PLAYING THE TURKISH CARD

>From Warsaw Business Journal
19th February 2007

During his recent visit to Ankara, President Lech KaczyÅ~Dski expressed
unequivocal support for Turkey’s accession to the European Union.

The President’s unambiguous and uncritical declaration astounded not
only Europe, but was also a surprise in Poland. Turkey’s President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer had rarely heard such praise for his country’s
efforts to join the Union as that which came from the mouth of the
Polish President.

Courage or gaffe?

For several years Polish foreign policy has supported Turkish
aspirations for membership of the European Union. However, it had never
been articulated so clearly. Was KaczyÅ~Dski taking a courageous stand,
or was it a gaffe? The Polish press did not comment positively on the
President’s declaration. "In my opinion, Turkey does not deserve to be
courted and invited with a bow to a community of more-so or less-so,
but after all, civilized states," retorted Eliza Michalik, a right-wing
press commentator, usually sympathetic to the KaczyÅ~Dski brothers.

The left-wing press, which is especially sensitive to human rights
issues, the status of women and the observance of minority rights,
wrote that Turkey cannot be accepted into the Union before it starts
to observe the democratic principles which apply in the European
family. Left-wing commentators pointed out that the Turkish government
has not settled the Cypriot question, has made little progress in
legal reforms and has failed to issue a clear-cut condemnation of
the genocide of the Armenians.

Change of view

Polish public opinion is rather confused by this expression of
unambiguous support for Turkey. In contrast to many Western states,
where for a long time there has been constructive public debate about
Turkey’s accession to the EU, in Poland this subject has been raised
only sporadically, and then only in narrow academic and intellectual
circles. Moreover, Polish society – quite nationally homogeneous – has
yet to come into contact with the question of a Muslim minority. To
all intents and purposes, Poles are unfamiliar with the benefits as
well as the problems of a multicultural society.

Polish diplomacy has long advocated expanding the Union first and
foremost through the accession of other countries of the former Soviet
Union, in particular Ukraine and Georgia. For the government in Warsaw,
Turkey was too exotic and far away, and Poland has no economic,
social or strategic interests in Turkey’s accession.

Talking turkey

So whence the sudden support from President KaczyÅ~Dski? I fear that
the reason is not substantive but rather banal. Playing the Turkish
card was intended to achieve a definite propaganda effect.

Above all, Lech KaczyÅ~Dski thumbed his nose at German Chancellor
Angela Merkel. At the very beginning of Germany’s assumption of the
EU presidency, Merkel indicated that the matter of Turkish accession
would be shelved for the time being. It may be shelved for a lot
longer than that.

Since democratization in 1989, Poland’s relations with Germany have
never been as tense as they have become since the KaczyÅ~Dski brothers
came to power. It is therefore difficult to resist the idea that Lech
KaczyÅ~Dski’s declaration of will in Ankara was a move to emphasize
that Poland has a totally different stance to Germany regarding
Europe’s most strategic issues.

Inept diplomacy

The crisis in Polish diplomacy is not just limited to relations between
Warsaw and Berlin. During the last year Polish relations with our other
large neighbor – Russia – have significantly worsened, and the warm
and fruitful relations with Ukraine, which were carefully cultivated
by previous governments, have also stagnated. Good relations with
distant Turkey may somewhat obscure people’s view of the ineptitude
of Polish diplomacy in other areas of crucial importance for our
country. The populist and nationalist part of the KaczyÅ~Dskis’
electorate, unaware of the real context of Turkey’s membership in the
Union, may proudly imagine the Polish locomotive pulling the Turkish
train into the European station with lots of steam and whistles.

Joanna Wóycicka has been a commentator on international relations
and Polish foreign policy since 1991. She is the former head of the
foreign section of the Å"ycie Warszawy and Å"ycie newspapers and the
former head of the Foreign Department at the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

–Boundary_(ID_qAQqAidM5F5UeOTrltmHYQ)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress