New Anatolian, Turkey
May 12 2007

Long live the EU!

Gunduz Aktan
12 May 2007

The supporters of Justice and Development Party (AKP) say: "Well done
EU! Unlike the U.S., which remained ‘neutral’, the EU defended
Turkish democracy and raised its voice against the Turkish Armed
Forces’ (TSK) memorandum." AKP’s ‘liberal’ columnists reiterated the
same old lyrics that without EU there would neither be democracy nor
economic stability in Turkey. They claimed there is no place for
memorandums in a candidate country or else EU may ‘get out of
patience’ and turn down our membership bid.

On the other hand, the big business and media, rightly, wonder about
the EU policy of the new government which will be formed after the
general elections. In other words they worry that the new government,
especially if it is a coalition one, may suspend the EU membership
process. Although these circles criticize the AKP government for
slowing down the reforms for EU membership since 2005, they are
nonetheless happy that, according to a recently announced program,
Turkey would harmonize its legislation with most of the acquis
communitaire between 2007 and 2013, with or without negotiations.
They expect that negotiations will be initiated on some additional
chapters other than the 8 chapters suspended by the EU. They hope
Sarkozy once sworn in as president will appreciate, as Merkel did,
the principle of pacta sun servanda and will leave aside privileged
partnership farce.

It is obvious that there is a major difference between the AKP’s
approach and that of the republican left CHP, republican right MHP
(Nationalist Movement Party) and the republican center DP (Democrat
Party), which are likely to form a coalition after the elections.
These parties support EU membership just like the 57th government
that worked for getting candidate status for Turkey. But they are
also aware that Turkey’s relations with EU are marginalized due to
EU’s faults, as a result Turkish people gave up hope for EU
membership and give priority to other issues.

Undoubtedly the EU gives importance to Turkey’s democracy as the
defense of democracy is one of the EU’s universal missions. It is
axiomatic that a candidate country with a defective democracy won’t
be able to become an EU member. It is also true that the memorandum
somehow damaged Turkey’s democratic credentials in the eyes of the EU
institutions. But Olli Rehn, maybe for the first time, points out
secularism while warning Turkey and TSK. Moreover he also urges to
abide by the verdict of the Constitutional Court, which drew
vociferous opposition from the AKP supporters.

Actually the problem is how sincere the EU is in its warnings and how
seriously Turkish public will take these warnings, since the EU
ruined all the hopes of Turkey for membership.

We know that the Turkish ‘Republic’ is not all that important for the
EU. Even some reckless people from the EU institutions repeatedly
defamed Kemalism on the false ground that it prevents the development
of Turkish democracy. In the same vein Republic’s secularism is not
important as democracy is, in the eyes of Europeans, which had
tackled this issue well before in history, while many Europeans now
turned into atheist, a serious problem for the church. Hence our
motto "without secularism there won’t be democracy" may not be very
meaningful to them. Likewise they think that the republican principle
of unitary nation-state prevents the solution to the "Kurdish" issue.

In view of the above it is obvious that there is a serious dispute
over Turkish national identity between the republicans in Turkey and
the EU.

However the problem is much deeper than a mere clash of views. An
influential part of EU public opinion together with the leaders of
some important countries considers Turkey not European due to
religion/culture differences. In one important EU member activities
of radical Islamist Turks were allowed for a long time so that the
latter brought up fanatics to fight Turkish secularism. They were
encouraged to cooperate with like-minded Turks in Turkey. Thus these
Europeans tried to defeat the danger caused to their identity by a
non-European but a democratic-secular-modern Muslim country. This
policy persisted until September 11. Perhaps it is still continuing
in a more subtle manner and the defense of democracy is being used to
that end.

Historical prejudices against Turkey and the Turks reached a level of
official racism with Le Pen’s remarks adopted and voiced by Sarkozy.
Like Merkel, Sarkozy may shift his position, at least verbally, in
favor of our full membership for the sake of fulfilling EU’s
commitment. But no one can keep them from using Cyprus problem,
Armenian genocide allegations and the Kurdish issue as a tool for
their ulterior motive, which is to shelve our membership bid for
good.

The problem is what the new government will do against EU’s lulling
or delaying tactics. We either crawl after an illusion like the AKP
or we try to bring the EU to senses.