Introduction
1. The Government has set out to strengthen the
relationship between the UK and Turkey. In July 2010, in Ankara,
the Prime Minister signed a renewed UK-Turkey "Strategic
Partnership" agreement with his Turkish counterpart Recep
Tayyip Erdoan.[1] The Government's
ambitions with respect to Turkey form part of its strategy of
strengthening the UK's bilateral relations with a range of emerging
states, beyond the UK's traditional US and EU ties. This is a
major element in its foreign policy.[2]
Reflecting this, when the Foreign Affairs Committee was formed
in July 2010 we decided that over the course of the Parliament
we would conduct inquiries into UK relations with and Government
policy towards several emerging powers, including Turkey. We conducted
our first such inquiry, into UK-Brazil Relations, in spring
2011.[3] In June 2011,
we decided to launch our Turkey inquiry as the second in the series.
2. The Foreign Affairs Committee last conducted
an overarching inquiry into Turkey in 2001-02, after the EU gave
Turkey official EU candidate state status in 1999, and before
the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won office in November
2002.[4] More recent select
committee work on Turkey has focused on its EU candidacy: our
predecessor Committee considered Turkey's EU accession process
as part of its 2006 Report on Developments in the EU, following
the UK's Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2005;[5]
and the then Business and Enterprise Committee conducted an inquiry
into Turkey's EU accession in 2008.[6]
In the 2010 Parliament, the Home Affairs Committee conducted an
inquiry in spring 2011 into Implications for the Justice and
Home Affairs area of the accession of Turkey to the European Union.[7]
3. We conducted our inquiry at a timely moment.
During 2011 and into 2012, the unfolding of the 'Arab Spring'
highlighted and intensified Turkey's emergence as an important
regional influence.[8]
Meanwhile, as we prepared our Report early in the year, Turkey's
EU accession process in 2012 appeared to face either a breakthrough
(after eighteen months of stalemate), or continued stagnation
and possible deterioration (when Cyprus assumes the rotating Presidency
of the EU Council on 1 July)—depending on the outcomes of
the French presidential election in April-May and the UN-sponsored
effort to reach a settlement on Cyprus by mid-year.
4. We announced our terms of reference in July
2011. We invited submissions of evidence which addressed the following
questions in particular:
- How should the Government's
efforts to strengthen UK-Turkey relations be assessed, especially
with respect to the economic and commercial spheres?
- To what extent is Turkey a helpful partner for
the Government's foreign and security policy, in the Middle East
and North Africa, the South Caucasus, Central Asia or the Western
Balkans? To what extent is Turkey such a partner for the UK in
NATO?
- To what extent do Turkey and the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AKP) function as models for other Muslim
countries and organisations in a way that is helpful for UK Government
policy, particularly in the context of the 'Arab Spring'? How
should Turkey's role in this respect affect UK Government policy
towards it?
- Should the UK Government be concerned about trends
in the quality of democracy, the rule of law and human rights
in Turkey, including the rights of ethnic and religious minorities
(including the Kurds) and freedom of expression?
- Is the Government correct to continue to support
Turkey's membership of the EU? If so, what should the Government
do to reinvigorate Turkey's EU accession process—for example,
with respect to other EU Member States and EU policies, or the
issue of Cyprus, as well as Turkey itself? Does Turkey still want
to join the EU?
- How important is Turkey to UK and EU energy security?
How compatible are UK and EU, and Turkish, energy interests? How
should Turkey's energy role affect UK Government policy towards
the country?[9]
We did not seek to duplicate the work conducted in
2011 by the Home Affairs Committee on Turkey and EU justice and
home affairs issues (which included consideration of legal and
illegal migration from and through Turkey). We have drawn on the
Home Affairs Committee evidence and Report where relevant.[10]
5. We held four evidence sessions, two before
and two after we visited Turkey at the beginning of November 2011.
We took evidence from Dr Glnur Aybet, Senior Lecturer in International
Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury; Katinka Barysch,
Deputy Director, Centre for European Reform; Sir David Logan,
KCMG, former British Ambassador to Turkey (1997-2001) and Chairman,
British Institute at Ankara; John Peet, Europe Editor, The
Economist; John Roberts, Energy Security Specialist, Platts
(giving evidence in a personal capacity); Dr Philip Robins, Reader
in Middle East Politics and Faculty Fellow, St Antony's College,
University of Oxford; Dr Mina Toksoz, Head of Country Risk, Standard
Bank International (giving evidence in a personal capacity); and
the Minister for Europe, Rt Hon David Lidington MP, and officials.
