IKV CHAIRMAN VARDAN:

“IT IS TIME TO CROWN THIS PROCESS WITH MEMBERSHIP” 

“WE WOULD HAVE WISHED TO CELEBRATE THIS ANNIVERSAY WITH A TURKEY WHICH IS AN EU MEMBER”

“Today we came together to celebrate our Foundation’s 50^th anniversary which was founded in 1965 by ISO and ITO and supported by all of its Trustee and Supporter organizations, especially by TOBB.”

“Today we are here to celebrate Turkey’s one of the most deep-rooted and reputable think tank that pursued over the years to prepare recommendations and opinions, to publish books and magazines, to inform public opinion through the organization of panels and seminars. On the one hand, we are proud of our Foundation because it is one of the few institutions that have managed to stand in Turkey.  But on the other hand, we deeply regret not being able to celebrate the 9th May Europe Day with Turkey as an EU Member State. We regret that all our efforts have not been compensated completely".

“WE CANNOT EVEN OPEN CHAPTERS TO NEGOTIATIONS”

 “Thanks to our President’s outstanding efforts and goal-oriented endeavours, Turkey’s EU journey in 2004 gained a more concrete and significant dimension perhaps in a way that our EU allies had never expected. And finally Turkey in 2005 started the accession negotiations.  For us, the fact that we started the accession negotiations means accession to the EU since according to the EU’s own rules, so far there has not been a country that started the negotiations and not end up with membership. That is what history has shown us.

“While Turkey cannot even open chapters to negotiations as a result of some of the EU Member States’ veto, Croatia which started the accession negotiations at the same time became the 28^th EU Member State. As our President underlines, the EU and some Member States have continuously aimed to change the rules of the game at the last minute. Turkey has been encountered with several problems with various reasons put forward by EU leaders such as “absorption capacity”, “lack of reforms”, “Cyprus issue” and “privileged partnership”. In this period, the European Commission has published 17 Progress Reports on Turkey whose total page number is 1,789. If these reports are not enough to make Turkey a Member State of the EU, then the question is: How many more reports do we need in this process? Therefore, the tone, method and the impacts of the Progress Reports should be questioned. Both parties who chose the path to become partners should also act in good faith and in a result-oriented way to overcome the existing problems between them.”

“IF THE EU CARRIES OUT A SINCERE AND FAIR POLICY TOWARDS TURKEY, TURKEY WILL IN RETURN MAKE AN EQUIVALENT EFFORT”

IKV Chairman Ömer Cihad Vardan continued his opening speech as follows:

“All these developments remind us again the phrase often used by elderly to describe a process that is “a long thin road”. The EU accession process for Turkey is also a long thin road. In this process, we encounter problems and try to overcome these obstacles. Yet, the one and only expectation we have in this process is for Turkey to be treated in a democratic and fair way the EU is defending and on which it is itself built upon.”

“We surely believe that, if the EU applies a sincere and fair policy towards Turkey, Turkey will make an equivalent effort in return.”

“TURKEY IS THE FASTEST GROWING COUNTRY OF THE REGION”

“The process, which was initiated by the then Prime Minister of Turkey Adnan Menderes in 1959 and was started in 1963 with the Ankara Agreement should have been completed even years before. Today, Turkey is different than it used to be in 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. In fact, it is not similar to Turkey even in the beginning of 2000s. Currently, Turkey is a country which continues to have a stable growing trend better than most of the EU countries with a young and dynamic population. Together with increasing investments and further projects to be conducted, Turkey will be the fastest growing country of the region.”

“THESE TWO ECONOMICALLY INTEGRATED PARTNERS SHOULD ACT TOGETHER”

Underlining the importance of the EU for Turkish business community, IKV Chairman Vardan reminded that the EU accounts for almost half of Turkey’s exports and 70% of the investments to Turkey are made by business people from EU Member States.  IKV Chairman Vardan further added:

 “Is it possible to declare that the EU is not important for Turkey? Yet, we would like to see these two economically integrated partners act together. Further, we believe that we have a right to expect such a relationship between Turkey and the EU. Integration between two parties should not be obstructed visa and quota requirements. While European businessmen and citizens can travel to Turkey and sell their products, Turkish citizens encounter numerous problems because of the visa procedures during the application process. We do not wish to queue and to share personal and professional information during this process. Furthermore this process reveals to be costly and time consuming. Once we succeed in sending our products despite all these difficulties, we do not want to deal this time with quota problems while transferring goods produced in Turkey. Moreover, considering that Turkey and the EU established a Customs Union since 1996, we do not want to be left out of the FTAs signed by EU with third countries especially TTIP.”

“61% OF TURKISH CITIZENS ARE IN FAVOUR OF EU MEMBERSHIP”

IKV Chairman Vardan in his speech announced the results of the public opinion survey commissioned by IKV and stated the following:

“Besides the perspective of Turkish business people, we, as IKV, have conducted a public opinion survey in 18 provinces in Turkey with a participation of 2,500 citizens”.

“With this public opinion survey, we first wanted to understand the level of support to EU membership of Turkish public opinion. According to the result of the survey, 61% of Turkish citizens are supporting Turkey’s EU membership. As we all remember, this rate decreased to 30%. In this respect, the increase of this share is encouraging. Nevertheless, only 30% of the participants to the survey believe that Turkey will become a Member State of the EU in the near future. This means that 70% of them do not believe that Turkey will become an EU Member State in a short period of time.”

“THE LEVEL OF KNOWDLEGDE OF THE EU IS VERY LOW IN TURKEY”

IKV Chairman Vardan pointed out to another striking result of the survey concerning the level of knowledge of the EU in Turkey, and stated the following:

“It is important and surprising to see that the level of knowledge on the EU in Turkey is really low despite the 56-year-long relationship between Turkey and the EU. While 4 out of 5 persons that participated in the public opinion survey have stated that they have heard of the EU before, 85% of participants declared that they have “none” or “little” knowledge of the EU. This is a clear indication that we need to pursue our informative activities for the civil society, the media and educational institutions.”

“IT IS TIME TO CROWN THIS PROCESS WITH THE MEMBERSHIP” 

IKV Chairman Vardan stated that for the Turkish public, the EU is mostly referred to economic welfare, free movement and democracy. IKV Chairman further pursued as follows: “Our expectation from EU membership is in line with these results. The EU remains an important goal for Turkey. Therefore, it is the time to end this process by crowning Turkey with EU membership.”

“WE BELIEVE THAT TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP WOULD BE A SUCCESS STORY FOR THE EU”

IKV Chairman Vardan also stated that they believe Turkey’s EU membership would be a success story for the EU. IKV Chairman Vardan also added the following:

“The success will not be only in economic terms. The EU, which is a “peace project” at the same time, will regain its founding principles when it integrates with Turkey whose population mostly consists of Muslims. Thus, an important peace message will be given to the rest of the world which is full of conflicts currently. Therefore, we believe that this process should not be given up to non-credible political purposes with no connection to the historical truths. As a conclusion, Turkey with its current level of development will not be a burden on the EU; in contrast, it will relieve the burden on the EU.”

“I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE TO OUR FOUNDERS, TRUSTEES AND SUPPORTERS”

Lastly, IKV Chairman Vardan expressed his gratitude to IKV’s Founders, ISO and ITO; to all our trustee and supporter organizations especially TOBB, to IKV’s former Chairmen and Members of the Board of Directors and to all IKV teams who have contributed to IKV. Chairman Vardan also presented his best wishes to Turkey with the general elections that will be held in June.