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C. European Union’s Response toward Turkish Accession under PM
Erdogan Leadership
The Turkish Accession that was being processed since 51 years ago raised the controversy among the EU memberstates, either in government or non-
government. Although Turkey is admitted as growing country economically and influencing country politically which by this condition could rise his prestige in
the world, the EU‟s response toward Turkish accession still seems unfair compared to the other candidates accession process such as Kosovo, Montenegro,
etc. The supports and positive sight for the accession begun to come up but the postponements and even rejections are still exist among the government of EU
member states and EU population. The supports of some governments of EU states for the accession come up because their consideration on potential and
strategic of Turkey that would be great benefits for European Union, in addition, Turkey has also been assessed quite mature with a high degree of economy to
become a member.The reasons of refusing countries are also various, the most preventing reason is the Turkey-Cyprus problem, and another reason are same
with what have been told before about the reason of EU‟s postponement toward Turkish accession before PM Erdogan leadership.
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And there was no economic reason here because every EU member countries and even the world have
recognized the Turkish economic success. By looking at the data, the total of supporting countries is more than
refusing countries which is 23:4. The number of supporting countries in PM
129
Vincent Morelli, “European Union Enlargement: A Status Report on Turkey‟s Accession Negotiations”, p: 7,
accessed at 392014
54
Erdogan era must be more than the number of supporting countries in the previous Turkish government when the Turkish economy was remained in low.
Unfortunately, this condition still unable to bring Turkey to be an official member of European Union because the decision have to be approved by all members of
EU Parliament which consists of all members states. This actually what prevents Turkey to be accepted as EU permanent member.
The opinion of the government of EU member countries is not always same with the opinion of their population. Some of the EU population seemed to have
another way to consider the Turkish accession in EU. For the detail number, here is the data of public opinion of EU towards Turkish accession which was taken in
25 EU countries:
Table III. C.1: The Precentage of EU Public Opinion In Favor And Oppose Of Turkeys Accession
Countries Support
Against
Sweden 48
41 Spain
40 33
Poland 42
37 Portugal
40 38
Malta 39
40 Hungary
41 43
United Kingdom 38
42 Slovenia
49 55
Ireland 33
40 Netherlands
41 52
Latvia 31
51
55
Lithuania 27
50 Belgium
36 60
Estonia 27
53 Denmark
33 59
Czech Republic 30
57 Slovakia
28 56
Italy 27
57 Finland
31 64
France 21
68 Greece
29 79
Germany 21
74 Luxembourg
19 74
Cyprus 16
80 Austria
11 80
EU-25 31
55
Source: Eurobarometer 64.2 2005.
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The table above shows that those who refuse the Turkeys accession is still more than those who support even in the country that their government already
declared its support for Turkey, for example United Kingdom. The reason of the rejection is the diversity of identity and their afraid of the amount of Turkish
population with its Muslim majority that they will be free to spread in all over the part of Europe.
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The main refusing countries of EU toward Turkish accession are Germany and France. Those both countries even offered
the “Privilaged Partnership” to Turkey instead of being an official member state of EU because they assumed that
130
Antonia M. and Joise I., European Public Opinion and Turkey‟s Accession, Making sanse of an Argument,
European Policy Institute Networks, Working Paper, no. 16, May 2007, p:8 http:www.ceps.eufilesbook1494.pdf
131
ibid, p: 13
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Turkey was not part of Europe, this was written in their declaration on 2009.
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The Privileged partnership offers no obvious new privileges to Turkey, even though it offers a member almost all pan-European organizations from the
Council of Europe to soccer leagues, and the member will in many ways get closer to the EU than any other non-member.
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Turkey vehemently rejected that option because they thought that they do more deserve to be EU member than
being partner of Europe. Then Erdogan himself was loudly rejecting that kind ofinvitation that was offered by the German and France. PM Erdogan said that the
Privilaged Partnership is not part of the EU terminology and he emphasized that the purpose of the talks is membership.
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In addition to the response of the government and the population of EU member states as described above, the EU Parliament and EU Commission stance
toward the Turkish accession also need to be discussed particularly in the case of negotiation process of 35 chapters of
Acquis communautaire
. In December 2004, the European Council stated that Turkey had sufficiently met the qualities of the
European democracy and made enough progress in legislative process, economic stability, and judicial reform to proceed with accession talks within a year. In the
aftermath of the Council‟s decision, the European Parliament voted
132
Saban Kardas ,
“Merkel and Sarkozy Call for Privileged Partnership Angers Turkey”, the Jamestown Foundation
, 1352009,
[online article],
available from:
http:www.jamestown.orgsingle?no_cache=1tx_ttnews5Btt_news5D=34983.U_RdIeOSxe8 , accessed
at: 882014
133
Hugh Pope , “
Privileged Partnership Offers Turkey neither Privilege nor Partnership- The EU-Turkey Cyprus Triangle
”,International Crisis Group, 23 Jun 2009, [online article], available from: http:www.crisisgroup.orgenregionseuropeturkey-cyprusturkeyprivileged-partnership-offers-turkey-neither-
privilege-nor-partnership.aspx , accessed at 1182014
134
“Erdogan urges Germany to support Turkey‟s EU accession”, Todays Zaman, 2822011, [online article], available from:http:www.worldaffairsjournal.orgcontenterdogan-rejects-call-privileged-partnership-between-
turkey-eu, accessed at 1282014
57
overwhelmingly to support the Council‟s decision to move forward with Turkey and they agreed to open the accession negotiation.
