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Written as "negotiations" are underway for Turkey's membership into the EU. (Emre: "whole country" is a little bit of an overstatement... if i went around the streets of Balikesir and asked around, nobody would be able to tell me what this fuss is all about. For them the only thing that is more important than the soccer match between Besiktas and Parma is the fact that Fenerbahce was beaten by Galatasaray last weekend! The "occidentalized" crowd is the interested party here... The rest couldn't care less because nobody really believes Turkey will be a part of EU anytime soon.) Kathy and I went to a talk in Harvard by a US-educated, Turkish political-journalist a few weeks ago. He said that the entire country expected a "Yes, but..." at this summit and it only remained to be seen what that "but" would entail. Yesterday, the but was revealed as "recognize (south) Cyprus first, and by the way, there is no guarantee that your membership process will end up with an actual membership even though it will take 10 more years". It is a masterful stroke, since it pushes Turkey just enough to make them think seriously about it, but not too much. This way, it can look as the European Union did open the door to Turkey, but if they walk away (to the relief of most "Europeans") then the onus is on them. Let's put things a little in perspective. Turkey applied first for membership in 1963. In 1999, the possibility of Turkey becoming a member was recognized. Today, the process is starting, but... I've already outlined the but. It took over 30 years to come to the *beginning *of the membership process, which still is not guaranteed to end with an actual membership. In contrast, the latest expansion has seen Eastern European countries and Greek Cyprus become full members in a mere handful of years. There has been a lot written on whether Turkey is European or not, whether it makes sense for Europeans to accept Turkey or not, and why it has taken this long to even begin hoping for a membership to the European club. A simple Google search (or a peek at a BBC discussion forum) will give you more opinions and analysis than you ever wanted to read. I want to talk about belonging in a club which, deep inside, does not consider you a natural member or wants to to go through the front door. If a referendum on Turkey's membership were to be held in EU countries today, I doubt a single one would have a majority vote yes. In fact, opinion polls indicate that countries like Germany and France would have a large majority vote no. This is because a majority of Europeans do not recognize Turks as "European" but as something more inferior. Yet the politically correct consciousness which is part and parcel of European diplomacy, and the need to continue to pretend that "/Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite/" applies as a general principle to all peoples everywhere, prevents this from being declared outright in policy-making towards Turkey. I suppose it would even be counter-paradigmatic for most Europeans to admit it to themselves. While most believe that there are already enough second class citizens in their midst and who really wants another 70 million of them, Europeans are not really supposed to think that way. Thus we have the rather comical situation where they are bending over backwards to find excuses for why Turkey is not really suitable, while conveniently forgetting that every reason given about Turkish ineligibility (except for one: religion) has applied at one time or another to countries which became members in time frames that make Turkey's painful process look like a race between a cheetah and a turtle. (Emre:
In the past, one thing that has brought people of Europe together was
the Ottoman threat that distinguished itself as Islamic. It was a clash
of religions. Last year there was a discussion on the French TV5. A
politician, a journalist and a priest....
This is the reason why, throughout the process, European diplomats have played the stalling game, setting the bar slightly higher at every step, and perhaps being taken aback when Turkey somehow manages to jump over it, find another means to postpone entry while setting higher and higher bars. It is clear from comments by politicians, from opinion polls and the way Turks have been treated in Europe (and yes, the way they themselves have mainly failed to integrate with European culture); it is clear from all of the above that the European club does not really recognize Turkey as an equal. (Emre:
And they are right! Turkey is not an equal!
When I look at our government, everyone is an uneducated fool! What the Turkish government and the majority of the country are mostly failing to consider is that there is nobody to blame but themselves. According to the speaker at Harvard, Turks have decided that they can not fix their own societal problems, which they finally realized were becoming catastrophic after four major traumatic events in the 90's, and have decided that the only way to improve is by becoming a part of the EU. The events he mentioned were the scandal in which the roots of government involvement with the mafia were revealed through a car crash (in the car: a representative of the congress and a member of the ruling party, a wanted mafia boss and an ex Ms. Turkey, in the boot: a whole lot of guns), the failure of the government to react to the devastating earthquake near Istanbul (the number of dead are still not known), the financial crises in which the Turkish lira lost 30% value in a day and the country came to the brink of economic ruin, and the bloodless coup by which the pro-Islamist government was forced out of the government. Did it really take these particular crises to make it obvious that we were down the wrong path? What about years and years of corrupt government by conservative parties? What about the military coups that happened once every decade? The mismanagement by the occasional leftist governments? The obstinate clinging to principles of an absolute statist mentality that brooks no criticism or plurality? The jailing, exiling and assassinations of intelligentsia in the name of fighting communism? The catastrophe has been building slowly since the 40's. What we are all collectively paying the price for is something that did not finally happen in the 90's. And now the very people struggling to get into the EU, perhaps at any price, are the same kind of people who got rich and fat off being a part of the system that they supported and that has driven the country to the state that it is in. We have left the Europeans no reason to accept us except for vague threats of going over to the dark side if they ignore Turkey. After all, Turkey already has a full customs agreement with Europe, which means it has given them access to its markets, the one card which it may have played as a quid pro quo in the membership process. They already have most of what they want and they want the status quo to stay for as long as possible even more. Rather than rejoicing at the "yes,but..." and then hoping for an entry permit in to the club which has no reason to want to see us, we should all take a good deep look at what really has brought things to this state and what we may be able to do to change things on our own. (Emre:We have to "save" ourselves. The ironic thing is if that ever happens I am sure majority of Turks will never want to be a part of Europe even if they are invited to join the "club".) Cambridge, December 17, 2004 |
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Copyleft notice: Copyright (C) 1999-2005 Mustafa Ünlü. This information is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. |