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WHY SWEDEN IS GOING STRATEGIC WITH TURKEY
Today's Zaman, Turkey
March 12 2013
Column by Abdullah Bozkurt
If you ask which country has been the strongest advocate of the
EU membership process for Turkey in the last decade, not just with
public remarks but also with intensive lobbying endeavours, I would
say it was - and still is - Sweden. It is amazing how the Swedes came
around from being one of the most vocal critics of Turkey concerning
shortcomings in rights throughout the 1990s to becoming its staunchest
ally in the 27-member bloc, really pushing the other EU member states
for acceleration of negotiations with Turkey today.
The engagement of Sweden with Turkey is mainly motivated by the fact
that a majority Muslim country with G-20 and NATO memberships has
started to play an increasingly pivotal role in regional and global
affairs. Swedes noticed early on that Turkey with political reforms
as well as its robust and growing economy fuelled by entrepreneurial
companies, dynamic young labour force and huge consumer market would
be a good candidate for partnership. As a small country with 9.3
million people, the Swedes have tried their best to avoid conflicts
for two centuries. The best way to insure that is to stay engaged
with multinational organizations like the UN, the EU and NATO as
well as to maintain close ties with emerging powers. Policymakers in
Sweden acknowledge the value Turkey brings to the table in resolving
conflicts like in Kosovo and Afghanistan where Swedish troops serve
along with Turkish ones. As Sweden became involved in many issues
in the Western Balkans, it appreciated Turkey's role in bridging
differences among Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks.
The Swedes have come to an understanding that the EU can be an engine
of reform in Turkey as the country is undergoing major social and
political changes. They have zoomed in on judicial reforms in Turkey
by offering bilateral cooperation programmes starting as early as
2007. The Turkish Ministry of Justice and the Swedish National Courts
Administration has an ongoing project to make the management of courts
and appeals processes much more efficient while bolstering confidence
in the judiciary. Behind all these efforts lies a belief by Sweden that
Turkey with a full-fledged democracy can serve as an important bridge
between Europe and the Muslim world, strengthening the bloc's role in
regional and world affairs. In other words, Turkey with European and
Muslim values is a good partner for Sweden to "strategically align"
itself with in order to respond to emerging challenges on the old
continent and beyond.
Swedes were right in their diagnosis of Turkey. The EU process has
not only helped Turkey in overhauling archaic state institutions but
also contributed in marginalizing the elitist Kemalist ideology that
had held the governance of the country captive to the interests of a
privileged few. In old times, it would be simply unthinkable to see
a Turkish Syriac Orthodox archbishop as a minority representative
taking part today in a foreign trip by a Turkish president, Abdullah
Gul, on his state visit to Sweden where by one account, around 70,000
Turkish Syriacs live. Instead of hailing this as richness in diverse
Turkish society, the old dogs would have labelled this as amounting to
"treason." Thankfully and hopefully we have now gone way beyond this
mentality holding a grip on Turkey's potential.
The Swedes are understandably interested in seeing the resolution
of Turkey's Kurdish problem and have thrown their support behind the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government initiatives
to address Kurdish demands. Further democratization, a new constitution
and decentralization will help marginalize the terrorist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), relieving some of the issues confronting the
Kurdish diaspora in Sweden as well. If anybody knows how the PKK
terror dealt a blow to legitimate Kurdish aspirations in Turkey,
it must be Kurdish writer and politician Kemal Burkay, who returned
to Turkey from a 31-year exile in Sweden last year. Burkay has said
that people who do not want a solution to the Kurdish problem are
the same ones who do not want Turkey's inclusion in the EU.
This Nordic country was instrumental in the formation of the Friends
of Turkey informal parliamentary bipartisan friendship group that was
established in the European Parliament in 2010. Sweden is the only EU
member country that has opened a Swedish-Turkish Cooperation Centre
in Istanbul to promote Turkey's integration into the EU. The Swedes
even took the gloves off in 2009 when former French President Nicolas
Sarkozy tried to shut the door completely on Turkey by floating
a hollow "privileged membership" alternative. After criticisms of
France by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was interviewed
by Le Figaro on the eve of Sarkozy's visit to Sweden in 2009, the
French president had to cancel the trip.
