TURKISH PRIVATE SECTOR FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION
Mithat Melen
Turkish Daily News, Turkey
Dec 24 2007
The first time I visited Brussels was 43 years ago. My brief stay
there lasted only three days. Later, in 1972 I landed at Brussels
Airport for the second time at that unfortunate day when a group
of Israeli sportsmen were killed by PLO militants during the Munich
Olympic Games. The next day I started as a trainee at the European
Commission. Afterwards I don’t remember how many times I visited
Brussels, but living there for six years one gathers many memoirs
and makes several friends.
Some days ago I received an invitation to be the keynote speaker
at a conference the Turkish Private Sector Friendship Association
(TOSED) was organizing. The people who issued the invitation were my
old friends Tufan Onder and Vakur Daðdeviren, with whom I had shared
a room at the Brussels University student dormitory. I accepted the
invitation and here I am in Brussels.
TOSED is a nongovernmental organization founded in 1998. It has
125 members. At least once a month they invite an internationally
prominent personality to be the keynote speaker of their conferences.
Recently their guest speakers were 16 famous personalities, including
Wilfried Marteens and Brigitte Grouvers. Most probably you know that
Marteens is the prime minister and Grouvers a member of the council of
ministers of Belgium. TOSED aims to arrange meetings between famous
experts and Turkish business people living in Belgium. The topic of
my presentation was "Turkey, globalization, economy, politics and
the European Union." Two-and-a-half hours passed most pleasantly.
I was happy to learn that several friends from my youth today had
become prominent business people and high level executives. Secondly,
the active participation of my young audience and their questions
gave me a sense of well-being. Some of the names I can remember are
Serdar Bilgic, Fikriye Guzel, Kader Sevinc, Can Kural, Yaþar Tumbaþ,
Uður Þeker.
These NGOs are important both for Turkey and the country they are
established. Although Turkey has been late in involving itself with
civil society groups, I can say beter late than never. Turks living
abroad are concerned about the state of the Turkish economy. They
find us somehow pessimistic. They don’t want an estrangement of Turkey
from the EU. Like some Europeans, some among my Turkish friends were
focused on the lifting of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. I
had to explain to them the truth and the realities of Turkey.
Terrorism in Turkey and the position German and French leaders have
adopted against my country is creating reaction from the ordinary
Turk against the EU. I told my audience that the important issue for
Turkey today is to create more Turkish business owners in Europe and
reminded them that Armenian, Israeli, Greek and Greek Cypriot lobbies
were being fed by big capital around the world.
Changing roles
In the near future, most probably France and Germany will stop being
the locomotives of the EU because of the problems they will face in
employment and the competition coming from the Far East. At this
point Turks living in Europe have to fill this void by creating a
new dynamism in Europe.
With Vakur and Tufan we nostalgically remembered those good old
days. The student restaurant of our university days 35 years ago now
is the famous Tizi Ouzou. As spon as we enter the plush interior the
owner, Yahya, greets us.
We cannot believe our own eyes. He has lost 45 kilos. "I have been ill
these last seven months," he says. Apparently he has lung problems. We
remember the old days. Rue de Moscou where Tizi Ouzou is situated is
filled with Arabic eating places, including couscous restaurants. There
are queues in front of them. Once a student neighborhood, St. Gilles
today has become a high society quarter.
The "F.C. Istanbul 76" football club which was founded in 1976
honors me with a 30th year plaque. I meet several friends there. We
have extensive discussions. Club executives remind me of something I
had said thirty years ago. "Thirty years later if I return here and
discover that the club and you are still there I will be very happy."
The club’s headquarters is in the Scharbeek district. We have to
increase the number of similar sports clubs here.
Belgium is undergoing serious economic problems. The population has
aged, productivity has decreased. China is the big competitor. Even
Turkish businessmen here are doing trade with China. They don’t want
to invest in Belgium because of the strict financial regulations. On
the other hand the euro creates big headaches for Belgium. It has
become an expensive country. But it is still livable.
I go to the apartment flat in the Foret district where we had
lived from 1977 to1980. As everything else in Brussels, nothing has
changed. There is a flat to rent in the same apartment building.
Tufan says the price is 900 euros a month, very sensible compared
to a similar apartment flat iin Istanbul next to mine which goes for
1000 euros a month. Approximate monthly wage in Belgium is 5000 euros.
Compared to Istanbul, Brussels seems less expensive. But comparing
Brussels to Istanbul in every other aspect, "How could I live here
for such a long time?" I ask myself. Being the capital of Europe
and a per capita income of 25,000 euros is very important. But the
political problems take their root from the economic problems. The
king of Belgium is recurrently calling on the people for reunification.
If there wouldn’t be the problem of examinations it would be so nice
being a student in Brussels again.
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