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  • The Turkish Problem

    THE TURKISH PROBLEM
    By George Gregoriou

    Greek News, New York
    Dec 11 2006

    Turkey is not the problem. Turkish leaders and most Turks say
    so. If there is a problem, it is the EU and the neighbors. This
    was made clear in the streets of Istanbul, when the Pope visited
    this historic city. The voices: "The European Union is a Christian
    Club...The Europeans do not want a Muslim Turkey in the EU....The
    Turkish people are so misunderstood on Cyprus...We are what we are,
    a Muslim country, and the EU has to accept Turkey as is. We are not
    going to change." It is that simple. The fault lies with the EU and
    the neighbors. But, the Turks are the neighbors!

    The EU is part of the problem. So is the USA, which is forcing Turkey
    onto the EU, for its own geopolitical needs to control the future of
    the EU and the Eurasian Corridor where the oil reserves are located.

    It is unimaginable to think of Turkey outside the imperialist
    loop, Islamic, anti-EU and anti-American. Big trouble for corporate
    capitalism. Like it or not, there is a Turkish problem, a EU problem,
    and an American problem. There is a big problem in the neighborhood,
    where the policies of the US and Turkey converge, thereby creating
    serious obstacles to Turkey¹s trajectory into the EU.

    Turkey is a big power, a staunch ally of the biggest superpower. To
    Washington, Turkey can do no wrong. If it did (not cooperating with
    the US invasion of Iraq), Ankara is forgiven the day after, with
    Ankara getting its economic and military aid without a hitch. It
    is understood that US militarism will be aided and abetted by
    Ankara no matter what. Washington will do what it has to do, as an
    imperial power. And Turkey will do what it has to do. There is honor
    between the two bullies (one global, one regional). They have mutual
    interests. London is only a step behind Washington, with Bush telling
    Blair which foot to put forward. Blair also wants Turkey in the EU.

    This symbiotic relationship between the US and Turkey is not
    difficult to understand. The flow of guns and dollars towards Turkey,
    in billions, tells the story. Turkey is strategically located in
    the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East. What a
    location! Turkey outside the imperialist loop, I stated earlier,
    would be as if the continental plates between Europe and Asia were
    separated, in geopolitical terms. This separation seems inevitable,
    thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the anti-Americanism
    in the Muslim world. For now, Ankara wants to play this geopolitical
    game, harvest its benefits, even be inside the EU Christian Club,
    at its own terms. An Ankara-EU-US confrontation is in the making.

    Do the European masses want 70 million Turks in their midst? Not now.

    Maybe never. The charge by Turks that this "Christian Club" will
    not change, and Turkey, a Muslim nation, will not change either, is
    the root of the problem. So, the much-lauded claims of a civilized
    Europe and a secular, modern democratic Turkey are both a sham. The
    Kemalist legacy seems to be limited to Istanbul, where obscene
    wealth, poverty, decadence, and prostitution coexist. Not in the
    "other" Turkey, from Ankara to Eastern Anatolia, where poverty and
    underdevelopment dominate. If this is the Turkish reality why would
    the EU ³Christian Club² stop being a Christian Club and to admit 70
    million Muslims? Who is knocking at the door? Neither the Turks nor
    the EU Christian Club will change in the near future. Turkey in the
    EU will turn out to be a bad relationship, with a bad break-up?

    The Christian/Muslim dilemma is only part of the problem. Turks should
    look in the mirror. The entire world knows. It has been documented
    by eyewitness reports, government officials, and historical research
    for over 100 years, that the Ottoman Empire, in the years marking the
    end of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Turkish Republic,
    committed genocide. About 3.5 million Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians
    (those ethnics who could not be Turkified) were killed. Turkish
    intellectuals and historians acknowledge this genocide. They are
    being persecuted (Article 301) for "insulting" Turkishness. The
    Germans acknowledged their crime.

    Not the Turks. In a "secular, modern, and democratic" society, those
    who defend lies are subject to prosecution (as the French law did on
    Jews and is doing on the Armenians), not those who tell the truth. In
    Turkey, state declared "truths" are defended by "state declared laws,"
    while those critical of state "untruths" are prosecuted.

    Now, truth can be controversial. It can be settled, not with "I said,
    you said!" Would I trust an Islamic (or any) fundamentalist to tell
    the truth? Or a person who spends years researching the archives,
    documents, and eye-witness reports to prove or disprove historical
    claims? In the USA, 50% of the people believe that the universe is
    6,000 years old. 70% believe in angels. Muslim martyrs will have 72
    virgins. How can a dead person handle 72 virgins when a live person
    cannot even handle one. Not when the dead welcome the dead! One can
    hardly rely on a mullah or a priest to tell the truth about historical
    reality. When "clerics" behave as "politicians" and "politicians" as
    "clerics," it is worse. When an entire nation subscribes to "official
    lies" it is a crime.

