[A-List] Turkey: conciliatory response to Giscard

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Erdogan refuses to rise to anti-Turkish bait
By Leyla Boulton in Ankara
Financial Times: November 11 2002

A new broom is sweeping Ankara. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the party
set to form a new government, countered an attack on Turkey's bid to join
the European Union with the sort of moderation that promises to cast Turkish
foreign policy in a new light, and he has not yet taken office.

The assault came from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the head of the European
Convention charged with drawing up a new European constitution. The former
French president railed against Turkey, whose membership would, he said,
represent "the end of the European Union".

"[Turkey's] capital is not in Europe," Mr Giscard d'Estaing opined, "95 per
cent of its population is outside Europe, it is not a European country."

Turkey's more established politicians, who have long had a near-monopoly on
power, rose to the bait. Mesut Yilmaz, the outgoing deputy prime minister,
called for Mr Giscard d'Estaing's resignation.

Ali Tekin, who like Mr Yilmaz, represents Turkey at Mr Giscard d'Estaing's
convention, described the ageing French conservative as a "Christian
fundamentalist".

Mr Erdogan had every reason to react even more strongly. He is a former
Islamist, whose Justice and Development party (AKP) won an electoral
landslide eight days ago. He was convicted, in 1998, for inciting hatred on
religious grounds after he recited a well-known poem comparing minarets to
bayonets. This bars him from becoming prime minister until parliament
revises laws banning him from politics.

Instead, however, Mr Erdogan brushed aside the criticism of Turkey as
"emotion". He was such a picture of calm that it was Mr Giscard d'Estaing
who was made to seem the firebrand.

The comments came weeks before the Copenhagen summit, and caused an outcry
within the EU against Mr Giscard d'Estaing. As Pat Cox, the president of the
European Parliament, put it, "the moment is particularly sensitive".

The dispute over the divided island of Cyprus looms ahead of Copenhagen. As
EU leaders plan at the summit to admit 10 members, including Cyprus, the
United Nations is in a race against time to reunite the island's Greek and
Turkish Cypriot communities.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, is expected on Monday to submit the
draft of a compromise settlement for Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to
consider.

Both Turkey, as the only country to recognise and support the self-declared
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Greece, the champion of the Greek
Cypriots inside the EU, have a vital role to play.

Greece, which is also working to advance Turkey's candidacy, has threatened
to veto other new EU members unless Cyprus is also admitted. The EU has said
it will admit Cyprus after taking "all relevant factors into account".

The UN's plan will put pressure on both sides to avoid being the spoiling
party.

In refusing to be provoked by Mr Giscard d'Estaing, Mr Erdogan was no doubt
influenced by his experience in Turkish politics.

Measured calm, he has found, is the best way to parry attacks from his
influential opponents at home - including General Huseyin Kivrikoglu, the
former chief of general staff who earlier this year suggested that Mr
Erdogan was lying about having abandoned his Islamist past and was therefore
not fit to run the country.

Mr Erdogan has adopted a conciliatory approach to keep his domestic
detractors at bay.

"We have no time for political hostilities," he told his deputies. "You must
not do anything at all that will disturb society. I believe that nothing
unpleasant will occur in the AKP parliament," he said.

Mr Erdogan's win of almost two-thirds of the seats in parliament also helps.
AKP is likely to rule Turkey for a full five-year term, after a decade of
ineffectual coalitions. This means Mr Erdogan may feel less need to respond
to every slight. He has more to gain from focusing on Turkey's objective of
joining the EU.

"People like Giscard are sent there to try Turkey. Erdogan's response shows
he is not going to rise to every aggressively anti-Turkish opinion,
especially if it comes from someone who will not take the decision as to
whether Turkey joins or not," says one EU diplomat. "

On Friday Mr Erdogan embarks on a tour of European capitals, starting with
Rome, followed by Athens and Madrid, to press Turkey's case for a timetable
for EU entry.

His less threatening approach to EU criticism may be just what is needed to
win friends in Europe and whatever Mr Giscard d'Estaing might say, win a
date for Turkey to begin discussions about yoking its destiny to EU.