Turks Turn to Flag, Nationalism as EU Talks Loom

Reuters Feature
Monday April 11, 2005

By Gareth Jones

ANKARA, Turkey (Reuters) – Anyone visiting Turkey in recent weeks
might be forgiven for thinking the country had just gone to war or at
the very least won a major soccer tournament.

Public buildings, homes, buses, taxis and private cars have been
festooned with the national flag, depicting a white Islamic crescent
moon and star against a red background.

Rallies and protests featuring the flag have been held across
Turkey. In the eastern city of Erzurum, the German ambassador was
prevented from cutting a cake decorated with the Turkish flag on the
grounds it could signify disrespect.

This outpouring of patriotic fervor was sparked by neither war nor
soccer but an incident last month in which youths tried unsuccessfully
to set fire to a Turkish flag during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in
the port city of Mersin.

An overreaction? Turkey’s military General Staff did not think so. It
issued a statement vowing to defend the nation to its “last drop of
blood.” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced sternly that the flag
was a sacred symbol for Turks.

Security officers detained the 13- and 14-year-old boys accused of
setting fire to the flag, along with nine others.

The flag-waving has raised some awkward questions about Turks’ state
of mind as they prepare for the start of talks in October to join the
European Union, a club founded on the rejection of nationalism that
enjoins its members to share sovereignty and focus on common values.

“Turks are feeling cornered, besieged from outside and betrayed from
within. The explosion was waiting to happen. In Mersin, somebody
simply lit the match,” said Dogu Ergil, head of the liberal think-tank
TOSAM.

The perceived threats from outside include EU pressure on a range of
sensitive issues including Cyprus as well as U.S. troops in
neighboring Iraq. Inside Turkey, he said, people fear “betrayal” by
Kurds and other ethnic or religious minorities.

TROUBLING SIGNALS

The reaction to the Mersin incident is just one of a number of signals
troubling advocates of Turkey’s EU membership.

Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic tract “Mein Kampf” has shot onto the
best-seller lists. Turkey’s best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk has
received death threats for backing Armenian claims of genocide at
Turkish hands in World War One. A government minister said Christian
missionaries threaten national unity, even though only a tiny handful
of Turks have converted.

The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy
real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions on
foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm
national interests.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has vowed to press
ahead with those two laws. But the impression from these incidents is
of a country succumbing to paranoia and conspiracy theories and trying
to retreat into its shell, diplomats say.

“The perception gap between Turkey and the EU is wider than at any
time since the AKP came to power (in November 2002),” said one
Ankara-based European diplomat.

The diplomat noted that nationalism is a founding principle of the
Turkish Republic and viewed as a very positive force, while Europeans
are far more mindful of its destructive power, which led to the
decision to set up an EU in the first place.

“Turkey did not go through the catharsis of World War II. To reject
nationalism here is to reject the republic and (its founder Kemal)
Ataturk. This difference in experience can feed a sense of
incompatibility between Turkey and Europe,” he said.

Emin Sirin, an independent member of the Turkish parliament, said the
Turks’ “pressure cooker” discontent stemmed mainly from a sense of
hurt pride over the EU’s treatment of their country.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

The EU has said Turkey will face a tougher negotiation process, with
much stricter monitoring of its reforms, reflecting widespread unease
in the wealthy bloc about admitting the relatively poor Muslim nation
of 70 million people.

“Turks see double standards … Europe has a colonial governor
attitude toward us,” Sirin told Reuters.

Even if Turkey successfully completes the lengthy entry talks, French
voters could block its membership in a referendum promised to them by
President Jacques Chirac. Germany’s Christian Democrat opposition,
which could come to power next year, actively opposes Turkish
accession.

Sirin said Turks felt more vulnerable because EU reforms threaten to
emasculate the army — the country’s most respected institution — and
could hamper efforts to crack down on Kurdish separatist guerrillas
still active in the southeast.

Hasan Unal, a nationalist-minded professor at Ankara’s Bilkent
University, said the benefits of Turkey’s strong economic growth were
failing to reach many Turks.

Many AKP deputies fear that Turkey will have to make more concessions
to the EU on the vexed issue of Cyprus, he said, adding that such
nationalist concerns helped account for a steady trickle of defections
from the party in recent weeks.

But TOSAM’s Ergil took a more optimistic view, noting Turks’ continued
strong support for EU membership in opinion polls.

“There is no going back (on reforms). A good government will have to
explain clearly to the Turkish people what is at stake.”

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