From the Bosphorus: Straight - Growing frustration at EU incompetence

News-meeting discussions at the Hürriyet Daily News among the skeleton crew working over the holiday and again yesterday offered a window onto Turkey’s growing frustration with the European Union.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could just tell [Enlargement Commissioner] Olli Rehn and the....” and then the verbs and adjectives are not suitable for publishing.

The discussion then went on with a tone of “what’s the alternative?” to this mind-bending debate of closed chapters, port access and the “Ankara protocol” of 2004. Yes, Turkey could throw in the towel, surrender to the short-term mindsets of the leaderships of France and Germany. Yes, Turkey could heed the siren call of much tighter economic ties with an emergent Russia or a common currency union with Iraq, Syria and Iran.

So as Greek Cyprus and its allies in the EU issue new ultimatums that Turkish ports must open to Greek Cyprus shipping, the temptation to simply call the EU on its cards is growing. If we feel this temptation in the newsroom of the most pro-EU newspaper in Turkey, it is a good indicator of the mood in less dispassionate places.

Do we think there is room for thoughtful diplomacy from the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot sides, despite the dilemmas of looming elections on the island and the weak mandate of President Mehmet Ali Talat? Of course. A symbolic reduction of Turkish troop levels on the island should scare no one. There are territories on the Turkish side, unoccupied since 1974, when the military junta in Greece instigated the war and division (why do we always have to remind the world of this historical tidbit?), that might be put on the table.

Curtailment of development and property sales in the north to retirees from Yorkshire might also build confidence.

Do we think the credibility of the island’s Turks would be enhanced had they not flocked en masse to take out Republic of Cyprus passports in recent years on the promise of enhanced retirement benefits and visa-free travel? We do. But we also think that there are ways that leadership and skillful diplomacy could carry the dialogue from the simplistic clash of parallel victimhood narratives that currently paralyzes the process.

Yes, our signature on the 2004 protocol obligates Turkey to open its ports to Greek Cypriot shipping. But everyone knows what deal in the anteroom enabled this signature: EU efforts to revive a version of the stillborn Annan Plan and an easing of the de facto economic blockage on Turkish Cyprus, perhaps even the occasional direct flight.

Rehn and his colleagues have done nothing in this regard. Zero.

There are comparable issues: Gibraltar, the Croatia-Slovenia border, the Czech Republic’s “Benes Decrees” of 1948. But it is Cyprus that has become the locus of EU bungling and incompetence. It is also the locus of our growing frustration with Brussels.