Albawaba.com
Ankara
Turkey has told the European Union to avoid another crisis by keeping off "sensitive issues" in a key document that will be released soon to guide the country into the European bloc.
Turkey has been insisting that the wording of the Accession Partnership Accord - to be announced on November 8 - should not refer to the Cyprus dispute and Turkish-Greek problems beyond the Helsink summit accord of last December.
The Helsinki document, issued at the end of a summit meeting of EU countries, said Ankara is a fully-fledged candidate, equal to all other candidates. But it demanded that the Cyprus problem and Turkish-Greek problems be resolved by the year 2004 when the EU summit would review developments.
According to Turkish official sources, widely quoted over the past week in many Turkish newspapers, the Foreign Ministry undersecretary, Faruk Logoglu, in recent contacts has strongly conveyed to the European Commission that Ankara wants "a clean sheet."
That means the Cyprus dispute, problems over the Aegean Sea, and many other bilateral issues, should not be addressed in detail in the Accession Partnership Accord.
The Turks believe it would be wise merely to refer to these topics in the same terms as the Helsinki summit. Turkish officials say specific references to thorny issues strain relations between Turkey and the European Commission.
The accord is one of the basic documents defining relations between candidates on the way to membership and Ankara wants it to be free of troublesome issues, Turkish officials say.
Another topic raised by the Turkish side in talks with EU Commission executives has been the way the eastern Kurdish problem has been referred to. "Reducing regional imbalances" would be an acceptable formula for Ankara, but terms like "minority rights" or "the Kurdish problem" would create tensions in Turkey and potentially harm the entire process, officials say.
Diplomatic sources say Ankara has not asked the EU Commission to praise Turkey, just to produce a fair document that would not be a source of friction in years to come. Foreign Minister Ismail Cem has already told his colleagues twice that the document being drafted should be one that would facilitate the talks between the EU and Turkey rather than impede them.
The commission has voiced its concerns too. Officials say the EU has stated in recent Brussels talks that if the Turkish government strongly backs a human rights report aimed at ending human rights abuses in Turkey, that was prepared by a commission assigned by the Turkish Prime Ministry, it would be much easier for the EU Commission to refer to that thorny issue in its presentations to the EU bodies.
The commission reportedly has also stated that the role of the military-dominated National Security Council (MGK) in Turkish politics should be rearranged so the council would be similar to those of EU member countries. The EU has long been critical of the role of the MGK in Turkish politics. Foreign Minister Cem, who will meet the European Commission on September 19, will tell the commission that the Cyprus dispute and Turkish-Greek problems should not be addressed in detail in the accord, since they would always have the potential to overshadow lengthy negotiations between Ankara and the commission. Cem will also meet with the group leaders of the European Parliament.
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