The New Anatolian

OPINION

Tuesday 06th of January 2009 06:17:47 AM GMT+2

Yes Turkey delayed reforms, but did EU help?

The Erdogan government stalled reforms in the past few years. However, the EU did nothing really to help the flourishing democracy of Turkey while it helped the fragile democratic systems of Greece, Spain and Portugal in the past...

Ilnur Cevik

07 April 2008

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ilnurcevik@yahoo.com

The Turkish government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan made an excellent effort in the first two years in office legislating sweeping reforms that won applause by the European Union.

However, the momentum came to a halt in 2004 and in the past few years the pace has been sluggish. This has drawn complaints from the EU…

We agree with the EU officials that the Erdogan government with its parliamentary majority could have done much more than it has. As a matter of fact more reforms would have meant that the ruling Justice and Development (AK_ Party may have never ended up in the current situation where the judiciary is challenging it with the threat of closure.

It is clear that the judiciary, thanks to the crooked system, can transform itself into a legislative power and threaten AK Party. The judiciary is unfortunately sidelining the elected parliament which is a great shame. A revamped constitution and reforms could have prevented this.

However, we also feel that the EU is also at fault.

The EU has only been stalling Turkish aspirations to join as a full member.

Turkey keeps facing obstacles from EU member states of all kinds which is a great shame.

Let us remember that Greece, Portugal and Spain were accepted as full members in to the EU to bolster their fragile democratic systems. Turkey has been denied this.

The EU should have accelerated the process to include Turkey in the Union simply to bolster our flourishing democracy. But instead Turkey has been that unjustly treated.

The EU officials should do some soul searching.

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