If other friends of Turkey in the EU would put up as much of a
fight in closed-door meetings as the Swedes did, we would probably
be halfway through now on the finalizing of the negotiation chapters
for membership. But most just choose to resort to cheap talk without
spending any political capital and pay lip service to Turkish concerns
without fighting when the arm-twisting starts in Brussels. During the
EU presidency in 2010, the Swedes did their best to bridge differences
between NATO and the EU over the Cyprus issue but failed to do so.
This was compounded by the fact that Turkish-EU ties, unlike
Turkey-NATO relations, were problematic, and this led to some tension
between Turkey and the Sweden as well. But just as in the case where
the Swedish government quickly distanced itself from a vote in the
Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century killings
of Anatolian Armenians as genocide in 2010, Stockholm also did not
allow differences in Afghanistan to make a dent in bilateral ties
with Turkey.
Now we see that the growing bilateral relations between Turkey and
Sweden have a cooperative aspect with regard to third countries. On
the diplomatic level, Bildt and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet
Davutoglu, are in constant contact to discuss issues that matter
for both concerning other countries. The informal process known
as Trilateral Solidarity for Building Peace, which includes Bildt,
Davutoglu and the minister of external relations of Brazil, Antonio
de Aguiar Patriota, has the potential of having a synchronized impact
on some of the important regional and global issues. The mechanism is
intended to draw further attention to issues like the Arab Awakening,
the question of Palestine, the global economic crisis, terrorism,
eradication of poverty, climate change, Internet freedom and nuclear
proliferation.
>>From an economic perspective, Sweden can play an important role in
improving Turkey's technological infrastructure and know-how to make
the country leap forward to the first-tier economies of the world. The
Swedes are a tech-savvy people and have developed global brands in
technology. Turks can learn a lot from the Swedes, who came in second
after Germany in tech venture capital investments last year. In
return, Sweden - whose economy was battered with declining exports
(47 per cent of the Swedish economy relies on exports) - can benefit
from the Turkish experience in market penetration. In fact, that is
what Hakan Akesson, Sweden's ambassador to Turkey, hinted on Friday
when I saw him to talk about Gul's visit. He said there is a perfect
opportunity now for both Swedish and Turkish companies to partner
in third markets. "They complement each other," he asserted. As the
Swedish economy is forecast to have 1.1 per cent growth this year after
posting 0.8 per cent last year, it needs new markets. What is more,
the half a trillion dollar Swedish economy with an aging population
and very liberal labour laws can tap into the young labour pool in
Turkey. There is also room for improvement of the bilateral trade
volume between Turkey and Sweden, which stood at $3.3 billion in
2012, favouring Sweden by two-to-one. It has increased by 300 per
cent since 2002 when the trade volume was $831 million.
There is a bipartisan and generall y positive consensus in Sweden
towards Turkey. Considering that over 600,000 Swedes visited Turkey
last year, up from 200,000 a decade ago, it is not surprising to see
a positive public perception of Turkey in Sweden. The government in
Sweden is keen to boost that perception with the inauguration of the
Institute for Turkey Studies of Stockholm University during Gul's
visit. The fact that approximately 115,000 emigrants from Turkey live
in Sweden constitutes another link bonding the two countries.
All in all, Swedes are betting that Turkey with modern democracy, a
thriving economy and Islamic values can set a good example for others
in the region and help Europeans resolve integration problems with
Muslim communities. That is why they are upgrading ties to "strategic
partnership," implying that Swedish and Turkish values are completely
compatible. This will soon lead to joint intergovernmental cabinet
meetings. By furthering the reform path, the Turks should make the
Swedes' advocacy job easier.
