To bolster its military capabilities, the European Union is seeking to put in place by January 2003 a 60,000-strong military force for use in protecting imperialist interests in Europe and abroad. As one of the 19 members of the U.S.-dominated NATO military alliance, however, Turkey has the right to veto the use of NATO military bases, aircraft, and other "assets," giving it the ability to effectively block deployment of the EU military force.

Ankara has been rebuffed in its attempts to join the EU. The moves by the imperialist powers to admit at least 10 countries in Eastern and Central Europe to membership by 2004, at the same time as Turkey's application is postponed to the indefinite future, has angered the country's capitalist rulers.

In mid-November officials from the British and U.S. governments spearheaded a round of negotiations designed to pressure Ankara to drop its threat of a veto over the use of NATO assets. According to the Financial Times, the Turkish government demanded "the right to participate in any operation by the new force which did not use NATO assets but which took place in its geographical vicinity." EU officials refused to accede to this demand, claiming that they were prevented from doing so by treaty obligations stipulating that the involvement of non-EU NATO members in EU military operations will be by invitation only.

The Turkish government announced December 1 that it had reached agreement over this dispute. However, a statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit December 2 offered no further details or comment.

On his way to a meeting of NATO foreign and defense ministers, U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell is making a stop in Ankara on December 4 to discuss this dispute and U.S. military ties with Ankara.

Turkey has the largest standing army of the European NATO powers and is a key military ally of Washington in the region. It has made its bases available to U.S. warplanes that have continued to bomb sites in Iraq to enforce a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone over large parts of Iraqi territory.

Ankara has given full backing to Washington's war against Afghanistan. It is the only majority Muslim country that has pledged to send soldiers into combat there and to lead a future UN-sanctioned occupation force in the country. It has already dispatched a 90-member special forces unit to Afghanistan.

Home to 66.5 million people, Turkey is in the midst of a mounting economic crisis. The country is saddled with a $109 billion foreign debt--one-quarter of its annual gross domestic product. Workers and farmers in the country face rising inflation and mounting joblessness. The value of the Turkish lira has fallen sharply since September 11, on top of a 40 percent drop in value earlier this year.  
 
Conflicts within European Union
Other conflicts are brewing within the EU over the rapid reaction force and the nature of the union itself. The Italian government is divided over whether to pull out of developing the A400M transport carrier, slated to be an essential component of the force's equipment.

At a recent Anglo-French summit, French president Jacques Chirac emphasized that his government agrees more with Britain than Germany over the role and direction of the EU. Berlin is in the forefront of projecting the creation of a federal Europe, with Germany at the helm. The rulers in France, Britain, and Spain, on the other hand, hoping to dilute the power of German imperialism in Europe, seek a federation of national states.

In talks with British prime minister Anthony Blair, Chirac insisted that "the purpose of Europe was to enhance the authority of its member states," reported a December 1 Financial Times article. "Building an EU role in foreign and defence policy was not aimed at weakening national governments. Quite the contrary, nations such as France and Britain needed to maintain their power and influence in a world that would increasingly see the emergence of other big powers--China most obviously--alongside the U.S."

The EU has also won the tentative agreement of the Polish government that it will abide by conditions placed on its being considered for EU membership. The governments of Germany and Austria, seeking to stem the flow of workers across Europe from the new member countries, have demanded strict immigration controls for up to seven years. Applicant countries are also required to seal off their eastern borders, putting in place extensive surveillance and police checkpoints. Poland shares borders with Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

After pressing for a shorter time limit on the right of people in the country to travel to other EU states, the Polish government basically agreed with the German and Austrian demands. Warsaw had also sought to impose an 18-year moratorium on the sale of farmland to foreigners, opposing EU demands for a seven-year transition. Polish officials have now said they accept a 12-year freeze.

The European Union is also on a collision course with Ankara over plans to take Cyprus into membership by 2004. The Greek Cypriot government, which rules two-thirds of this Mediterranean island nation of 750,000 people, has been granted the status of full candidate for membership since 1997. Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit has stated that if this step is taken then the Turkish government would move ahead and annex the portion of the island occupied by Turkish troops.

Cyprus's 1960 achievement of independence from the United Kingdom included constitutional guarantees to the Turkish minority. In 1974 an attempt by the government of Greece to seize control of the island was met by Turkish military intervention. Ankara now controls one-third of the island. Nine years later the Turkish-held area declared itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The republic is recognized only by Turkey, however.

The European Union's enlargement commissioner, Günter Verheugen, has made clear that Cyprus's admittance to the EU will "not be held hostage to diplomatic caution or political intransigence by Turkey," stated a November 15 Financial Times article.

"What will happen if Turkey annexes the TRNC? Europe will say that Turkey is annexing EU territory," stated Tuncay Ozilhan, chairman of Tusiad, the main Turkish business federation. "Then what will be the implications for foreign capital and the markets?"

"At risk for Turkey is its own candidacy to join the EU," noted the Times, "since the admission of a divided island would probably lead to fresh quarrels between Ankara and the EU as well as to the creation of one more EU state opposed to Turkish membership."

The London-based big-business daily reported that Turkish officials "have assumed that Turkey's enhanced strategic importance after September 11" would lead Washington to oppose EU moves to admit Cyprus. "We have made it very clear to the Turks that we could not, and would not, get the Europeans to stop this," insisted a U.S. official.

For the first time since the collapse of UN-sponsored talks last year, the 77-year-old Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, is planning to meet December 4 with 83-year-old Greek Cypriot president Glafcos Clerides, under the sponsorship of UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto, to discuss this impasse.

Some in the U.S. big-business media have urged Washington to forge a much closer military and political alliance with Turkey. "As a leading secular Islamic state, Turkey can use its influence--and its sizeable army--to help America defeat Islamic terrorism in Central Asia and beyond," argued an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal by historian Melik Kaylan.

The writer cited the "battle-readiness of Turkish troops" who have a lot of experience under their belts attempting to suppress Kurdish fighters for independence "in terrain and conditions not unlike Afghanistan."

"Now is the time for Turkey as a Western proxy to replace Russia's influence in the area," wrote Kaylan. Ankara, he said, is "one of Islam's few functioning democracies."

For the past year Turkish authorities have conducted a brutal campaign in an effort to break up a yearlong hunger strike protesting the introduction of cell-based jails to replace the large prison dormitory wards where political prisoners are able to function together.

In early November cops used armored cars, tear gas, and batons to break into homes in Istanbul where the hunger strikers are living. Last December authorities stormed jails across the country in an attempt to end the strikes. Two soldiers and 30 prisoners died. The death toll from the hunger strikes has reached 42.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home