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Bilkent Professors on the
European Union Accession of Turkey |
In other words, Turkey's real problems in its relations with Europe were
domestically rooted. Turkey was a poor, underdeveloped and overpopulated, and politically
unstable Muslim country where authoritarian and militaristic tendencies manifested
themselves in public life.
Democratically elected Turkish governments strived to achieve membership in the EEC/EU
against the odds that these structural disadvantages placed in front of them. Therefore, I
believe that we, as Turkish citizens, owe these visionary statesmen special thanks, for
first initiating the process and later sustaining it against these formidable odds. The
first visionary was Prime Minister İsmet İnönü, who, true to the world view of Atatürk,
initiated the relationship. Prime Ministers Süleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit sustained
and developed it through the explosive decades of the 1960s and 1970s, when Turkey was
extensively destabilized by the violent struggle between the so-called ‘Fascist’ and
‘Communist’ poles. Prime Minister Turgut Özal revived the relationship by formally
submitting Turkey's application for membership in 1987. Prime Minister Tansu Çiller's
government presided over the Customs Union's completion in 1996. It was as a result of the
diplomatic and political strategies of Prime Ministers Mesut Yılmaz and Bülent Ecevit
that Turkey was awarded candidacy status at the Helsinki Presidency Summit in 1999. Two
key elements of that strategy were the commitment to radical internal reform and the
pledge to resolve the Aegean and Cyprus issues. Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdoğan's
government took further bold steps to realize significant reforms in the Turkish political
and legal systems, and to reach an agreement on the Cyprus issue. The next critical phase
will begin to unfold on December 18.
A 10-15 year process of very difficult negotiations will begin on the date to be announced
on December 17. But even then membership is not a sure thing. It is of the utmost
importance for the Turkish side to be extremely well-prepared and competent so that
Turkish interests can be firmly secured.”
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