From: A. Papazian
Today's Zaman, Turkey
March 12 2013
Column by Abdullah Bozkurt
If you ask which country has been the strongest advocate of the
EU membership process for Turkey in the last decade, not just with
public remarks but also with intensive lobbying endeavours, I would
say it was - and still is - Sweden. It is amazing how the Swedes came
around from being one of the most vocal critics of Turkey concerning
shortcomings in rights throughout the 1990s to becoming its staunchest
ally in the 27-member bloc, really pushing the other EU member states
for acceleration of negotiations with Turkey today.
The engagement of Sweden with Turkey is mainly motivated by the fact
that a majority Muslim country with G-20 and NATO memberships has
started to play an increasingly pivotal role in regional and global
affairs. Swedes noticed early on that Turkey with political reforms
as well as its robust and growing economy fuelled by entrepreneurial
companies, dynamic young labour force and huge consumer market would
be a good candidate for partnership. As a small country with 9.3
million people, the Swedes have tried their best to avoid conflicts
for two centuries. The best way to insure that is to stay engaged
with multinational organizations like the UN, the EU and NATO as
well as to maintain close ties with emerging powers. Policymakers in
Sweden acknowledge the value Turkey brings to the table in resolving
conflicts like in Kosovo and Afghanistan where Swedish troops serve
along with Turkish ones. As Sweden became involved in many issues
in the Western Balkans, it appreciated Turkey's role in bridging
differences among Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks.
The Swedes have come to an understanding that the EU can be an engine
of reform in Turkey as the country is undergoing major social and
political changes. They have zoomed in on judicial reforms in Turkey
by offering bilateral cooperation programmes starting as early as
2007. The Turkish Ministry of Justice and the Swedish National Courts
Administration has an ongoing project to make the management of courts
and appeals processes much more efficient while bolstering confidence
in the judiciary. Behind all these efforts lies a belief by Sweden that
Turkey with a full-fledged democracy can serve as an important bridge
between Europe and the Muslim world, strengthening the bloc's role in
regional and world affairs. In other words, Turkey with European and
Muslim values is a good partner for Sweden to "strategically align"
itself with in order to respond to emerging challenges on the old
continent and beyond.
Swedes were right in their diagnosis of Turkey. The EU process has
not only helped Turkey in overhauling archaic state institutions but
also contributed in marginalizing the elitist Kemalist ideology that
had held the governance of the country captive to the interests of a
privileged few. In old times, it would be simply unthinkable to see
a Turkish Syriac Orthodox archbishop as a minority representative
taking part today in a foreign trip by a Turkish president, Abdullah
Gul, on his state visit to Sweden where by one account, around 70,000
Turkish Syriacs live. Instead of hailing this as richness in diverse
Turkish society, the old dogs would have labelled this as amounting to
"treason." Thankfully and hopefully we have now gone way beyond this
mentality holding a grip on Turkey's potential.
The Swedes are understandably interested in seeing the resolution
of Turkey's Kurdish problem and have thrown their support behind the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government initiatives
to address Kurdish demands. Further democratization, a new constitution
and decentralization will help marginalize the terrorist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), relieving some of the issues confronting the
Kurdish diaspora in Sweden as well. If anybody knows how the PKK
terror dealt a blow to legitimate Kurdish aspirations in Turkey,
it must be Kurdish writer and politician Kemal Burkay, who returned
to Turkey from a 31-year exile in Sweden last year. Burkay has said
that people who do not want a solution to the Kurdish problem are
the same ones who do not want Turkey's inclusion in the EU.
This Nordic country was instrumental in the formation of the Friends
of Turkey informal parliamentary bipartisan friendship group that was
established in the European Parliament in 2010. Sweden is the only EU
member country that has opened a Swedish-Turkish Cooperation Centre
in Istanbul to promote Turkey's integration into the EU. The Swedes
even took the gloves off in 2009 when former French President Nicolas
Sarkozy tried to shut the door completely on Turkey by floating
a hollow "privileged membership" alternative. After criticisms of
France by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was interviewed
by Le Figaro on the eve of Sarkozy's visit to Sweden in 2009, the
French president had to cancel the trip.
