Yesterday evening the Young Fabians organised an event at the Turkish Embassy entitled “Cold Turkey? Is the EU dream dead?” – details of the event here. More than 60 people came along to the immensely grand residence of the Turkish ambassador to London, and heard him give an introduction defending why Turkey’s membership of the EU would be a benefit to the country and to the EU as a whole. The other speakers broadly agreed with the Ambassador on the need for Turkish accession.
Yet it was Gordon Marsden MP, while defending accession, who caused the most controversy. He raised the inevitable question of the Armenian genocide and whether the Turkish state will accept that it happened. The Ambassador’s reaction showed just how far Turkey is going to have to go with respect to its EU accession, bristling with anger at the accusation and becoming somewhat snappy in his manner towards the serene and unflappable Marsden.
This reflects the frustrations that UK government negotiators felt in the autumn of last year when negotiations between the EU and Turkey were due to open – the ability of Turkish ministers to be a bit too confrontational, a bit too abrasive, and hence cause offence when there was no substantive disagreement. Let’s hope these corners are smoothed over the next decade as negotiations proceed.
[UPDATE – 20.07.06]
Seems that the EU’s cool attitude towards Turkey is getting the population a little hot under the collar. Not really a surprise… See comments from Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in this BBC article. One does wonder whether the Turkish population is going to have the stomach for long and protracted negotiations with the EU…
Hi, I happened to be present at the debate too! I was a little discomforted, as someone who does not support the Turkish inclusion in the EU, when I discovered that none of the speakers was actually against the Turkish entry.
The explanation, given to me by the organisers, was revealing: the Turks would not host anyone who does not agree with them. Apparently, they were not even glad that Gordon Marsden MP was on the pannel; he signed the early day motion demanding Turkey to accept the Armenian genocide!
Robert, the “absorption principle” is not so recent. As a matter of fact, it is the last (often conveniently forgotten) Copenhagen criteria…
The recent ‘absorbtion principle’ is worth considering as regards Turkey – does anyone have any idea what percentage of structural funds would be diverted to them? It’s a serious question as other countries wouldn’t necessarily suddenly become ‘less needy’ but relative to Turkey may well seem so.
Also, IMHO, Turkey cannot join until it seriously improves its human rights record and, most importantly, agrees to recognise Cyprus in all aspects. After all, the idea that one EU member state could refuse to acknowledge the very existance of another is totally absurd and any ‘fix’ by leaders to try to get around this would seriously damage the basic principles of the EU.