No EU Bid For AKP

I had accompanied Daniel Cohn-Bendit when he visited Ankara. Our talks were mainly about Turkey's relations with the European Union. At that time, the Welfare Party (RP) had been shut down only recently. Recai Kutan, the chairman of the Virtue Party (FP), established in place of the RP, as well as several FP deputies including Abdullah Gül and Bülent Arınç had received us. Kutan made brief remarks concerning the ties with the EU.

"As you know, our former party, now-defunct Welfare Party, was against Turkey's membership with the EU. At the time, we believed our membership with the EU would isolate Turkey from the Muslim world and the Middle East. However, the Virtue Party adopts a different position and lends support to the EU process for two reasons. The first one is the freedom of religion. It is satisfactory for us to see that freedom of religion, cherished in Europe, is valid also in Turkey. We believe that we can settle this basic problem with the EU membership.
“The second reason is about democracy. We have come to realize that even if we win elections in Turkey we are not allowed to rule the country properly without a truly democratic system. We see and support the country's EU bid as a democratization process," Kutan said.
After a while, the postmodern coup of Feb. 28, 1997, came and the FB, too, was shut down and the headscarf ban was implemented in the strictest sense. In those years, the EU bid was applauded as a glimmer of hope for former RP politicians. This applied also to the Justice and Development Party (AKP), coming from the same tradition, and the EU membership process started to be treated with seriousness and this continued after the AKP's election victory in 2002.
As you can see, Kutan's perspective on the EU does not have any economic justification. After it came to power unexpectedly, the AKP soon discovered the very raison d'être of the EU, i.e., its economic aspects. Thus, those AKP politicians, like Ali Babacan, who grasped the importance of the EU for Turkey's economic future were added to those who see it as the path to freedom of religion and democracy. This economy-oriented group was not very influential within the party, but they were important for the "Anatolian Tigers," i.e., the businessmen who are close to the AKP. Thus, the anti-EU former RP politicians became thoroughly marginalized within the AKP.
This political equilibrium, which had once given impetus to the EU membership, is no longer extant. Influential AKP politicians close to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan believe that the country's freedom of religion problem has been solved and, therefore, the EU is no longer needed as a facilitator on the road to true governance of the country. More important, they reckon they have already overcome all obstacles to such governance. The AKP politicians who see democracy as a "tool" or as something consisting only of elections have started to see EU norms as obstacles. They don't consider it a problem that freedom of religion in Turkey is still way below the criteria set by the EU. Furthermore, they see even the Constitution of Sept. 12, 1980, as an obstacle for their anti-democratic practices. Excessive powers and authorities and immunity for the police, not fundamental rights and freedoms, are on the AKP's agenda.
They don't see the common willpower for democratization and the EU process, and it was this willpower that carried the AKP to power, secured the backing of the voter base of the True Path Party (DYP) and the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN), foiled the coup attempts and rendered the AKP's closure impossible. It seems that with power intoxication, they intend to implement the RP's project, which was backed by 10 percent of the society at most. A cursory look at the European Commission's 2014 progress report or the set of laws annulled by the Constitutional Court for the last six months is enough to show us how the current road the AKP is walking on is not leading to democracy. The AKP no longer cares about the EU bid. Their alienation from the EU project can hardly be attributed to the economic aspects.
A similar policy is in force regarding relations with Brussels. Since January, no bill has been prepared taking into consideration the EU acquis. EU institutions have not even been informed about them, either. Why do you think the EU does not burn its bridges with Turkey despite so many efforts to breach not only the EU norms, but also the Constitution of the Turkish Republic? It just does not want to be the party that severs ties and has to pay the price. With the AKP, Turkey is once again an Eastern country whose "strategic importance" is decisive. Turkey can return to the democracy and EU process only by overcoming the AKP, just as it did with the Feb. 28 process.

ALİ YURTTAGÜL (Cihan/Today's Zaman)