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In the negotiation process, 13 chapters of 35 “4-Free Movement of
Capital”, “6-Company Law”, “7-Intellectual Property Law”, “10-Information Society and Media”, “12-Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy”, “16-
Taxation”, “18-Statistics”, “20-Enterprise and Industrial Policy”, “21-Trans- European Networks”, “25-Science and Research”, “27-Environment”, “28-
Consumer and Health Protection”, “32-Financial Control” have been opened to negotiations so far and 1 of them “25-Science and Research” has been
provisionally closed. Another eight negotiation chapters “1-Free Movement of
Goods”, “3-Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services”, “9- Financial Services”, “11-Agriculture and Rural Development”, “13-Fisheries”,
“14-Transport Policy”, “29-Customs Union” and “30-External Relations” will not be opened until Turkey agrees to apply the additional protocol of the Ankara
Association Agreement to Cyprus.
136
By seeing this negotiation process, it can be concluded that the negotiation between the EU-Turkey run very slow compared to
Croatia which started negotiations in the same year with Turkey, in 2005, and has been completed in 2011
137
, while no more than 13 of 35 chapters of Turkey were opened until this year 2014. This situation occurred because the refusing
countries such as France and Greece tended to complicate the negotiation process by not opening the chapters of negotiation. In 2007 France has declared that it will
135
Burak Akcapar, Turkeys New European Era: Foreign Policy on the Road to EU Membership, Rowman Littlefields Publisher, UK: 2007, p: 12
136
European Commission, Enlargement-Turkey Membership Status , 2013 database on-line, available at: http:ec.europa.euenlargementcountriesdetailed-country-informationturkeyindex_en.htm
, accessed
at 1282014
137
European Commission, Enlargement-Croatia Membership Status , 2013 database on-line, available at: http:ec.europa.euenlargementcountriesdetailed-country-informationcroatiaindex_en.htm
. accessed
at 1282014
58
not allow the opening of negotiations on 5 chapters and Greek Cypriot Administration unilaterally stated that it would block the opening of 6 chapters. It
is a commitment of the EU to carry out the negotiations on chapters only on the basis of the relevant acquis.
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There was no chapter opened in 2011 and in 2012 the negotiation accession process was halt and changed by the
“Positive Agenda” proposed by EU commission to develop its Enlargement Strategy and to bring fresh dynamics into
EU-Turkey relations. The agenda was such as intensified dialogue and cooperation on political reforms, visa, mobility and migration, energy, fight
against terrorism, further participation of Turkey in Community programmes, town twinning, trade and the Customs Union, all issues included in the frozen
chapters of the Acquis. As a result of the Working Groups meetings that was held on 17 May 2012 in Ankara with the participation of Stefan Füle, EU
Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, a total of four closing benchmarks were confirmed to have been met by Turkey in three
chapters.
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Those are the positive and negative responses of EU toward Turkish accession. The negative response have been often felt by Turkey since the accession process
begun particularly before the PM Erdogan leadership because in fact there were many EU actors attempt to block Turkish accession by any kind of reasons.
However, in addition to negative response, the EU Commission also gave a lot of positive response to assist the Turkish accession process especially in Erdogan era,
among those are by optimizing cooperation between Turkey and the European
138
Republic of Turkey-Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Turkey-EU Relations
139
Vincent Morelli, “European Union Enlargement: A Status Report on Turkey‟s Accession Negotiations”, p: 11
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Union through the Positive Agenda offered by EU. But we need to review the real Turkeys goal from this accession. What Turkey purposes from this accession is the
recognition of its existence in European Continent and being the permanent member of European Union. Then the “Positive Agenda” of EU for Turkey is not actually
enough because if Turkey only expects to intensify its relation with EU, Turkey might have accepted the offer o
f “Privileged Partnership” from Germany and France but it did not happen. Then, although there were some positive response from the
European Union toward the Turkish accession such as support, the opening of negotiations, and intensifying cooperation; over all, the response of EU to the
accession of Turkey remains relatively slow during Erdogan leadership compared to the other countries, but at least a lot of progress also happened in theTurkish
accession during the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan with his AKP party compared to the Turkeys previous government.
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CHAPTER IV
The Analysis of Turkey’s Foreign Policy and Its Motive to Become EU Member
What has been done by Turkey‟s Government in the last 12 years has raised Turkeys name among the world talks. Turkey has owned almost all things needed
by countries in the world; a strong and stable econ omy and also strong military defense. Since 2003 Turkey has been controlled by the AKP Party with Prime
Minister Erdogan and since the time Turkeys economy began to soar up. In 2009 this country was in crisis but the government could recover it by only one year
and finally from 2010 up to the day they can maintain the economic stability. In addition, in 2010 up to 2013, Turkeys role in the world politics was very
prominent and influential and its relation with the superpower countries was intense. It can be seen from Turkeys proximity by the US and also China and
Russia. These things make this country as one of the influential countries in the world politics circulation.
The Turkeys maturity does not make this country shaky to keep pursuing the status of EU membership that has been fought since 51 years ago. Although it
was the longest time to wait for the official status, Turkey remains in his stand for it. It was proved by the statements of the President, the Prime Minister, as well as
the Turkish elites that said that they would not give up in the accession process. In addition, the negotiations with EU member countries made by Turkey for the sake
of official status also describe the Turkeys consistency for the accession. In this case, the decision to follow the pattern and keep pursuing an official status of
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European Union is Turkeys foreign policy toward the EU. And in this chapter the Turkeys foreign policy will be analyzed.
A. The Determinant Factors Of Foreign Policy Of Turkey In Maintaining Its
Kategori