OPPONENTS of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union are exploiting the Cyprus issue and divisions within the bloc to obstruct Ankara’s progress towards membership, a senior Turkish diplomat said.
Ankara is under growing pressure to move towards recognition of EU member state Cyprus’ internationally accepted Greek Cypriot government, a move it categorically rejects without a solution to the Cyprus problem.
The EU is still reeling from the twin rejection of its draft constitution by French and Dutch voters in referenda last year that critics say has left the 25-nation bloc directionless.
The increased tensions between Turkey and the EU have spooked financial markets in recent weeks, contributing to a big drop in the lira currency and share prices.
“As the EU itself is passing through a period of turbulence, certain elements are trying to exploit [Cyprus], using the lack of political decisiveness against Turkey,” Oguz Demiralp told Reuters yesterday.
“The EU is trying to make Turkey… pay for the fact that it has not fully digested the last enlargement,” he said, referring to the admission of 10, mostly ex-communist, members in 2004.
Some countries, including France and Austria, say more time is needed to consolidate that enlargement. They are also sceptical about ever admitting Turkey, saying it may be too big and too culturally different to become a full member.
Demiralp, who heads Turkey’s EU General Secretariat office, said it would be unfair to suspend Ankara’s EU talks because of its refusal to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic, a possibility mooted by officials in Brussels.
“Such a decision would be legally, politically and morally wrong. This may also have global repercussions,” he said.
Ankara says it will only open the ports and airports – a step Brussels says is required to comply with Turkey’s customs union with the EU – if the EU lifts trade restrictions against the Turkish Cypriots.
Demiralp said the EU claimed the ports issue was a purely commercial matter whereas in fact it was bound up with the complex political realities of the island that only a comprehensive peace settlement could resolve.
“They [the EU] say ‘the problem is commercial’… but then they use tough political language against Turkey [for not complying with their demands]. This contradiction can be explained as exploitation of the dispute,” he said.
