TURKPULSE No: 70-72.................................................... MAY 2002

TURKPULSE No:70 TURKEY’S FINAL EFFORT FOR EU ACCESION NEGOTIATIONS

The European Union’s decision to insert the PKK and DHKP-C in its list of terrorist organisations has given a boost to the Ecevit Government’s efforts to conform, before the end of the year, to the Union’s political demands for starting negotiations for full membership. One of the thorniest questions is the EU’s demand of Turkey with the blessing of the United States to solve the Cyprus problem before the year is out. The third round of the Denktas-Clerides talks have just been wound up with not much hope of a solution in any foreseeable future. Yet, with or without an agreement on Cyprus, Ankara does not expect it to be against its EU accession because Denktas’s proposals are totally in accord with the EU’s foreign policy principles and practices in Europe.  For the details of the points reached in both Turkey’s accession to the EU and the Cyprus problem please see the article below.

TURKPULSE No:71 TURKEY TO BECOME BROADCASTING CENTRE OF EURASIA

PM Ecevit confirmed on Thursday (16^th), with a new document he issued from his home, that TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Institute) comes under the Deputy PM Devlet Bahceli with all its external activities and contacts. This document was issued at a time when the Turkish economy was turning topsy-turvy with the unfounded news by the daily Aksam that the American Ambassador Pearson had told Kemal Dervis that Ecevit would resign on Saturday and that there would be early elections in November. What was it that induced the Prime Minister to take that initiative at a time when interest rates were going up, the dollar passed the TL1.4 million limits and the Istanbul Stock Exchange was plummeting with disinformation?

TURKPULSE No:72 EU ACCESSION FOR TURKEY WITH BRITISH HELP?

No doubt with American blessing, if not active support, the United Kingdom has been extending effective support to Turkey in its efforts for European integration. The joint Anglo-American effort to work out a consensus between Turkey and the EU about ESDP (European Security and Defence Policy) is a case in point. The other is the British coordinator Lord Hanney’s suggestion to Denktas to use the United Republic concept for Cyprus, instead of the outmoded confederation idea. Last Monday (27^th) The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was up with an important statement in Berlin to subtly win over Germany to Turkey’s EU accession. It coincided with Mesut Yilmaz’s words over the TV that Turkey faced a rebuff from the EU at the Luxembourg Summit in December 1997 and enjoyed a breakthrough on the same issue two years later at the Helsinki summit. Both these contradictory moves were the German doing, he said. Will the UK now be successful in winning over Germany to Turkey’s EU membership at this critical point? More important still, Jack Straw’s Berlin address was a good indicator of who was behind the vault-face on the part of Germany between December 1997 and December 1999.   

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