Ever since the decision of the European Council to start accession talks with Turkey, Conservative European politicians have been talking about a special relationship model, although it has been promptly and categorically rejected by Turkey. Before committing themselves to such a policy line these politicians should have considered the meaning of such a proposal insofar as Turkey's relations with the EU is concerned, and if the scheme in their minds could at all be implemented. From what has been suggested by an unnamed French think tank director to a Turkish think tank director, we understand that the scheme comprises to install Turkey as a full partner in the ESDP, oblige Turkey to establish better frontier controls that would lead to "easing" visa restrictions, Turkey will not be force to implement EU standards, and EU will bear no pressure on Turkey for the solution of Cyprus and Aegean problems, Armenian question will not be raised and the Kurdish rights will not longer be considered as a criteria.

The European Union does not have such a model of relationship with any non-member country. The new model, EU has created is the New Neighborhood Policy comprising and association agreements and action plans aiming at closer relationship with EU in order to create a 'ring of friends' and prevent emergence of new dividing lines. This model excludes Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and other Balkan countries, which will eventually become EU members. EU has already agreed with seven countries namely Israel, Jordan, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Tunisia, and Ukraine on action plans. By the end of the year EU hopes to agree on action plans for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia and Lebanon. All action plans cover such broad areas as political and economic reforms, cooperation in the field of justice, liberty and security, infrastructure networks and people to people contacts.

EU's relationship model with Turkey has been, since 1963, a partnership for eventual accession, and a great distance has already been covered in this direction, so that we have reached the final phase of the association, the customs union, and having completed all the reforms for the beginning of the accession negotiations, these will begin next October. Although the negotiations are open-ended, its duration will depend on the progress in the talks, implementation of agreed harmonization process, and the approval of the accession Treaty by EU institutions and by member states according to their own legal procedures. No one claims that the negotiation and approval phases will be easy or are foregone conclusions; however, at least one would expect decency and objective approach by both sides in working on the already agreed modalities and the final objective.

Some of the suggestions of the French think-tank director may be termed as Turkey's obligations to fulfill, as part of its accession process. It is the duty of Turkey to properly control its frontiers; a task more needed for this country, and prevent Turkey from being a conduit for illegal migration. Secondly Turkey's full participation in ESDP will fully be realized only when Turkey becomes a full member, because ESDP has been created exclusively as an EU institution and it is difficult to foresee how many EU members would be willing to change its current structure.

As regards so called political concession for not insisting on a solution for the problems of Cyprus and the Aegean, those who believe that preservation of the status quo in Cyprus is in Turkey's interest are mistaken. By becoming a member of the European Union before solving the problem the Greek Cypriots have acquired a major advantage for themselves. Their calculation seems to be that by obtaining Turkish passports most of the Turks of the island will in fact become full citizens of Greek dominated Republic of Cyprus. For a while they will use the advantages of such citizenship but at some point they will be expected to fulfill the obligations of citizenship such as military service and payment of taxes. The property question will continue to be a real head-ache for Turkey as the European Court of Human Rights may come up with more Loizidou type of decisions. In other words delaying the solution of the Cyprus question is not in the interests of Turkey, as the proposal would suggest. A similar situation exists in the Aegean: The Greek Parliament has approved the extension of the Greek territorial waters to 12 miles and the bill is kept by the President of Greece, who can sign it into a law at a moment of his choice. Turkey's casus belli threat keeps him from signing the law. If as proposed, Turkey becomes a full member of ESDP can it resort to casus belli against a co-member if it really extends its territorial waters to 12 miles? Who will force the Greek of Cyprus and Greek to give up their veto rights on issues relating Turkey? I recall at a meeting in 1979 when Greece was preparing to become a member both Greeks and EC were making every promise to help Turkey in developing its relations with the EC. At that meeting late Ambassador Muharrem Nuri Birgi had made the the following prophetic remark: "Every marriage starts with a wove of fidelity; but soon after the marriage no one can prevent gilting". Indeed, immediately after Greece became a member it vetoed every document that had a "Turkey" word on it.

As regards adopting EU standards one could say that Turkey must adopt and apply all of these standards if it wants to be a civilized, modern country even if it will not become a member of the European Union in the end.

Being myself a director of a think-tank, I may say that it is our job and privilege to propose ideas and solutions for problems, but they may be taken into account by decision makers only if they are practicable and in their interests. As depriving Turkey of its full membership prospect and process, is neither practicable nor in the interests of Turkey and EU, my recommendation would be let us be realistic and join our efforts both to solve such problems as Cyprus and Aegean and carry out all the reforms and harmonization work needed to facilitate the task of accession without dilly dallying on other paradigms.