Bremen Üniversitesi – Türkiye-AB İlişkileri Konferansı (İng.)

INTERVENTION OF MR. ONUR ÖYMEN IN THE BREMEN UNİVERSİTY CONFERENCE ON TURKEY-EU RELATİONS
7 MAY 2009

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank you for inviting me to Bremen to share my views with you on Turkish-EU relations, particularly on our opinion on the future of these relations.

I would like to repeat that my party entirely supports our prospect of joining EU. We have contributed to the reform process in Turkey, constitutional and legal amendments to make our legislation compatible with the acquis communaitaire. We know that we still need progress in a number of areas. But what is more important is to implement these reforms in a way compatible with European way life of way and European standards. There we have some problems that I am going to elaborate later.

Another problem is the necessity of better understanding between Turkey and EU. We should also explain to the European public opinions our views, our goals, our achievements and our shortcomings.

It is unfortunate that in the last couple of years we noticed that there were a lot of mutual criticisms between EU and Turkish representatives instead of common understandings and cooperation. Therefore such meetings are extremely valuable. We can profit from such occasions to understand each other in a better way.

It would be advisable for both parties to explain its views, objectives and problems with an open heart before commenting the position of the other side. Therefore I will try to explain you my views about our achievements and shortcomings before sharing my views on the policies of European side. Doing so, we should not limit ourselves to recent developments only and we should try to draw a brief historical perspective as well.

We have inherited a long history of statehood. If you start with the founding of the Ottoman Empire, today our country is 709 years old. During this period we had remarkable achievements in the administration, arts and culture and humanity. We had periods when the Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful countries in Europe, Middle East and North Africa. There were also periods of weaknesses, failures, mistakes and wrongdoings. The basic characteristic of the Ottoman Empire was that she was an authoritarian religious state.

Even during her weakest period, Ottoman Empire was considered as a European power. No wonder she was qualified as a sick man of Europe, not of Asia. Despite military, economic and political setbacks, the Empire survived until early 1920s and it was not a foreign power but a Turkish national political force that overthrew it with the aim of establishing a modern, secular, democratic republic based on European values and inspired by European legal system in all aspects of life. Therefore the Europeanization of Turkey in the fields of law, administration, education, science and technology has started almost thirty years before the foundation of the European Union.

More important than that, the basic reforms we realized after the foundation of the republic were not a product of pressure, even suggestion of other countries, but as a result of our national choice.

Why I am telling you all these? Because today we have the impression that the general feeling in Europe is that Turkey has to be put under pressure to proceed with a reform process, in line with European standards. As far as my party is concerned we are ready to speed up this process even there is no suggestion what so ever from the European side because we believe that those reforms are necessary in case we want to join European standards.

It is a fact that today despite some problems we face particularly during the recent years and accelerated after the international financial crisis, Turkey has become a powerful country with a high number of well-educated people, remarkable infrastructure, strong industrial base and a vibrant economy. Our secular democracy is unique among all countries with Muslim population. We are the only country in our region that lived in peace for more than 85 years. We have a high standard in arts and culture, and science. We compete with most of the European countries in a number of fields. As regards to GNP, Turkey is actually 17th country in the world and 6th in Europe. We have about 130 universities. Generally speaking, we believe that Turkey is fully ready to join the EU and assume all responsibilities that it entails. 

All these assets are encouraging but not enough. We are living actually some problems resulting not always from material shortcoming of Turkey, but rather from the prevailing mentality and policies of the government today, which is hardly compatible with European standards.

Let me start with the so-called Alliance of Civilizations. Turkish Prime Minister together with the Spanish PM Zapatero is leading a process called Alliance of Civilizations. I presume that Mr. Zapatero represents the Western civilization. Which civilizations does our Prime Minister represent? The founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had said: “Cultures are different, but civilization is unique. And we should be part of this civilization”. Obviously he was referring to Western civilization. Are we departing today from this basic choice? Are we considering ourselves as a representative of Islamic civilization? Can a secular state like Turkey represent a religion? Those are serious questions that we often put on the table in Turkey without receiving a satisfactory answer from the government.

To join EU we need first to adopt the European value system, democratic standards, freedoms, secular principles, and gender equality. We have made this basic choice with the foundation of our Republic and my Party is not prepared to change this course.

We should not depart from the basic commitments we share with EU like the independence of the judiciary and freedom of press. We have serious concerns on these issues .A number of personalities as well started to express concerns about some practices in Turkey in these two fields. Commissioner Olli Rehn expressed two days ago in the European Parliament critical views about the conduct of a trial in Turkey, called Ergenekon and on attempts against freedom of press. In the same day, our party chairman has strongly criticized the practice in Turkey in these two areas and expressed serious doubts about the present situation in Turkey in the fields of the independence of the judiciary and strong pressure exercised against media.

As regards to judicial independence, the World Economic Forum Global Technology Report 2008-2009 ranks Turkey number 64 after countries like United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia and Libya. In the list of Davos Economic Forum concerning freedom of press, Turkey ranks 106 after countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Qatar, Ukraine Egypt and Uganda. There is a similar ranking of Turkey in the list of Freedom House. We cannot say we are proud of this performance.

The famous article 301 of the Turkish penal code became world famous. This article prohibits the humiliation of the state, the government, the Parliament, etc. Upon “the suggestion” of the European friends the government submitted last year an amendment to this article, which was accepted. The most important change is that there would be no trial of a person under this article unless the Minister of Justice authorizes it. In the mean time the Minister of Justice allowed the opening of 71 trials against intellectuals. 29 journalists are actually in jail.

The Minister of Interior admitted in the Parliament that the telephones of 70,000 people were tapped, which means practically that there is no privacy any more in Turkey and the articles of the international conventions on the respect of privacy of the citizens are not observed in Turkey. The deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court appealed to the High Board of Judges and Prosecutors against prosecutors who ordered the tapping of his private telephone in violation of the Constitution and the relevant laws.

In areas of gender equality we continue to have serious problems despite full equality in the Turkish legislation. Recent researches conducted by well-known scholars indicate that more Turkish women today are under family and local pressure than before. The serving of alcoholic drinks in the restaurants of a number of cities of Turkey is, if not legally, practically prohibited. The percentage of Turkish women in the leading positions of the Turkish bureaucracy is decreasing. The education system is moving from western to traditional values. A recent study shows that 32% of the school children do not believe in Darwin’s evolution theory.

Last but not the least, ten members of the Constitutional Court have decided to penalize the ruling party for being a focal point of anti-secular activities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In short, it is good that we have amended our Constitution and laws within the process of EU reforms. But it is not good that in practice we have backtracked in all these areas in the last few years.

I have tried to give you an objective picture of Turkey today with it achievements and shortcomings. CHP, as a social democratic party and main opposition group in the parliament is fighting in all these areas in the Parliament and is using all constitutional and legal ways to stop the government from departing from European values. We argue that the membership of Turkey to the EU will enable us to consolidate the achievements we have performed so far and will stop the backsliding.

This much for Turkey. I may perhaps say a few words about our perception of Europe today, particularly Turkish membership process.

This process, which started in 1963, took rather a long time. At the end, in 1989 Turkey was declared as an official candidate and in 2005 we started negotiations with the aim of full membership. Still today there are some leading countries, political leaders or major political parties in Europe who continue to oppose as a matter of principle to the membership of Turkey. Some even claim that Turkey cannot join the Union because she is not a European country. Instead they propose a special status. No Turkish political party so far has accepted such a special status. But such statements have created a strong disappointment in Turkey sharply reducing the support of our people to the membership. The acceptance rate was 72% six years ago, now it is 32%. We have started to open negotiation chapters in October 2005, in three and a half years we were able to open only 10 chapters and temporarily close one. The performance of Croatia which started to negotiate in the same day is more than twice than that. I agree that there is a slowing down in the Turkish side, but obviously the EU side shows as well some signs of reluctance since a number of chapters cannot be opened because the European Council has not authorized the Commission to start negotiations on these chapters.

Excessive criticism of Turkey in some EU reports and EP documents also created disappointments and reactions in the Turkish people.

Turkish general public fails to understand the reason of this reluctance, even unwillingness from the European side. What is their motivation and ultimate aim? What is their future concept of Europe? To what extent religious differences play a role in this? How come that some governments strongly support Turkey’s membership while others are against? To what extent the presence of Turkish workers in Europe influence the decision of European decision-makers? Those are questions in our minds.

As we sincerely and honestly expressed our views about ourselves we expect the same from our European friends and to make a fair self-evaluation. I personally believe that Turkey will join European family sooner than expected. When my party will be in power in Turkey we will accelerate this process and accelerate the reforms. But obviously we are expecting the same willingness, enthusiasm and action from our European partners.

Thank you.