ANALYSIS-EU DREAM HAS ALREADY TURNED SOUR FOR SOME TURKS
By Jon Hemming

Reuters, UK
Sept 29 2005

ISTANBUL, Sept 29 (Reuters) – It may take 10 years before Turkey joins
the European Union, but even at this nascent stage of negotiations
EU demands have inflamed Turkish nationalism.

The constant stream of criticism from the European Union has revived
memories of Western meddling in the 19th and early 20th centuries that
put an end to Turkey’s empire and, but for a nationalist uprising,
would have dismembered Turkey itself.

“The whole issue of nationalism represents the most difficult and
the deepest gap between Turkey and the EU,” said one Turkey-based
EU diplomat.

While the EU was formed to overcome the discredited nationalism that
came close to destroying the continent in World War Two, Turkish
identity was forged by Kemal Ataturk’s 1920s nationalist struggle
that fought off French, British and Greek invaders and suppressed
Kurdish and Islamist threats.

Thus European calls for more rights for the Kurds, pressure over
Cyprus and for Turkey to recognise the Armenian genocide 90 years ago,
unite the far right, far left and many in the secular establishment
against what they see as underhand EU plots.

“Turkey is experiencing the same betrayal by intellectuals that
broke up the Ottoman Empire,” said nationalist party leader Muhsin
Yazicioglu this month.

LEFT AND RIGHT UNITE

While most Turks still favour joining the EU, support has fallen from
73 percent a year ago to 63 percent in a recent survey. However,
as Turkey and the EU get down to the nitty-gritty of negotiations,
support could fall even further, analysts say.

“There is only one fault line in Turkey and that is between those for
and against the EU,” said Istanbul University professor Mehmet Altan.

Meanwhile, opposition in Europe to Turkey’s membership — as high as
80 percent in Austria and 74 percent in Germany — feeds the sense
of suspicion and discrimination felt by many Turks.

This has made for some strange bedfellows.

Scruffy leftists with bushy Lenin beards found themselves rubbing
shoulders with smart dark-suited right-wing nationalists last weekend
at a demonstration against an Istanbul conference by liberal academics
discussing claims of Armenian genocide.

“No EU, no USA, but a completely independent Turkey,” the leftists
chanted, pointing angrily at the EU flag flying above the exclusive
private university hosting the conference.

“Turkey is Turkish and will stay Turkish,” the rightists clamoured,
in similar vein.

The EU closely watched the conference controversy.

“We see this is a question of whether the Turkish mentality can change
and whether openness can prevail over those who prefer a nationalist
view of their history,” the diplomat said.

Both the right-wing Nationalist Action Party and the Turkish Communist
Party are planning anti-EU protests on Oct. 2, the day before Brussels
is due to start long and difficult talks that could lead to Turkey’s
eventual entry to the bloc.

However, more worrying for Turkey’s EU supporters and Turkish liberals
dreaming of shedding their oriental past is the depth of nationalism
in the establishment and the army.

STATE CHALLENGED

For most Turks, Kemal Ataturk is still a hero who saved Turkey from
foreign forces during and after World War One, restored national
pride and turned the country towards Europe.

However for some, his state-centred, top-down legacy sits uneasily
with the pluralist, democratic EU Turkey seeks to join.

“The way to democratise this country, to realise individual rights
and freedoms, to transform a Kemalist state into a democratic state
which values people is the EU,” said Altan.

The so-called “deep state” and the powerful military are uneasy about
surrendering any sovereignty to Brussels, he said.

Europe is “trying to change our national culture by imposing foreign
values, fashion and languages that do not match Turkish customs and
traditions”, complained Turkish Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok
this year.

Increased Kurdish rebel attacks and a violent nationalist backlash
have raised tension in Turkey ahead of Oct. 3 and undermined Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government which has cast aside its Islamist
roots to champion Turkey’s EU cause.

However, many in Erdogan’s own party, including ministers, come from a
nationalist background. They, and many across the political spectrum,
could baulk at too many concessions to EU demands on Cyprus, the
Kurds and minority rights.

“When they get bored by this EU process and because they cannot
offer any logical counter-argument, they’ll get angry and work up
nationalist reaction,” Altan said. “It is a reaction by those fattened
in the past and represents their helplessness.”