough to live under the EU umbrella, with these same values. Europe has to decide if they are a bank, a loan facility, a monetary union, or it is a union of values. We would like to see the EU as a union of values and adapt the same standards in terms of those values. We are not looking for money from the EU; we are richer with our national resources, with our young dynamic workforce, with our young population, with our largest army in Europe… I think there are a lot of things that Turkey can contribute with for EU needs, more than Europe can contribute to Turkey.

Turkey can now be a bridge between Europe and the Muslim world, so why does Turkey have to be in the EU to facilitate this role?     
We have been this bridge for more than one thousand years already, but this bridge would be stronger and more stable. Turkey is the bridge between East and West, between Europe and Asia, between energy resources and energy consumers, between Islam and Christianity, between different cultures and civilizations. That’s why Spain and Turkey have created the alliance of civilizations, our prime ministers, Erdogan and [Jose Luis Rodriguez] Zapatero, have to be supported by more than one hundred countries. Turkey will continue to provide a source of inspiration for not only 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, but for more than 3 billion people that feel they are isolated by the West, that they have been pushed away by Europe. The way Turkey is treated by the negotiations is an important signal to people, not only in the Islamic world, but also in India, in China, in Africa and everywhere around the world, because they are also watching this process very closely.

Is Turkey ready to agree to the EU’s high standards regarding human rights?
Turkey is getting better and better. Turkey today is better than Turkey yesterday, and tomorrow we will be better than today. Just as in European countries. In Spain, some criminals took the parliamentarians hostage only 30 years ago in an attack on democracy, and today Spain is an example of democracy that has improved the lives of people of different ethnicities and values. Turkey has changed as well. Fifty years ago we had military coups which executed prime ministers; ten years ago the  mayor of Istanbul was in prison for reciting a poem, but today this mayor is our prime minister and Istanbul is the current European Capital of Culture. Turkish standards for human rights are much better today, and much better of in most of the EU. Currently, some of the EU member countries are planning to initiate broadcasting in some of the languages of their minority groups, while Turkey [already] has 24 hours of broadcasting in different languages and dialects on State television. We can always get better and better in human rights, and we are going to improve more and more, but Turkey is already doing better than some EU members.

Is it necessary to be an EU member to execute some human rights reforms?
As I have said, we can’t say that Europe has perfect standards in human rights; they also have to move to better standards. At a time when radicalism and discrimination are still in Europe, we cannot forget human rights. I am not claiming that my country is perfect, but at the same time I don’t want somebody to claim his country is perfect; every country has issues and we have to resolve these issues together to achieve perfection.

What is the situation in Cyprus?
Cyprus is a divided island today. Cyprus enjoys two different functioning democracies. When the sun shines on this beautiful island, it is shining in two different countries, two different presidents, two different parliaments, two different school systems… but two democracies. It’s my hope to see these two democracies united, but in order for a solution, both sides should wish for unification. The Turkish-Cypriot side voted “yes” to this plan for unification, and the Greek-Cypriot side voted against that plan. Right now, the Turkish-Cypriots are working very hard for a solution but the Greek-Cypriots are rejecting all the proposals, and this opportunity for a solution will be not [last] forever. In all democracies there are elections, and sometimes there are leaders who are less in favor of solutions. The Cyprus issue was not a problem for Cypriot full membership of the EU, so it won’t be accepted as a precondition or a problem for full Turkish membership.

What is the current situation with the Kurdish minority, and its rights?
The Kurds are not a minority in Turkey; they are part of the majority. Today they enjoy more privileges than they had five years ago. They now have 24 hours of Kurdish broadcasting on state television; political parties can run their campaigns in the Kurdish language; there are Kurdish institutes in universities; some Kurdish names of the towns and buildings have been given back to them; and one-fourth of the parliamentarians in the Turkish parliament, including parliamentarians from my party, have a Kurdish accent. My political party, the party in the government, is the largest party in all the regions of Turkey, including the Kurdish ones. However, the party which exploits the ethnic identity of Kurds were banned by the Constitutional Court, just like a party was recently banned in the Czech Republic; some parties in Spain were also banned because of supporting violence… but that party doesn’t represent the Kurds, they only represent a faction of the Kurds, the majority of the Kurdish population of Turkey supports other parties, including my party, because we can solve their problems.

How do you value the recent agreement with Armenia?
We would like to see the protocol, signed with Armenia, ratified by the parliament as soon as possible but the parliamentarians are free to vote and make their own decisions. Our parliamentarians clearly want a solution on the problem between Armenia and Azerbaijan before they vote for the ratifications, so we would like to see these two countries put aside their differences and start a peaceful dialogue regarding Karabakh.

Turkey has borders - with Iraq and Syria. If Turkey joins the EU, it will define the EU’s borders. Can Turkey bring some instability for the EU?
No, it wouldn’t bring instability for the EU. This situation would bring stability to Syria, Iraq, Iran and other neighbors of Turkey because it would be an economic opportunity for these countries and regions, and it would be a motivation to make better relations with Europe.

What about the rights of the Christian minority in Turkey?
I have had meetings with ten different religious organizations last week in Istanbul, including with the patriarch of the Greek orthodox community, the Armenian community, the patriarch of the Syrian community, the Jewish, the Latin… all of the religious communities. They are all very hopeful and supported by the Turkish government. They still have some issues to be resolved, and we are working on them, along with my colleagues in the Cabinet, but they all see Turkish EU membership as the most important point in solving all of these issues. The remaining problems will be resolved as Turkey gets closer to Europe.