The International Herald Tribune
May 7, 2004 Friday

Membership could cost Turkey its soul ;Joining the EU

by Sedat Sami

CARBONDALE, Illinois

A former prime minister of Turkey, Mesut Yilmaz, declared in 1999
that “Turkey’s road to the European Union goes through Diyarbakir,” a
mostly Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey. He was alluding to
European Union demands that Turkey grant more autonomy to its Kurdish
citizens as the price of an eventual membership in the EU.

But a detour to Diyarbakir is not the only one that Turkey will be
forced to take to win EU membership. The danger is that the journey
will lead Turkey away from itself — making membership not worth the
price, which is national sovereignty.

The demands on Turkey are many. Last January, Romano Prodi, the
president of the EU Commission, intimated that the reunification of
Cyprus would enhance Turkey’s EU chances. With the Greek Cypriot
electorate rejecting a reunification plan put forward by Kofi Annan,
the UN secretary-general, it is now apparent that Turkey will
continue to be pressured to offer more concessions to the Greek
Republic of Cyprus to change its mind. In short, Turkey’s road to the
EU will have to pass through Nicosia, too.

In addition, the United States wants Turkey to open its border with
Armenia before the NATO summit meeting in Istanbul in June. Turkey
closed the border more than a decade ago, when a war erupted between
Armenia and Ankara’s ally, Azerbaijan. Given the brittle nature of
its economy and its dependence on the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank, Turkey seems to have little choice but contemplate yet
another detour to the EU, this time through Yerevan.

Finally, a failure to reach an agreement this year with Greece over
territorial rights in the Aegean would lead to the World Court, as
stipulated in the 1999 communique that officially named Turkey a
candidate country. Thus Turkey’s road to the EU may have to snake
through The Hague too.

These issues all generate strong feelings among the Turks. They want
Kurds treated as first-class citizens, for instance, but are deeply
suspicious of any suggestion of autonomy. A strong urge for a fair
and just partnership between the Greek and Turkish communities in
Cyprus is tempered by memories of the terrorism by the Greek
nationalist movement EOKA. And they fear that opening the Armenian
border would be a betrayal of the Azeris who have been driven from
their homes by Armenian troops.

With the EU planning to reconsider its status in December, Turkey is
now faced with a historic decision: What price should the nation pay
for just the promise of negotiations aimed at a future EU membership?

Unfortunately, a rational debate in Turkey about the pros and cons of
EU membership has been clouded by a fog of disinformation. Big
business conglomerates that control the news media are feverishly
pushing for membership, while only a small handful of nationalist and
leftist publications are daring to point out the problems with
accession. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Islamist regime seems to draw its
legitimacy more from the praises of EU leaders, obsessed with the
unification of Cyprus, or of the State Department, eager to assign to
Turkey a major role in its new Greater Middle East project, than from
the people.

Why are the government and business so intent on membership? The
answer lies in Turkey’s economic ills, including high unemployment
and a monumental trade deficit attributable in part to a
disadvantageous customs union with the EU. The underlying problem,
however, is an unholy alliance between a corrupt political elite that
has sought to hang on to power by hook or crook and an equally
corrupt business elite that has robbed Turkey with the connivance of
a meek, underpaid and sometimes crooked bureaucracy. To get itself
out of this economic mess, the regime is banking on the generosity of
a rather skeptical Europe.

But again, at what price? A country cannot be great without a strong
sense of itself. Taking refuge in the bosom of the EU will not save
Turkey unless it rediscovers its moral compass and refuses to
surrender abjectly on matters of national interest. Turkey’s road to
the EU may well be its road to perdition. ** Sedat Sami is a
professor emeritus of engineering at Southern Illinois University.