    Where is it stated that nation which lies deserves to be in the
    European Union? The Europeans are not devoid of hypocrisy and lying.

    But Ankara is not telling the Europeans: "Hey, we are "lying" about our
    history. You are also "lying" about your history. We are all guilty of
    "genocide" and "barbarism". We Turks admit it. Get over it." I am not
    "unsympathetic" to this "dishonesty" being up front!

    Cyprus is also a problem. It can derail the Turkish trajectory into
    the EU. Why? Cyprus can veto Turkeyʼs accession into the EU.

    Technically, all of Cyprus is in the EU, though the EU law does not
    apply to the occupied 37% of Cyprus under occupation by Turkey since
    1974, until the problem is solved. The possibility of a settlement
    on Turkish terms is next to zero, the root being that the Turkish
    Cypriot minority of 18%, supported by Turkey, Britain, and the US,
    insist on sharing political power with the 82% majority on the basis
    of equality (50-50). To change the demographics, 140,000 Muslims from
    Turkey were settled in Cyprus. And Washington and London are doing all
    they can to "legitimize" the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus
    with investments, tourism, and real estate development-all illegal
    according to the UN resolutions and international legalities.

    In essence, the Turkish minority wants to continue the British colonial
    practice of "divide and rule," which is rooted in the Ottoman legacy
    where the Muslim minority ruled and the rest of the people were
    subjects whose only choice was to pay taxes, convert to Islam to
    avoid paying taxes, or death. All the proposals put on the table are
    "apartheid" solutions, not in line with EU legalities.

    So, when we read in the NYTimes during the Popeʼ s visit that
    "The Turks are so misunderstood on Cyprus," this is true. The official
    position of Ankara on Cyprus, the political solutions offered, its
    refusal to recognize Cyprus as member state of the EU and to open its
    ports to all EU members, including Cyprus, is so incomprehensible to
    anyone with common sense. The often-stated claim that the small island
    of Cyprus (less than a million Greeks and Turkish Cypriots combined),
    inside the EU, is a threat to the most militarized country of 70
    millions, 40 miles away, that Cyprus is a "life and death" issue for
    Ankara, and its posturing that "it is either a Turkish solution or no
    solution"--these can be easily misunderstood. They make little sense,
    except to an "Ottomanistic" mindset.

    Turkish membership in the EU? Turkey is the problem, and the
    solution. One way is for Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman
    Empire, to declare: "we do not want to be in the EU." Tell London
    and Washington to stop twisting arms to get Turkey in the EU. Ankara
    can veer towards Islamicism and still get its guns and dollars from
    Washington and the European powers playing the geopolitical card in
    tandem or in opposition to Washington. In any EU referendum, Turkish
    membership will collapse.

    The alternative? Turkey can stop being a bully in the region,
    transform herself into a modern, secular, and democratic society,
    with the welfare and well-being of the Turkish people its only goal.

    This is not easy, but it is possible. How?

    FIRST, self-determination (even statehood) for the 18-20 million Kurds
    will be an option. After all, the Turks and the Kurds, both Muslims,
    have been on each other¹s throat since the creation of the Turkish
    Republic, with more violence in the 1980s. They are still in a state
    of war;

    SECOND, this would require Turkey being split into two autonomous
    republics, 70-30 or 60-40 ratio for Turks and Kurds, respectively,
    in a loose federation or confederation;

    THIRD, there would be equal representation at the Upper House,
    proportional representation at the Lower House, requiring majorities
    in each ethnic group and in each house for proposed legislation to
    be become law;

    FOURTH, there would be rotating Presidents and Vice-Presidents for
    the majority Turks and minority Kurds, respectively;

    FIFTH, total autonomy in cultural, religious, and ethnic affairs for
    the two federated states, even the right to collect taxes and sign
    commercial treaties with other states;

    SIXTH, the central government will be in charge of defense, foreign
    affairs, and federal taxation. An outside military force, possibly
    from the UN or the EU will in Turkey to maintain peace between the
    Kurds and Turks;

    SEVENTH, there will be a Supreme Court of Turkish, Kurdish, and UN
    or international Jurists to settle constitutional and legal conflicts.

    The details can be worked out by experts and technocrats. There are
    plenty of qualified Turkish and Kurdish constitutionalists, with help
    from Washington, London and the UN, who could come up with a final
    plan which will bring peace and justice the Turks and Kurds in Asia
    Minor, even membership in the Europe Union.

    This is not a crazy idea. It is a realistic proposal, a carbon copy
    of the Ankara-London-Washington plan the UN (through Kofi Annan)
    tried to impose on Cyprus in the last two years, if not in the last
    30 or 50 years.

    If this "Turkish Plan" is good for Cyprus, why not for Turkey!

    **** George Gregoriou Professor, Critical Theory and Geopolitics

    http://www.greeknewsonline.com/module s.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5913

    --B oundary_(ID_3AkeFxinjRB2d1V9NFokPg)--
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