CNN
27/11/2000

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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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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