We received 35 written submissions—from the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO), the British Council and the BBC World
Service; the Turkish Embassy in London; a number of academic and
think-tank specialists; and a range of representative and campaign
groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). We list on page
91 the written evidence we received.
6. In Turkey in early November 2011, we visited
Ankara and Istanbul. We held informal discussions with representatives
of the Turkish government and all four parliamentary parties,
our counterpart Committee and a range of NGO representatives,
academics, think-tank specialists and journalists, representatives
of the Turkish and international business community, students
and third country diplomats. We publish an outline of our programme
in Turkey as an Annex to this Report. Before travelling to Turkey,
we were hosted to lunch in London by the Turkish Ambassador, HE
nal evikz. Later in November, we were especially pleased to be
able to hold an informal meeting in London with Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoðlu,
who was accompanying President Gül on his State Visit. We
would like to thank all those who provided evidence, spoke to
us, hosted us or otherwise assisted us in our inquiry, including
British Ambassador to Ankara David Reddaway and Consul-General
Jessica Hand, the relevant
UK teams in Ankara and Istanbul and the FCO in London, Meltem
Bykkaraka at the Turkish Embassy in London, Fadi Hakura at Chatham
House and staff of the House of Commons Library.
7. We have also discussed Turkey-EU relations
in the context of our ongoing 'rolling' inquiry into EU Enlargement
and Foreign Policy, including during a short visit to EU and
NATO institutions in Brussels in September 2011 and in an evidence
session in November with Baroness Ashton, High Representative
of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President
of the European Commission.[11]
We also met informally with Enlargement Commissioner tefan Fle
on two occasions in 2011 when he was in London.
8. We identified two overarching strands in the
Government's Turkey policy:
- an effort to strengthen the
bilateral relationship with Turkey, as a "strategic partner"
for the UK, and
- support for Turkey's accession to the EU.
Accordingly, we have arranged our Report into two
parts. In Part One, we assess the Government's effort to cultivate
Turkey as a "strategic partner", focusing on the overall
effort (Chapter 2), Turkey's domestic political development and
human rights (Chapter 3), Turkey as a foreign policy partner (Chapter
4), and economic and commercial relations (Chapter 5). In Part
Two, we assess the Government's support for Turkey's EU accession,
focusing on the objective (Chapter 6), the current process (Chapter
7), and ideas about an EU-Turkey partnership distinct from the
accession process (Chapter 8). Throughout, we have sought to be
alert to linkages between the two strands of Government policy.
1 "Turkey/United Kingdom Strategic Partnership",
Ankara, 27 July 2010, via FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk) Back
2
For example, William Hague, "Britain's Foreign Policy in
a Networked World", speech at the FCO, London, 1 July 2010,
via FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk) Back
3
Foreign Affairs Committee, Ninth Report of Session 2010-12, UK-Brazil
Relations, HC 949 Back
4
Foreign Affairs Committee, Sixth Report of Session 2001-02, Turkey,
HC 606 Back
5
Foreign Affairs Committee, Sixth Report of Session 2005-06, Developments
in the EU, HC 768 Back
6
Business and Enterprise Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2007-08,
Keeping the door wide open: Turkey and EU accession, HC
367 Back
7
Home Affairs Committee, Tenth Report of Session 2010-12, Implications
for the Justice and Home Affairs area of the accession of Turkey
to the European Union, HC 789 Back
8
We are conducting a separate inquiry into British foreign policy
and the 'Arab Spring': the transition to democracy. Back
9
Foreign Affairs Committee, "Announcement of new inquiry:
UK-Turkey Relations and Turkey's Regional Role", press
notice, 15 July 2011 Back
10
Home Affairs Committee, Tenth Report of Session 2010-12, Implications
for the Justice and Home Affairs area of the accession of Turkey
to the European Union, HC 789 Back
11
Oral evidence taken before the Foreign Affairs Committee on 21
November 2011, HC (2010-12) 1642-i Back
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