“If Turkey were to join the European Union today it would have a better economy than that of 22 of the current 28 member countries”. Word of Volkan bozkir, Turkish minister for European affairs and chief negotiator for Ankara's entry into the EU.
“We are ready to open negotiations on tomorrow chapters 23 and 24 (relating to the judicial system, fundamental rights, freedom and security, ed): if they are not yet open it is because Europe did not want to”, added Bozkir, speaking today in Rome for a seminar organized by the Istituto Affari Internazionali.
The minister confirms the same availability also with regard to the chapter 15, which concerns thethe energy, a matter on which "we have already demonstrated our credibility as a partner". As for the Tap, the trans-Adriatic gas pipeline that should bring Azeri gas to Puglia passing through Turkey, Bozkir confirms that this is a strategically important project for Ankara as well.
As for the new pipeline project Turkish Stream, which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched during a visit to Turkey, burying the South Stream forever, Bozkir does not accept the reading of an anti-EU pact. “Turkey needs and will need even more energy. If Russia wants to give us gas, we'll take it. Then the rest is up to Europe”. On the other hand, he assures himself, the idea is all-Russian: "Until Putin announced it at a press conference on December 2014, XNUMX, we knew nothing about it".
In general terms, according to the minister, "in recent years Turkey has become an economically strong country (with a GDP equal to about 20 billion dollars and an export of about 7 billion) and has launched many political reforms, turning into one democratic society”, to the point of being able to claim to be “the only 99% Muslim country governed democratically and open to the free market”.
On the freedom of expression front, however, it is today's news that two cartoonists of the satirical magazine "Penuen" were sentenced to 14 months in prison for having "offended" the Turkish Islamic president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a sentence later changed for good behavior into a fine of around 2.800 euros.
Furthermore, according to a complaint by the opposition to Erdogan also documented by the New York Times, the censorship Presidential elections are hitting sites that are atheist or considered blasphemous with ever greater severity, such as that of Charlie Hebdo, which has been blocked, while web pages that preach Jihad and argue theIsis.
Erdogan has been repeatedly accused of having helped the armed groups of Isis and Al Qaeda in Syria with the intention of replacing the regime of Bashar al Assad with a Sunni government of the Muslim Brotherhood, but in recent weeks, under US pressure, Ankara has announced stricter controls on the borders with Syria and at airports.
Confirming the tension that reigns in the country, last night in Istanbul a bomb exploded outside the offices of the Islamic magazine "Adimlar", killing one person and injuring three. The attack comes 2 and a half months from Turkish general electionscheduled for June 7.
The question of still remains open Cyprus, an island divided into two: the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot Republic and a member of the Eurozone, and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey. Ankara, according to Bozkir, "wants to resolve the situation as soon as possible", but the game has now been open for over 50 years.
In Turkey's domestic and foreign political framework, therefore, there is no shortage of factors that hinder the country's accession to the EU. The negotiation has begun in 1959, when the country applied for membership of the European Economic Community, and it doesn't look set to close anytime soon. “If, in the end, the answer is no – concluded the minister – the greatest damage will be for Europe, not for Turkey. We have no alternatives, but we don't need to. Our problem is being able to enter Europe, but that doesn't mean we'd have problems staying out."
