Merkel: Tyrkia kan ikke bli medlem av EU

Angela Mer­kel er ikke skugge­redd. Det første hun sa da hun kom til Ankara var at Tyr­kia ikke kan bli et full­sten­dig med­lem av EU, men må nøye seg med en pri­vi­li­gert part­ner­skap. Tyr­kerne føler det som en ydmy­kelse og fornærmelse.

- Spil­lets reg­ler er for­and­ret, sa Mer­kel. Hun viser mer karak­ter og fast­het enn sine mann­lige kol­le­ger i EU, en egen­skap tys­kerne set­ter stor pris på, jfr. hyl­les­ten av Hel­m­uth Schmidt på 80-årsdagen.

Mer­kel kan stille makt bak sine ord: Tysk­land er Tyr­kias største han­dels­part­ner, største inves­tor, største turist­gruppe og det bor tre mil­lio­ner tyr­kere i Tyskland.

Men tyr­kerne føler deres ære er kren­ket, og regje­rin­gen under Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan spil­ler en sta­dig mer ambi­siøs uten­riks­po­li­tikk, hvor Tyr­kia ser seg selv som bro­byg­ger mel­lom Øst og Vest, dvs. man utpres­ser Vest med Øst.

On every impor­tant issue, Chan­cel­lor Mer­kel and Tur­kish Prime Minis­ter Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan seemed to be at odds with each other, our cor­re­spon­dent adds.

Angela Mer­kel wants Tur­key to have a pri­vi­leged part­nership with the EU
After mon­ths of avo­id­ing the sub­ject, Chan­cel­lor Mer­kel chose this moment to revive her idea of offe­ring Tur­key what she calls a pri­vi­leged part­nership with the EU, rat­her than full membership.

Mrs Mer­kel has stressed that she does see inte­gra­tion as pos­sible in up to 28 of the 35 so-called chap­ters of EU law with which Tur­key has to com­ply before it can become a full mem­ber of the union.
Speak­ing at a joint press con­fe­rence in Ankara, she said: “The rules of the game have changed” since 2005.
“The (acces­sion) nego­tia­tions are an open-ended process. We should now pur­sue this open-ended process.“
Mr Erdo­gan said not­hing - but has in the past expressed his out­rage over what he calls “shif­ting the goalposts”.

The Ger­man pro­po­sal has been firmly rejected by the Tur­kish govern­ment as a breach of the terms agreed when mem­ber­ship nego­tia­tions began five years ago.
“Such a thing as pri­vi­leged part­nership does not exist,” said Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s minis­ter for Euro­pean affairs.
“So we do not take that option seriously because there is no legal foun­da­tion of it. At times I feel insulted for being offe­red somet­hing which does not exist.”

Turkey’s EU bid over­s­ha­dows Angela Mer­kel visit