Is the great coaliation end of Turkey’s EU dreams?

Press Release of ABTTF

Is the great coaliation end of Turkey’s EU dreams?

The 18th September election and the political ambivalance made the “Great Coalition” of two leading parties, CDU/CSU with SPD inevitable and party assemblies brought the stringent coalition bargainings that have been going on for more than one month to an end on Monday.

In case of a succesful parliamentary voting , Angela Merkel will be in the office for the coming four years. It remains as a vague question whether the government established by the leadership of Merkel, who stood out with her arguments aganist Turkey and its EU membership, will have the capability to meet the expectations of Turkish voters. The great coalition can be ratified as optimal for the voter layer who want to get out of recession but do not want to sacrifice their social rights says Halit Habipoğlu, the chairman of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe and adds “ The two parties represent the common voter layer when we talk about the middle – income class but their voter layers among the high - income and low – income classes are completely opposite and even polarized”.

This is evaluated as an important contradiction by Habipoğlu and he comments as “ This contradiction may shorten the office period of the coalition and the effort to carry on the coaliton may cause both parties to lose their voter layer as well cause a direction change in the center politics of Germany.”

The coalition agreement authoritized by party assemblies of both parties does not seem to have satisfied the Turkish voters emphasizes Habipoğlu and adds “ The new coaliton does not seem to follow short but important steps policy in such a determined way as Green/Social Democrats coalition especially for migration and integration policy. “It is disappointing that in the new coalition agreement, the adaptation of migrants are referred as the adaptation foreigners in a country, which declared to be a migration country at the beginning of year 2005 but on the other hand the statement to render support and help to the women and youth that are in need is an affirmative action”.

“In the pre – election political era, Turkey’s EU membership was one of the most important topics but post – election tendency seems to be in line with CDU’s view and this counters the ideals of the Turks who live in the borders of EU and sees the Turkey’s membership as a guarantee for their future” comments Habipoğlu and adds “ It is a paradoxical situation to talk about other alternatives like open – ended accession negotiations or privilaged membership instead of full membership while Bulgaria, Romania and Croatoria’s EU memberships are to be welcomed”.

In the coalition aggrement, it was stated that the internalization capacity of EU will be taken account as well as whether Turkey satisfies the conditions and it remains as a very important question for the coming years how this statement will affect the foreign policy of Germany and the Turkey’s EU perspective.