‘Turkey’s human rights record is better than some in the EU’

There is no end in sight for Turkey’s EU membership negotiations but EU Affairs Minister and chief negotiator Egemen Bagis tells Kurt Sansone his country has not been treated objectively and that it has come a long way on human rights. The EU agreed to start membership negotiations with Turkey in 2004. Croatia, which applied after your country, will be joining the bloc next year. Do you feel Turkey has been left out in the cold? Turkey has not been treated objectively but I would not qualify the status quo as ‘being left out in the cold’. So far we have opened 13 of the 33 chapters (of the EU acquis, the body of laws every prospective member state has to adopt before accession). From the remaining chapters, 17 are politically blocked. However, if there were no political blocks we could easily become a member within two or three years because we have already completed 60 per cent of the integration process. In a country where people were afraid to admit their ethnic identity such as the Kurds, we now have Kurdish broadcasting on state television and Kurdish departments at our universities. The Turkish president has visited the Alawite community’s place of worship and information...