THE TURKISH DILEMMA
By George Gregoriou

Greek News, New York
March 20 2006

At a party the other day a French woman who was connected with the
United Nations said to me “Turkey will not be in the European Union”.

I said “I will not loose any sleep over it. If Turkey does change she
does not deserve to be in the EU”. Maybe the cynical among us will
not loose any sleep. But, Washington and London will, and the Turkish
corporate interests and the left, who want to move in the direction of
Europe. Official Athens and Nicosia also want Turkey to be in Europe. A
more civilized Turkey will be a better neighbor in the Aegean, even
settle the Cyprus problem in a way which is acceptable to the Greek and
Turkish Cypriots. At least, this has been the official line from the
moment Ankara became a candidate for membership in the European Union.

Not all Turks want to join the European Union. Not just nationalists
and Islamicists. Secularists are not eager, especially if Turkey
will pay a price for membership in the EU. PM Embarkan, PM Erdogan’s
predecessor/head of the Islamist movement, wanted to redirect Turkey
towards the Islamic Middle East, even form an Islamic “NATO”. He
was booted out of power by the military. PM Erdogan has managed to
tip-toe around this issue, maintaining his Islamic credentials but
maneuvering in the direction of the EU, for the economic benefits.

The recent crisis over the trial and possible jailing of the prominent
novelist Orhan Pamuk is only the tip of the iceberg. Pamuk is not the
real issue. Turkey is on trial, stated Oli Rehn, the EU enlargement
commissioner. The charge against Pamuk is over his statement in an
interview with Das Magazin, a Swiss publication, that the Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915.

Over a million Armenians were massacred. The Kurds, who were “promised”
Armenian land and property, hand a hand in this massacre, until
Ataturk turned his guns on these “mountain Turks”. Pamuk’s other
“crime” was his statement that thousands of Kurds were killed in
the war against the separatist P.K.I. in the 1980s. These comments
“denigrate Turkishness”. Any criticism of the state, the army, or the
founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk, are crimes which can
send one to prison. Pamuk is not the first to be charged. According to
the NYTimes(12/17/05) nearly 60 intellectuals have been charged with
this crime. On his way to court Pamuk was confronted by protestors
hurling eggs and insults “Traitor Pamuk!”

The Islamic religion in Turkey is not the only issue. Those who
brought the charges against Pamuk are known secularists who brought
charges against women wearing the shroud, which violates the Ataturk
legacy of modernization. So, if we were to add the Islamists and the
nationalists/secularists who will defend Turkish “honor” against
free speech and democratic rights, who among the 70 million Turks
is eligible to be in the EU at a time when the wave of anti-Muslim
attitudes is on the increase throughout Europe?

The Pamuk trial was so hot, the political and criminal establishment
postponed the case until February 7. Turkey’s trajectory into the
EU is at risk. If Pamuk is found not guilty in February the penal
code is invalidated. If he is guilty, more ammunition is given to
those opposing Turkey in the EU, a slap in the face of the Bush-Blair
regimes promoting. Turkey’s accession talks for geopolitical reasons,
to control the Middle East and Central Asia for their oil and natural
resources.

Turkey’s trajectory into the EU will be very bumpy. The Pamuk case
involves admission by the Ankara regime for the crimes committed
against Armenians and Kurds, which is common knowledge throughout
the world. The worse scenario would be demands for reparations by
the descendants of the Armenians massacred. The Turkish state seems
to be good at taking, not giving or paying its dues, even offering an
apology for crimes committed 90 years ago. Money is the real problem,
but there is more to it. Pandora’s box will be opened. A flood will be
cascading into the faces of those Turks hiding behind the fig leaf of
“honor” to deny the barbarism within the Turkish civilization.

If official Ankara cannot admit to the massacre of Armenians and
Greeks at the turn of the last century, how can it admit to the crimes
committed against the 15 million Kurds, persecuted since the days of
Ataturk. Ataturk’s policy was, those who could be Turkified could stay
in Turkey, those who could not, be eliminated. The fate of millions
of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews in Asia Minor is well-known to Turks
in the street, but not to the all the regimes in Ankara since WWI.

This Turkish barbarism is not just the legacy of the past. The war
on the Kurds continued throughout the 20th Century. It continues
today in Eastern Anatolia and Ankara’s current policy towards the
Kurds in northern Iraq. It continues in Cyprus as well. The invasion
and ethnic cleansing in 1974 has been in place for 31 years. 200,000
Cypriots were forced to leave the northern part of Cyprus, to make
room for 130,000 settlers from Anatolia. This is the Turkish method of
settling disputes, settlers to change the demographics and an army of
occupation to guarantee that the facts on the ground created by the
invasion are irreversible. There could be a settlement of the Cyprus
problem between the Greeks and Turks of Cyprus within 24 hours if
the settlers and the Turkish army were to go back to Turkey.

Ankara is not alone in this crime. Washington and London are its
co-conspirators.

The Turkish dilemma is real. If Ankara cannot admit the massacre of
the Armenians and is prosecuting one of Turkey¹s best known novelist,
Orhan Pamuk, how can it deal with the Kurdish and Cyprus problems
if it is serious and wants to be in the EU? Nicosia, Athens, and
other European capitals may have the last word: a veto over Turkey¹s
membership in the European Union.

*** George Gregoriou Professor, Critical Theory and Geopolitics
Department of Political Science The William Paterson University Wayne,
New Jersey 07470 e-mail: gregorioug@wpunj.edu

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