Interview with H.E. Yasir Yakis, Former Foreign Minister of Turkey

Yasar Yakis is a distinguished Turkish MP and current Chairman of the European Union Harmonization Commission of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. His previous posts include Turkish Foreigner Minister, UN representative in Vienna, as well as Ambassador to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. At the 'World Without Walls' conference he gave an encouraging speech about Turkey's potential EU accession entitled, “Turkey as a European State: Progress and Challenges.” Afterwards, I was able to ask him more about Turkey's accession; both his personal opinions, popular opinion in Turkey, and the stance of existing EU member states. In your speech you quoted Jacques Chirac, saying that the EU, as a free trade union, could survive without Turkey, but if it wanted to perform a global responsibility it had to work together with Turkey. Can you comment on this?

I think Jacques Chirac believes that Turkey’s contribution would exceed the expectations most people have. The EU has economic power, but to exert influence or protect outside the EU area, you also need both soft and hard power. Turkey is one of those countries that can bring both of these. NATO has identified 15 hot spots in the world, which could threaten the stability of NATO countries, of course the NATO countries are not the same as EU countries, but still there are many commonalities. Out of these 15 hot spots in the world, 13 are located in the vicinity of the neighbourhood of Turkey or in areas where Turkey has some sort of presence; these are the Balkans, the Caucasus, Middle East and Central Asia. But I do not want to go as far as to say that EU cannot achieve what it wants to achieve in this area without cooperating with Turkey, but by cooperating with Turkey, the EU may achieve what it wants to in this area with lesser financial resources and lesser human resources.

Of course Turkey was a big part of Europe before the EU existed, what do you think are the main problems for Turkey’s accession in the EU and the challenges it faces?

Challenges for EU countries are one thing and challenges for Turkey are another. Challenges for the EU include the fact that Turkey is a country with a very big population. Perhaps if current trends continue, after 2030, Turkey might be the most populated country in the EU and certain EU countries take this into consideration. If we look at it from Turkey's side, we don’t see it like this, and a group of independent analysts, “Friends of Europe” said that these perceptions were wrong. First of all, when Turkey joins the EU the expectations that jobless Turkish people will encroach the European market, is the same fear that existed when Spain and Portugal were about to join. However, when they joined, the opposite took place. Many Portuguese and Spanish who were working in France and Germany started to go back to their country, and most probably this will happen with Turkey too.

Do you think that Turkey’s economic situation will improve if they join?

Yes, it works in that direction. Each new country that joins the EU witness an upsurge in economy and we don’t see any reason why this wouldn’t happen in Turkey’s case.

What do you think the population in Turkey feels about accession the EU?

When there are statements in favour of blocking Turkey's entry, sometimes unnecessarily harsh statements, opinion goes down, but it depends how you ask people the question. If you ask them whether they would like to join the EU, the answer would be yes, but if you ask whether they think the EU will take Turkey, often people don’t think so. But what we should be doing now is continuing the negotiations in good faith, and making Turkey 100% compliant to the Acquis and at the same time we can find out the public opinion in Turkey and the EU. This isn't the main subject at this stage, because the Turkey that will join the EU, is not the Turkey of today, we do not know what that will be, and the EU, likewise, won't be the same.  We still have other states around us to cooperative with as well. But the more Turkey has better relations with the EU, the more it can be effective in the countries of the region, as well as within the EU.

Thank you for your time Your Excellency Yakis.