If other friends of Turkey in the EU would put up as much of a
fight in closed-door meetings as the Swedes did, we would probably
be halfway through now on the finalizing of the negotiation chapters
for membership. But most just choose to resort to cheap talk without
spending any political capital and pay lip service to Turkish concerns
without fighting when the arm-twisting starts in Brussels. During the
EU presidency in 2010, the Swedes did their best to bridge differences
between NATO and the EU over the Cyprus issue but failed to do so.
This was compounded by the fact that Turkish-EU ties, unlike
Turkey-NATO relations, were problematic, and this led to some tension
between Turkey and the Sweden as well. But just as in the case where
the Swedish government quickly distanced itself from a vote in the
Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century killings
of Anatolian Armenians as genocide in 2010, Stockholm also did not
allow differences in Afghanistan to make a dent in bilateral ties
with Turkey.
Now we see that the growing bilateral relations between Turkey and
Sweden have a cooperative aspect with regard to third countries. On
the diplomatic level, Bildt and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet
Davutoglu, are in constant contact to discuss issues that matter
for both concerning other countries. The informal process known
as Trilateral Solidarity for Building Peace, which includes Bildt,
Davutoglu and the minister of external relations of Brazil, Antonio
de Aguiar Patriota, has the potential of having a synchronized impact
on some of the important regional and global issues. The mechanism is
intended to draw further attention to issues like the Arab Awakening,
the question of Palestine, the global economic crisis, terrorism,
eradication of poverty, climate change, Internet freedom and nuclear
proliferation.
>>From an economic perspective, Sweden can play an important role in
improving Turkey's technological infrastructure and know-how to make
the country leap forward to the first-tier economies of the world. The
Swedes are a tech-savvy people and have developed global brands in
technology. Turks can learn a lot from the Swedes, who came in second
after Germany in tech venture capital investments last year. In
return, Sweden - whose economy was battered with declining exports
(47 per cent of the Swedish economy relies on exports) - can benefit
from the Turkish experience in market penetration. In fact, that is
what Hakan Akesson, Sweden's ambassador to Turkey, hinted on Friday
when I saw him to talk about Gul's visit. He said there is a perfect
opportunity now for both Swedish and Turkish companies to partner
in third markets. "They complement each other," he asserted. As the
Swedish economy is forecast to have 1.1 per cent growth this year after
posting 0.8 per cent last year, it needs new markets. What is more,
the half a trillion dollar Swedish economy with an aging population
and very liberal labour laws can tap into the young labour pool in
Turkey. There is also room for improvement of the bilateral trade
volume between Turkey and Sweden, which stood at $3.3 billion in
2012, favouring Sweden by two-to-one. It has increased by 300 per
cent since 2002 when the trade volume was $831 million.
There is a bipartisan and generall y positive consensus in Sweden
towards Turkey. Considering that over 600,000 Swedes visited Turkey
last year, up from 200,000 a decade ago, it is not surprising to see
a positive public perception of Turkey in Sweden. The government in
Sweden is keen to boost that perception with the inauguration of the
Institute for Turkey Studies of Stockholm University during Gul's
visit. The fact that approximately 115,000 emigrants from Turkey live
in Sweden constitutes another link bonding the two countries.
All in all, Swedes are betting that Turkey with modern democracy, a
thriving economy and Islamic values can set a good example for others
in the region and help Europeans resolve integration problems with
Muslim communities. That is why they are upgrading ties to "strategic
partnership," implying that Swedish and Turkish values are completely
compatible. This will soon lead to joint intergovernmental cabinet
meetings. By furthering the reform path, the Turks should make the
Swedes' advocacy job easier.
From: A. Papazian