Turkey claims EU ignored calls for talks on Kurd crisis

Date: 29/01/1998

By Mark Turner

TURKEY has hit back at EU demands for more cooperation over the Kurdish refugee crisis, claiming it has repeatedly called for dialogue in the past and been studiously ignored.

Ankara's EU ambassador Uluç Özülker said that even when Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem tried to warn his Italian counterpart Lamberto Dini of the imminent crisis in Strasbourg last November, "he didn't want to know".

This, claimed the ambassador, was typical of the Union's response to Turkish calls for more dialogue. "I have written to every EU presidency since 1996 and asked for a justice and home affairs meeting," Özülker told European Voice this week. "I never received a reply. They did not want to meet with us."

The ambassador's attack followed calls by EU foreign ministers for increased dialogue with Ankara to cope with the recent flood of Kurdish and other refugees from Iraq and Turkey.

"The EU recognises that a key element in tackling the problem is to establish effective cooperation with the Turkish government, given that most of the migrants transit Turkey or originate from Turkey," foreign ministers said in a statement after discussing a 46-point action plan to deal with the crisis this week.

Interior ministers are expected to endorse the plan, which demands the "development of an action-oriented dialogue with the government of Turkey", tomorrow (30 January).

Council of Ministers' sources admit that interior ministries have been reluctant to hold meetings with Turkey and other third countries in the past, fearing that such encounters would take up too much time and produce few results.

They have instead reserved outside meetings for eastern European applicants for EU membership and restricted cooperation with Turkey to discussions on drug trafficking in the Balkans.

This has infuriated Ankara, which was promised that it would be able to attend meetings of the Union's high-ranking justice and home affairs K4 Committee in its 1995 EU customs union.

A British official said she was aware that letters had been sent by Turkey in the past, and did not rule out some kind of meeting with Ankara in the future. But no joint K4 meeting has yet been scheduled during the UK's six-month presidency of the Union.

What London is offering, however, is a seat at the European Conference to be launched in March. That would provide a forum where the EU, its ten eastern European applicants, Turkey and Cyprus could discuss foreign and home affairs policy.

But as things stand, Turkey is still refusing to attend. "We are ready to cooperate, but we do not need to cooperate in special fora. Instead of meeting with us in K4, they want special groups, ad hoc meetings this is not conceivable," insisted Özülker .

He said Turkey would only attend the conference if it was offered a place at the official launch of the enlargement process and a pre-accession partnership.

The EU and Turkey's apparent failure to cooperate on immigration, even when both sides want dialogue, highlights the low point to which relations have sunk over the past 12 months. Ever since European Christian Democrat leaders suggested last spring that Turkey could never join the Union, contacts have steadily disintegrated, culminating in Turkey's decision last December to halt political dialogue.

Ankara is furious that, despite signing an Association Agreement with the EEC in 1964 which confirmed Turkey's long-term eligibility for membership, it is being excluded from the enlargement process.

Meanwhile, says Özülker, his country is losing 9 billion ecu a year to the Union under the customs union and receives none of the support it was promised in 1995. "It is true that Turkey has homework to do on human rights," he said. "But let us start at the same line and differentiate afterwards. Let the other countries see our performance."