Turkish Press
May 12 2005
Will We Be Infected By The Croatian Syndrome?
BY SEMIH IDIZ
MILLIYET- European Union Ambassador to Croatia Jacques Wunenburger
said recently that the latest public opinion polls show that more
than half of the Croatian public doesn’t want to join the European
Union, something never before seen in a candidate country. The Ante
Gotovina issue lies at the heart of this situation. Gen. Gotovina is
wanted by The Hague’s War Crimes Tribunal for committing war crimes
against Serbians during the Balkan wars. However, the Croatian public
considers him a hero, so Zagreb hasn’t delivered him to the court. It
only claims to not know where he is. However, the tribunal even found
out that the government is paying a regular salary to him. In this
situation, Britain, France and Germany are preventing the European
Commission from starting membership negotiations with Zagreb. The
stance of such EU countries as Hungary and Austria favoring Croatia
is of no use. Most Croatians, who surrendered themselves to extreme
nationalism due to the Yugoslavian war, say in this situation that
they don’t want to join the EU.
A unilateral stance concerning the Armenian genocide claims, promises
about the Cyprus issue which weren’t kept, the Kurdish issue and now
PKK terrorist group leader Ocalan’s possible retrial… With all these
issues, could Turkey experience a similar syndrome? Considering the
opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) up-in-arms stance about
his retrial, we can say that Turkey might experience a Croatian
syndrome as well. So, would this be a gain or loss for Turkey? This
issue is first of all our problem not with the EU, but with the
Council of Europe, which we’ve been a member of for 50 years. In
other words, if Turkey decides to take a different road on this issue
due to its national sensitivities, first of all it would open its
place into the Council of Europe to discussion. In short, retreating
>From the council would be moving away from Europe. For Croatia, which
has always been a part of Europe’s general history and cultural,
religious and social structure, the same doesn’t hold. In other
words, Croatia can easily go back to Europe in the future. However,
for Turkey, whose `Islamic color’ is very clear in the political
sense and whose democratic development isn’t yet complete, it would
be more difficult.
Of course, as a nation, we might prefer this. Actually if a nation
most of which is unfamiliar with Europe culturally supports this
choice, then Turkey will have to determine its place in the world
again. This situation doesn’t necessarily have to be bad for most of
the population. However, the CHP, which has a tendency towards
demagoguery, or certain parts of society might not be pleased with
this. Therefore, if we are going to get infected by the Croatian
syndrome, we should carefully consider its meanings for Turkey very
well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress