Karma Parlamento Komisyonu Toplantısında Yapılan Konuşma Metni (İng.)

Statement of Mr. Onur Öymen, Member of the Turkish Parliament, at the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee
İstanbul, 16 June 2003

Co-Chairmen,
Dear Collegues,
Ladies and Gentlement,

It is a particular pleasure for me to address Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee in a period of big challenges and opportunities both for the Union and Turkey.

After the recent war in Iraq which provoked a number of discussions, criticism and misgivings among the Allied countries and within the European Union, it is now high time to defend together our common values and principles. One of the conclusions we may draw from this crisis is that Turkey and the Union need each other more than ever. Therefore I believe that instead of focusing too much on the shortcomings of each other we should rather concentrate on the promising future that unites us.

This new and positive climate also prevailed in the recent talks between the two sides particularly in the Association Council meetings.

After the Helsinki Summit of 1999 both Turkey and EU countries realized more and more that we have embarked on a way of no return. We are progressing, albeit a little slowly, towards our common destination: the full membership of Turkey to the Union. For that matter, the question asked today by most of the Turks and Europeans with a few exceptions, is not whether, but when.

The recent Association Council meetings permitted both sides to evaluate particularly the reforms made in the Turkish legislation in several fields. The positive mood in the Turkish parliament and the commitment of both the government and the opposition to finalize this reform process very soon, permit us to concentrate more on the implementation of these reforms. We agree with you that practical achievements are not less important that changing the laws. The Turkish parliament is well placed to control the effective implementation of the commitments of the government. In fact who else could be more competent and more effective than the Turkish parliament in this regard?

Take for example the human rights issues that occupied our common agenda for a long time. The parliament, with its new composition after the elections is the best suited body for an effective control of the implementation of Turkish laws and international conventions that we signed in the field of human rights. For that matter a special committee in charge of human rights is working very hard to monitor all the abuses and wrongdoings in the country. More important than that, I would like to remind you that a number of members of the parliament, including the leader of my own Party, have struggled for a better democracy throughout their lives and some of them were jailed during this struggle. I don’t believe that they need to be convinced by anyone on the merits of democracy and on the necessity to keep a high standard of human rights. Both Parties represented in the parliament are fully committed to eliminate all abuses of human rights in Turkey. In fact the courts have already judged and sentenced a number of security officials for the offences they had committed.  The parliament, the press and human rights groups are watching very closely the punishment of all those responsible of the violation of human rights.

Having said that, to be realistic, we all should admit that no country of the world is perfect and there are reports about human rights violations practically in every country. This doesn’t mean that we should use them as an excuse for the violations in Turkey. On the contrary, we believe that whatever happens elsewhere we should have zero tolerance for any violation of human rights and freedoms in our country. We are keen to make sure that no violation of human rights should be overlooked, tolerated and stayed unpunished. This is our commitment as parliamentarians and we promised our people that we would work to provide them, in law and in practice, the same rights and freedoms that the peoples of other European countries enjoy.

We had remarkable achievements in Turkey in the last few years in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms. This is a product of a strong spirit and determination prevailing in Turkey to further upgrade our democratic standarts. These achievements are also a result of legal reforms we made recently.

During the Association Council meetings our European partners have been informed about these reforms. To provide you an easy reference I am going to distribute you a list of legal reforms that Turkey has realized after the EU Helsinki summit of December 1999. As we speake the Parliament discuss a new package of reforms aiming to amend  20 laws.

I am sure you will agree with me that, this performance of Turkey is quite impressive and not less important then the legal improvements in any other candidate country.

The Association Council meetings have also permitted both sides to discuss the problem areas with a positive and constructive spirit. Let me summarize you some of the these problems that the Turkish parliament and public opinion are concerned.

One of the questions often raised in Turkey is whether Turkey and all other applicants have been equally treated by the European Union. In Turkish public opinion there is a general feeling that other candidates have profited from a more constructive, tolarent and welcoming attitude from the Union. In fact, some of them were invited to start enlargement talks before finalizing their democratic reform progress. In the case of Turkey however the expectations of the Union were higher and the process is slower.

The disparities between other applicants and Turkey could also be observed in the economic assistance programs of the Union. In recent years, even a relatively small candidate country with 1/7 of Turkish population has received almost three times more grants than Turkey.
The total grants of the Union to Turkey in the last 40 years can hardly reach 1 billion €. To illustrate you the comparative value of this assistance I can tell you that this amount is almost equivalent to one quarter of monthly exports of Turkey. The Union was also late in involving Turkish youth to important programmes like Leonardo and Socrates that other candidates have been profiting for a number of years.

Those are some examples of the problem areas in the poltical field where Turkish people feel that they are unfairly treated compared to the rest of the candidates. This situation is generally interpreted in Turkey as a lack of political will for an early membership of Turkey in the governing heights of the Union. Although all EU governments have given their consent in the Helsinki Summit on Turkish candidacy, some subsequent statements of leading personalities against the Turkish membership have influenced negatively the European public opinion and created disappointment and  reactions in Turkey.

I believe that we have to address together such issues that damage the physcological enviroment of our membership process.

Our people regret that, Cyprus issue has been presented by some leaders or political groups in Europe as a pre-condition of Turkish membership. Since this problem has not been considered as an impediment for Greek Cypriot membership, it would be unfair to present it now as an obstacle for Turkey. I want also to remind you that, a number of international lawyers shared the view of the Turkish government that the membership of Cyprus to the EU before Turkey would be a violation of Founding Agreements of 1960 since these agreements prohibit Cyprus to join an international union where both Turkey and Greece are not members.

Last but not least we notice that the role of the army in Turkey has been presented by some as an impediment to the Turkish membership process. I believe that such views are based on inadequate information. First of all it should not be forgotten that the Turkish army has played a leading role in the history in the modernization and westernization process of Turkey. The founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Atatürk who was also the founder of my Party was a soldier. The second Turkish President İsmet İnönü, who decided the establishment of multi-party system in Turkey in 1946 and who was also a chairman of my party, was a soldier. He left the power to the oppsition who won the elections in 1950. This was the first transfer of power through elections in a country with muslim population.

I would remind you that one of the first decisions of Atatürk after founding the republic in 1923 was to dissociate the army from politics. He asked his fellow commanders to choose between the military and the political life saying that these two functions are not compatible with each other. So we are coming from this tradition.

Today, behind the rostrum of our parliament a motto of Atatürk is engraved: “Soveregnity belongs to the people without any condition”. All decisions of our parliament,  the supreme decision making body of Turkey, are sovereign decisions and you have seen the concrete exemple of this when we rejected to invite American troops to Turkey to open a front against Iraq.

Recently I heard from some high officials of the Union that they have the impression that the Turkish parliament is incompetant to discuss and criticize the defence budget. It is totally untrue. I told them that I myself participated actively to the debates on the budget of Ministry of Defence in our Budget Committee that lasted several hours. I repeat once more that, while taking properly into consideration the opinions of the armed forces on defence and security related issues, as all your governments and parliaments do, we, as the Turkish parliament preserve our total independence while taking our decisions. We notice with pleasure that the Chief of Staff has always expressed the respect of the armed forces to the decisions of the parliament.

Those are some issues that we discuss with our European friends in the Association Council meetings and in other fora. But lets concentrate ourselves more on the positive side of our relations. In many areas Turkey is now closer to European Union than other candidate countries. There are more Turkish citizens living and working in EU countries than any other candidate country. We expect closer cooperation with EU governments for better integration of these Turkish citizens to their societies. We also expect them to cooperate more closely with Turkey to make practical arrangements which would permit the Turks living in their countries to vote in the Turkish elections.

Turkey is in a poisition to contribute to the security and defence of Europe in a more substantial way than all other applicants combined. The share of Turkey in EU’s external trade is larger than almost all other candidates. Turkey is the first and still the only candidate who has made and implemented a Customs Union agreement with the Union. It is a proof of Turkey’s competitiveness with the industries of the member nations.

On this particular issue I must say that we are very much willing to enlarge and to further deepen our Customs Union agreement. I remember that while negociating the Customs Union agreement in 1995, despite the positive view of a great majority of the member states, it was not possible to include services sector in the framework of this agreement because of the resistance of one or two countries. And in the last six years this particular issue could not have been solved. Technical negotiations, started after 1995 agreement, have been interruptred two years ago. We believe that this matter should be settled quickly and Turkish and European firms in service sector should have the opportunity to compete freely with each other in our respective markets.

Again in the field of Customs Union and more generally foreign trade, we regret that the level of consultations between Turkey and EU is not adequate. We wish we are properly informed in time and consulted about the free-trade agreements that the EU intends to sign with third countries.

In the field of agriculture we have some problems as well. Although we are aware of the internal difficulties of the Union we believe that we have to start to soften the restrictions with a view to permit a soft landing of the Turkish agriculture to the European markets. In the trade sector, some non-tariff barriers are preventing  Turkish companies to export their goods in the EU markets.

Turkish companies have some complaints also in the implementation of anti-damping rules of the EU. We believe that such complaints should be studied with a positive and constructive spirit.

To make a more substantial progress in our way of membership we believe that EU should start the screening process as soon as possible. It is not easy to understand for us that the Union has not yet started this process with Turkey whereas the same process is going on with the rest of the candidates for a number of years.

All these issues necessitate a closer cooperation and consultation between Turkey and EU at all levels. We will appreciate a pro-active approach of the European Parliament to these problems.

Having said all this, as I promised in the beginining, I would conclude with a positive note. Common interest between Turkey and the Union are by far more important than the issues that still create problems. Therefore, I am of the opinion of that it would be a mistake to concentrate only on problem areas and overlook the potentials of Turkish membership to the European Union. Turkey should not be presented always to the European people as a problematic country, almost as a liability for Europe. European’s should realise that, Turkey is an asset for Europe and European citizens will profit a lot from Turkish membership. Millions of Europeans who visit Turkey every year feel the friendly feelings of our people. But taking aside the physclogical and emotional espect of our relations, a country neighbouring a market of several hundered millions of people; a country geographically and culturally close to % 65 of all world oil and natural reserves; a country binding Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East through its transport and communication network, a country provider of security in a period where Europe is developing its security and defence component, and more important than all, with its young and dynamic population constitute a real advantage for the rest of Europe.

Dear Collegues,
My generation was born as Europeans and we have been educated with the spirit of western minded Atatürk Reforms. We always felt ourselves as members of European family. We, Turkish Parliamentarians around this table are all defenders of our common values. And I am confident that, our European collegues will recognize the value of our commitment to your ideas and will do everything possible to shorten the way of the full-membership of Turkey to the Union.

Thank you for your attention.