Berlin is Cold

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Gül had made a 24 hours visit to Germany this week. Also, in the evening of April 15, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet with Angela Merkel in Hannover because of the opening of the Hannover Fair.

The first 90 days of the rotating presidency of Germany had been completed. During this 90 days, the European Union’s approach on Turkey was very cold. The pourparler had been held in one subject, but resulting of these pourparler are tied to Turkey’s approach on the Southern Cyprus. All of these subjects had been discussed in the Antalya Riva Diva Hotel at the end of March. In the Riva Diva Hotel, which is a property of GTI Travel and Kayı Group, more than 25 German journalists discussed together with the Turkish experts and journalists about the relations between Turkey and the European Union. As a result, while the German experts do not agree on that Turkey will not harmonize perfectly to the EU, making another forward step, one of the consultants of Merkel, Prof. Dr. Gerd Langguth defended the argument of “There are big problems in the harmony of the Turks in Germany, when we approach this progress from the micro angle also in the macro angle it will be very difficult for Turkey to reconcile and to harmonize with the EU”. Having the social democracy trend of Germany, Frankfurter Rundschau Journal foreign affairs editor, Edgar Auth and internal affairs editor of WAZ Journal, Lutz Heuken were at the head of the list of the German journalists, who are against this topic.

Turkey must not make any mistake. Although there are politicians and press members, who are having a very cold aproach to the full membership of Turkey to the EU, the number of the people, who are not thinking in this way is not limited. This situation reminds the German’s interest to the Turkey in the touristic field. While 72% of the German people have never been in Turkey, 28% of the German people are spending their holidays in Turkey with a great passion every year. The approach is almost the same with the German aproach to Turkey’s full membership. While 32% of the German people keep a warm prospect of Turkey’s membership, 55% of the German people are against this idea.

If the German Prime Minister, Merkel, who edges into the world politics with each passing day, beside making the dissentient congressionalists retire from politics, also get along well in winning recognition from the world politicians, heading Bush, Turkey will again come across with a German government with the presidency of Merkel in the second term of the road to the EU.

“To love from a far distance is the best love”

Merkel is a total hardliner in the Cyprus Policy. Unfortunately, the European countries, thinking that Turkey will not take a role in the EU without getting to the bottom of this case, started to use the 600 thousands populated Southern Cyprus as a serious trump against Turkey. Nobody thinks of the promises given to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The ex-Commissioner for Enlargement in the EU, Günter Verheugen’s mistake has been forgotten and the Southern Cyprus has entered to the position of a country, which has a full say on a matter. The respectful members of Turkish Press reflected the view of Germany over this subject perfectly to the Turkish Press in the symposium, which had been organized together with the Foundation Center for Turkish Studies and GTI Travel in the Riva Diva Hotel.

The Turkey Policy of Germany continues with the philosophy of “to love from a far distance is the best love”. Germany, with a population of 2 millions and 700 thousands of Turks living and heading the first country in the import and export of Turkey since 1984, have a very cold aproach to the membership of Turkey at the moment. However, we can not know how the facts will change in the future of world politics. A possible attack of US to Iran and the new progress in the Iraq may suddenly put Turkey in the agenda of the EU. The date of January 1, 2014 is completely a dream, when it is looked from the current perspective.