| FROM CHIEF | Murat SARAYLI |
| Chairman of the Board of TUGIAD/Confedereration of Young European Businessmen (YES) |
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TURKEY-EU RELATIONS, TASK AND RESPONSIBILITIES |
As in any environment, the precondition for achievement in the international platforms also is the data centric defended ideas.
Therefore, for Turkey, which is at the most critical crossroads of its history, the need for the information going upwards on a base constituted of its geography, history, social structure and its local values that can be globalized has increased more then ever. This information shall enable us to be realistic and rationalistic on one side and it shall also enrich our individual and national prospects on the other side. Today we really need such kind of information. Because, we have to prepare ourselves for the fact that the negotiation which is foreseen to be started with the European Union in 2005 might continue in an almost endless way.
On the other hand, it should not be ignored that EU is in a constant state of negotiation with both the candidate members located in the enlargement perspective and the existing members. In a sense, it is not possible for a country to stay outside of the negotiation of the union no matter what its status is. With this state of being, EU is almost a Union of Negotiations. Therefore, we should be more cold-blooded concerning the issue of negotiation and not ignore the data centric status mentioned above. Because, the communication which started upon an agreement at a supra-national status between Turkey and EEC 42 years ago with the full-membership perspective, although it contains serious question marks in the process up to now, the full membership target is still on the way.
Turkey should manage the negotiation process laying before by receiving contribution from every indidivual located in the country government and deep in the society with a data centric patience and cool-headedness and being aware of the fact that its acceptors also went through similar processes. In one corner of this conscious, the observation that the acceptors with whom Turkey undergoes the process have gained abilities beyond specialization in developing tactics and strategies for the issue, in preparing written texts, should be recorded.
Within this process, disinformation and misleading should be avoided as much as possible. In the creating of the objective information needed for this, the existing situation concerning access to the necessary data inside and outside of the country, analyzing these data and sharing them with the related people should be detected; precautions should be taken for the elimination of shortcomings, if any. On the other hand, it should not be ignored that EU in addition to Turkey has responsibilities to fulfill, either. Because, Turkey also has rights resulting from international agreements but which are not allowed to be used. These rights can only be acquired and they can be used by individual acceptors as a result of cases won through legal processes. Therefore, the businessmen and business organizations in Turkey should first of all study once again the texts that constitute the basis of the law of partnership with the EU, employers living in Turkey and abroad, self-employed and all the related people should be informed on the scope and functions of these legal texts. Within this framework, the resolutions taken by the European Community Supreme Court of Justice should be closely followed up. As a matter of fact, the decisions taken by the Supreme Court of Justice up to now concerning Abdülnasir Savaş, Ömer Nazlı, Abatay/Şahin, Hayriye Eroğlu, Ahmet Bozkurt, Selma Kadiman, Selma Sürül and colored television should be analyzed.
Contents of the articles 36/1 and 41/1 of the 1970 annexed protocol drafted for substantiating the Ankara Agreement and the article no. 13 of the 1/80 Partnership Council Resolution point out the same thing. With the annexed protocol, the ‘stanstill’, that is the ‘irrevocability of rights’ has been taken under assurance. However, as in the Visa Application example, this assurance has not become functional. Therefore, the responsibility for detecting that the rights which are owned have been illegally revoked and for taking the initiatives necessary for reclaiming them is of course in priority on the part of the party whose rights have been taken away. However, not enough effort has been made in this issue. This principle is a fact.
I would like to share on this occasion my worry that a country which does not fulfill the necessity of this fact that is also found in the basic culture of the European Union and which cannot develop functional mechanisms might not be able to manage the negotiation process with success. Within this framework, Turkey should quickly strip herself out of the psychology of a country that is questioned and it should relate to its acceptors with an data centric stand that it is not Turkey but the European Union which does not do the homework. Turkey should now also question, determine an attitude aware and possessive of its rights and it should maintain this attitude with no concessions. Following the 17 December Summit, there have not only been any new prospects concerning the rights but it has also unfortunately been observed that there are limitations on the free circulation of the citizens of the Republic of Turkey. The same condition is also at stake for our agricultural products. Social Europe and Citizens Perpspective has been disregarded.
To sum up, there is a progress from the perspective geared towards full membership with the 1963 Ankara Agreement and 1970 Annexed Protocol to a membership emptied inside and this situation must raise worries. Because the recent approaches taken by the EU, have once again demonstrated Turkey’s obligation to know its rights and follow them up. Therefore, Turkey should create its own data pool for its memory and it should devise a management model for the negotiation which is data centric. Italy is an appropriate example for this issue. In Italy, the model that was formed under the control of public sector and with the participation of the non-governmental organizations should be carefully examined and what is necessary should be done. Having a foreign trade volume of which a great part is with the European Union which has amounted to 150 billion dollars and more than 5 million citizens living in nearly 40 countries with the majority being the EU countries, Turkey has to follow up its rights abroad. This obligation is under the responsibility of the public sector as well as the non-governmental organizations.
