EURODIALOGUE
Journal of International Relations, European, Economic and Social Studies
The Turkish narrative is the following: • How is the European Union, for the sake of a small country of half a million people like Cyprus, allowing paralysis of the accession negotia tions with a country of 65 million people, a regional power with so many achievements (as stated above) whose accession will carry with it all the aforementioned? • How is the RoC allowed to block the participation of Turkey, the largest NATO army in Europe and a Member of the Alliance, in the European Defence Agency? • Turkey also complains that in the accession process they are treated unfairly, very differently than Croatia who will soon join, or countries like Romania and Bulgaria. • It maintains that if the EU were sincere in wanting to see Turkey joining the EU, they should bypass these obstacles, and the ball is in the hands of the EU. The answers If the argument about half a million people and 65 million people is valid then why must a nation of 65 million people and a regional power with so many achievements go through such trouble in its stance towards the RoC and the Ankara Protocol for the sake of 100,000 Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus? The true argument here is that the EU functions on principles and has to fully observe the rules of the Customs Union agreement and the need to extend the Ankara Protocol to all its member states without exception. How come the largest army in NATO was put in a second place by NATO interests? just by blocking the political dialogue with the EU because the RoC will be sitting at the table on the EU side, while at the intergovernmental conference in the accession negotiations the RoC sits there anyway? With regard to the prospect of the accession of Turkey, the EU remains an outward looking Union, treating all countries with European aspirations which fulfil the Copenhagen criteria and wish to join in the same way. The candidate country must fulfil the acquis and show that it is implementing it. The Union must also be prepared to absorb a given enlargement both institutionally, economically and politically. Croatia is a small country comTurkey on the European doorstep
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