TURKPULSE No:12 ............................DECEMBER 13^th,  1999

TURKEY ON THE EVE OF THE NEW MILLENIUM

A big stride has been taken by Turkey on the path of the European integration a couple of weeks before the end of the century and it may influence the solution of some longstanding problems. Amendments to the Constitution and radical alterations to laws are under way. PM Ecevit emphasises that these amendments will not go as far as curbing the military’s role in Turkey. Neither would Turkey cease to be the only democratic and secular Islamic country in the world.

Turkey is entering the new millennium having solved or at least broken the backbones of a number of its ages-long economic and political problems of international importance. These problems include:

• Membership to the European Union,
• Disputes with its problematic neighbour Greece,
• Terrorism as a weapon to prevent its economic and political uplift to catch up with the civilised world and
• The national economy pestered by birth pains of a radical industrialisation and its offspring - high inflation for the last quarter of a century.

Europe finally fulfils its treaty obligation to Turkey

The EU’s Helsinki summit (December 10^th-11^th) finally took the resolution to include Turkey in the list of 11 other European countries to enter the Union as a full member. During the application for this membership on April 14^th, 1987, the then Prime Minister Turgut Ozal said Turkey was on the path of "a long, tortuous road" to be a full and honourable member of developed Europe. He warned the nation that it would not be easy for the Union’s acceptance of this application and that the Turkish people would have to be self-confident and patient about the potential frustrations and injustices.

The Luxembourg rebuff to Turkey in December 1997 was the best example of Ozal’s prophecy and far-sight as it was an unjust action in contravention of Article 28 of the Treaty of Ankara which regulated Turkey’s association with the EEC, the EU’s forerunner. This Treaty signed on September 12^th,1963 to start a special association relationship between Turkey and the European integration movement as from January 1^st, 1964, stipulates in Article 28:

This requirement has now been fulfilled with the Helsinki resolution. Admittedly there are things for Turkey to do in both economic and political fields before it becomes a full member and the way is now clear with the EU’s backing down from the Luxembourg rebuff.

The EU has estimated that the accession period of a candidate costs the Union $1000 per person of that country’s population for the preparations. It means $65 billion for Turkey. This sum, however, is not financial aid to the candidate country, but mostly expenses paid to the EU Commission’s personnel for harmonising the legislation of the candidate to the Union’s laws and rules. Now hundreds of thousands of pages of documents will be scrutinised and adjusted to the EU.

Adjustments to the EU rules have already begun in Ankara

Turkey is the only country that has had a customs union with the EU without being a full member. The Customs Union Agreement between Turkey and the EU was signed on March 6^th, 1995 and has been in force since the beginning of 1996, resulting in mutually eliminating tariffs and quota restrictions for industrial exports. That is why Turkey’s task is much easier than the other candidates. After the Helsinki resolutions, these facilities will now be extended to the agricultural and services sectors, as well as other adjustments to the candidate country’s political and economic laws and rules.

This process has already started in Turkey. Last week the representatives of all the political parties represented in Parliament met under the Deputy Speaker, Nejat Arseven (ANAP-Ankara), and decided to review new bills, as well as the existing laws in force with an eye to adjusting them to EU rules. A parliamentary committee, which reviews the bills in the light of the Constitution, will now keep in sight the EU rules, rather than those of the Constitution and will make recommendations for adjusting the Constitution to EU legislation.

To this end, a parliamentary delegation headed by Arseven will contact all the parties in Parliament and try to pave the way for replacing the 1982 Constitution by a civilian Constitution. Thus the relics of the September 12^th 1980 interregnum will be totally eliminated. The idea behind this initiative was to raise Turkey to European standards in all fields, without waiting for the European Union’s initiatives about the required changes in Turkey.

At the meeting under Nejat Arseven, the FP representative Cemil Cicek maintained that one-fifth of the existing laws were at odds with the Constitution. It would, therefore, be better to draw up a new constitution by the civilian parliament, rather than amend the present constitution legislated during the military rule between 1980 and 1983.

During the September 12^th interregnum 668 bills were passed and a temporary article of the 1982 Constitution stipulates that these laws cannot be declared unconstitutional. Now that Turkey is heading for European integration, which PM Ecevit expects to be completed within four years, these rules found undemocratic by Europe will have to be revised.

As for how long this revision will take, PM Ecevit said on Sunday (12^th) that, given the very productive work tempo of Parliament in the last six months, the bills needed for the improvement of human rights could be legislated in the next few months or even weeks. About the extent and scope of these revisions, he dismissed the claims that the National Security Council would be disbanded or the influence of the military in Turkey’s constitutional system would be curbed. He said he had attended NSC meetings since he entered the Cabinet in 1997 and was never disturbed by the commanders’ behaviours. On the contrary, abolishing the NSC could be dangerous, as it would prevent the military from voicing their views on national issues at a constitutional institution. The Prime Minister said the FP’s proposals about constitutional amendments and alterations were not possible. They did not envisage improving the existing constitutional system, but were aimed at changing the political regime. Turkey would continue to be the only democratic and secular Islamic country. It could not, otherwise, take place in the European integration, he stressed.  uras@ada.net.tr,  December 13^th, 1999

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