Kivanç Galip ÖVER: CDU doesn’t question taboos
Friday, February 11, 2005
Turkish Daily News
Feb 11 2005
A sentence was removed from the school books in Brandenburg, and
a great row took place. The entire of Germany discusses the matter
because the sentence was claiming that Turks had tried systematically
to annihilate Armenians.
According to the German press, Turkey pressed, used diplomacy
skillfully and succeeded. Nowadays the opposition party CDU (Christian
Democratic Union) is trying to drive the coalition party SDP (Social
Democratic Party) into a corner. Sven Petke, a senior official in CDU,
is demanding the sentence to be put back in the school text books.
The statements made by the provincial officials of Brandenburg are
far from being satisfactory to CDU it is a matter with a great detail,
and there is no point speaking about it in details. The most striking
point in the details is the attitude of CDU. The party will soon come
to power in Germany. The time will soon come for the agreement and
disagreements between Berlin and Ankara to affect more that one region.
Even it can be said that the axis of Berlin-Ankara will pave a way
to significant echoes and results. However Berlin’s approach -it is
obvious that this approach is under the influence of internal politics-
does not give much hope regarding the matter. CDU’s attitude shows that
it behaves according to its prejudices about Turkey. The approach of
CDU basically stresses the religion, the culture and the history of
Europe. In fact Turkey doesn’t oppose to the religion, the culture
and the history of Europe.
It is true that Europe is a continent which has an overwhelming
Christian population, whose culture is under a great influence of
the religion, and which lived through problems with Turks. There is
no point in discussing that here.
CDU opposes the idea that Turkey is to be admitted in the near
future or to be admitted before being ready for it. Turkey believes
that it will be ready to be admitted, and it makes efforts for it.
Here too there is no point in discussing that issue here.
However when it comes to Turkey’s identity, social structure, its
mentality, its preferences and its history, the problem appears. CDU
sadly attaches more importance to its idea about Turkey than the
real Turkey.
The politicians in CDU are nervous about the change in the school
text books in Brandenburg. Yet none of them ask themselves this
question: “Or if the events we believe in were not lived?”
The politicians in CDU have to survey this and other allegations in
detail. Because when they come to power, their decisions will be
very crucial.
CDU’s priority must be keeping Turkey “chained” to Europe’s
institutional structure. That is to say, Turkey -in any case- will
be in Europe’s future. If the party has this preference, then it has
to obey the obligations of it.
–Boundary_(ID_8urMs49FYpfnAUyOhvR3pg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress