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ANKARA: Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?

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  • ANKARA: Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?

    Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?
    By Antero Leitzinger

    The Journal of Turkish weekly
    2 February 2005.

    Turkey applied for membership in the EEC as early as in 1970s, when she had
    been indisputably and for a long time a democratic market economy, one of
    the founding members of the Council of Europe, and a country with a decent
    record on human rights, compared with the military dictatorships of Greece,
    Spain and Portugal, let alone the countries of Eastern Europe. The upheavals
    of Southern Europe in the mid-1970s, the intensified internal political
    situation of Turkey, and the military regime of early 1980s, as well as the
    surprising membership of Greece in the Western European community sidelined
    Turkey for two extra decades to wait for acceptance.

    Finally during Finland's chairman period in 1999, Turkey was finally
    accepted as an applicant country for the European Union. This encouraged
    Turkey to make legal reforms, which have been carried out for three years
    now, despite the hard economic crisis. Guerrilla war in the Kurdish
    districts is past now, and on 30th Nov. 2002, even the last province was
    officially returned to normalcy. The PKK has abolished itself, and the death
    penalty of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been changed into life
    imprisonment. Turkey's prisons have been reformed according to the EU norms,
    lots of inmates have been amnestied, and previously used parts of the
    criminal law have been overruled. In allowing media and school teaching in
    Kurdish languages, Turkey has exceeded France and Sweden in the progression
    of her minority policy.

    However, Turkey has traditionally had dedicated enemies in Europe. As early
    as in 1800s, conservative Christian and idealist liberal civil movements,
    acting on behalf of the Christian minorities of the Balkans, were organising
    lecture and newspaper campaigns and demonstrations against Turkey. The
    ancient Greece was adored under the banners of philhellenism (1821), and
    medieval myths were revived by telling horror stories of the "Bulgarian
    atrocities" (1876). The propaganda war culminated in the after-play of the
    First World War in 1920s, but was again revived from 1965 onwards, on the
    initiative of third generation Armenian emigrants of France and America, who
    were inspired and directed by Soviet Armenia.

    Nowadays it is hard to believe that Turkey could anyhow get released from
    the constant criticism by human rights organisations, since criticising
    Turkey has become the lifeline of many of them. For many international human
    rights organisations, regular campaigns against Turkey have become the most
    successful kind of activity, and Turkish illegal immigrants willingly
    participate them in order to base their asylum applications. International
    organisations, researchers and media outlets are using Turkish extremist
    groups as their sources, but the credibility and relevance of the
    information they provide is very low. For this reason, the criticism against
    Turkey often repeats echoes from years away. In its latest issue, Der
    Spiegel (50/9th Dec. 2002) added to its article on Turkey a picture of a
    Kurdish demonstration from 1992.

    Turkish asylum seekers still refer to the destruction and evacuation of
    frontier villages in mid-1990s. Although repatriation of these villages has
    been started, the Human Rights Watch report predicts the return to fail,
    because it would be too late without EU support (i.e. many who have moved to
    cities, are reluctant to return to the periphery).

    http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/turkey/

    Neue Zürcher Zeitung (28th Nov. 2002) tells that torture became more common
    in Turkey during the short military reign of 1980s. After that the
    government tried to get rid of the phenomenon by sending the cruel policemen
    from cities to the countryside, which, however, spread the problem
    especially to the Kurdish districts. Accusing the policemen was made
    difficult by a law that demanded acceptance of the superior to rise a court
    case. The fact that many trials were taking more than five years caused that
    many accusations became obsolete. The new government has suggested a legal
    reform that would correct these problems, and enable overruling existing
    verdicts on political crimes.

    Against this background we have to understand the interest of the Turks in
    the question, whether they are Europeans in the others' eyes, or if they
    fall outside Europe already in principle. When the Westernisation that has
    prevailed in Turkey for 80 years becomes questioned by other Europeans, the
    nationalist and pan-Islamic alternatives become stronger. Same kind of
    development was experienced already in early 1900s, when the originally
    liberal Young Turks changed into ferocious nationalists and rushed into the
    First World War. In today's Turkey, many people think that if the EU will
    turn her back to Turkey, Turkey must turn towards Arab countries, Iran, the
    Caucasus, and Central Asia. In co-operation with Pakistan, Turkey could
    develop her own nuclear weapon. The successful military co-operation between
    Turkey and Israel would be endangered. The 300-year rivalry between Turkey
    and Russia over the borderlands would intensify.

    Turkey is a bit poorer than Romania, when the GNP per capita is compared,
    but the reason is the very rapid growth of Turkish population. It is
    estimated that after 10 years there will be 90 million inhabitants in
    Turkey, more than in Germany. In one way or another, that will compensate
    the shrinking population of Europe and Russia. Chronic inflation plagues the
    Turkish economy, but economic growth has been strong for a long time, and
    there is plenty of potential. Unemployment (8,5 %) is lower than in most of
    the countries of Eastern Europe, and industrialisation is more developed
    than in Bulgaria and Romania. (Der Spiegel, 50/9th Dec. 2002)

    Political Islamisation of Turkey would influence Europe especially through
    the 2,5 million Turkish-originating immigrants residing in Germany. It is
    hard to imagine how the EU could isolate herself from Turkey and the Middle
    East. The EU can, however, choose, whether she will passively surrender to
    be a side theatre of the problems of the Middle East and the whole Islamic
    world, or whether it takes an active initiative to support moderate Muslims
    and Turkey in her relations to her neighbours.

    It is expected that the attitude towards Turkey, the Turks, Muslims and
    foreigners in general, will become a hot election issue in the election of
    the German state of Hessen in February. Both radical right and radical left
    oppose the EU membership of Turkey. The present red-green government has
    tried to balance between the views and the former Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl
    had a Turkish daughter-in-law. Compared to these, future seems more
    controversial. Already half million of the German Turks have German
    citizenship, and their votes for the left and for the Greens was decisive in
    favour of the present government in last national election.


    Antero Leitzinger is a political historian and a researcher for the Finnish
    Directorate of Immigration. He wrote several books on Turkey, the Middle
    East and the Caucasus.

    Source: Global Politician, 2 February 2005.

    --Boundary_(ID_tLINLbk2/Mdr1FRBq8CJig)--
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