XENOPHOBIA ACROSS EUROPE THREATENS TURKS, TURKEY’S EU ACCESSION PROCESS

Today’s Zaman
May 20 2008
Turkey

The right has been on the rise in Europe. The rise of the right
strengthens racist parties because rightist parties toughen their
remarks, thereby becoming closer to racist parties, in order to win
votes normally cast for the latter. The most prominent victims of
this tough rhetoric are minorities, including Turks and naturalized
European citizens, as well as Turkey’s likely EU membership.

In recently held British local elections, the Conservative Party’s
victory and the Labour Party’s greatest landslide defeat in the last
40 years have catered to commentaries suggesting that the right will
soon be "covering" Europe. The arrival of Christian Democrat Angela
Merkel in power in Germany, the maintenance in France of the power
in the hands of the right through Nicolas Sarkozy, the restoration
of the Christian Democrats to power in Belgium and Italy’s latest
face of its Fascist Party having become a very strong partner in
the government raise the question of "What on earth is happening
in Europe?" Exceptions aside, the European right either opposes
Turkey’s membership or views it unfavorably. Because supporting
Turkey’s membership is a state policy in countries such as England,
Spain, Italy and Sweden, the arrival of rightist parties in power
changes nothing. Having placed the rise of the right in Europe under
the magnifying glass, Today’s Zaman has scrutinized the issue with
its different dimensions in mind. The situation in Europe where the
right has been getting stronger is as follows:

The French right, which took control of the Elysée Palace in 1995
after the two-term (14 year) presidency of the socialist Francois
Mitterand, consolidated its power with Sarkozy, who was elected last
year. If Jacques Chirac’s rapidly deteriorated right managed to emerge
from the ballot box in 2007 as the winner in both the general and
presidential elections, the credit goes to Sarkozy’s promises for
realizing radical reforms and the left’s disorderliness.

Having adopted a harsh stance against immigrants with the slogan
"zero tolerance" during his term as interior minister, Sarkozy
hardened his stance during his election campaign. He adopted a
populist rhetoric toward the Muslim minority and was criticized for
his fear-mongering, which was meant to bring him more votes from
the far right. His efforts to appeal to this far-right segment paid
off during the elections. Jean-Marie Le Pen’s votes dropped from 20
percent in 2002, which had allowed him to move on to the second round
of the elections, to 10 percent. As soon as he took office, Sarkozy,
as he had promised, immediately created the first Immigration and
National Identity Ministry in the history of Europe.

All through his election campaign he defended the idea that Turkey
did not belong in Europe and thus opposed its EU accession process,
promising to stop the accession process if he was elected. However,
at the first European summit he attended as the French president,
he clearly saw that he could not stop the accession talks on his
own. This time, he chose to impede the process through various methods.

The French leader’s attitude toward legislation about an alleged
Armenian genocide — passed in the French National Assembly in 2006
and which makes it a crime to deny that the alleged mass killings
of Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I were genocide —
remains unknown, with the legislation still awaiting deliberation in
the Senate. The inactivity of the Elysée Palace and the Union for a
Popular Movement (UMP), the main French center-right political party
in power, in regard to this issue so far, is a curious development,
whereas the Armenian diaspora in the country demands that this
legislation, which penalizes the denial of the alleged genocide,
be passed in the Senate before the European parliament elections set
for 2009.

German voters not tilting toward far right; center sliding there

The rise of the right observed in many European countries manifests
itself in Germany in the form of the center sliding toward the far
right. At first glance, the far right in Germany appears weak. Since
the late 1960s, German far-right parties have never managed to surpass
the 5 percent election threshold and thus could not make it to the
Federal Assembly. The number of far rightists in Germany was quoted
as 38,600 in 2006. Of all these people, 10,400 were described as
"prone to resorting to violence" while 21,500 of them were members of
far-rightist parties. Having a closer look at people’s views reveals
that between 15 to 20 percent of the German population is closer to
the worldview of far rightists.

This apparently small number of members of far-rightist parties is
maintained through the policy of claiming the sensitivities of the
far-rightist segments. This claim prevents voters from gravitating
toward these parties. In particular, the intellectual stream,
called the New Right (Neue Rechte), fulfills the function of a
bridge between the right and the far right and endeavors to make
rightist views dominant among the public. This trend in turn impacts
Turks and Turkey’s EU accession process. However, the xenophobia
and Islamophobia in Germany that adversely affect the Turks in the
country are more prevalent than simply being exclusively rightist or
far-rightist feelings. Far rightist views are shared by more than
15 percent of the population; xenophobia is widespread in about 30
percent; and signs of Islamophobia, or enmity towards Islam, are
found in two-thirds of the population.

The rise of the right observed in many European countries manifests
itself in Germany in the form of the center sliding toward the far
right. At first glance, the far right in Germany appears weak. Since
the late 1960s, German far-right parties have never managed to surpass
the 5 percent election threshold and thus could not make it to the
Federal Assembly. The number of far rightists in Germany was quoted
as 38,600 in 2006. Of all these people, 10,400 were described as
"prone to resorting to violence" while 21,500 of them were members of
far-rightist parties. Having a closer look at people’s views reveals
that between 15 to 20 percent of the German population is closer to
the worldview of far rightists.

This apparently small number of members of far-rightist parties is
maintained through the policy of claiming the sensitivities of the
far-rightist segments. This claim prevents voters from gravitating
toward these parties. In particular, the intellectual stream,
called the New Right (Neue Rechte), fulfills the function of a
bridge between the right and the far right and endeavors to make
rightist views dominant among the public. This trend in turn impacts
Turks and Turkey’s EU accession process. However, the xenophobia
and Islamophobia in Germany that adversely affect the Turks in the
country are more prevalent than simply being exclusively rightist or
far-rightist feelings. Far rightist views are shared by more than
15 percent of the population; xenophobia is widespread in about 30
percent; and signs of Islamophobia, or enmity towards Islam, are
found in two-thirds of the population.

British right against racist party

In local elections held on May 1, the Conservative Party won 100
of the 159 local governments, with the Labour Party sustaining the
heaviest defeat of the last 40 years. It would be more accurate to
contend that the Conservative Party’s victory stemmed more from the
scandals in which the Labour Party got involved in recent years than a
swelling of nationalist feelings. Despite the existence of a far-right
party in Britain, only the Liberal Party, in addition to the Labour
Party and the Conservative Party, is on the political scene. The
Conservative Party frequently emphasizes that people should never
vote for the British National Party.

The problems Turks face are mostly those encountered by all Muslims. A
survey conducted by the Global Market Institute last year shows that
92 percent of Muslims living in Britain are of the opinion that the
source of anti-Islamism is the media. The survey also shows that 50
percent of Britons share this view of Muslims, whereas minorities in
Britain think that the Western media stereotypes the Muslim image
and that the interpretation of Islam that favors the frequent use
of violence, supported by a very small minority, is given very wide
coverage in the media and in an extremely exaggerated fashion.

Source of inspiration for European far right: Danish People’s Party

The right wing in Denmark can be categorized under two fronts:
While liberal and conservative parties can be described as
traditional right, the far right is represented by the Danish
People’s Party. The architect of the far right in Denmark is Mogens
Glistrup, who founded his Progress Party in 1970. The real rise came
about in 1995 when Pia Kjaersgaard parted ways with his "mentor"
Glistrup and founded the Danish People’s Party. After building his
chief policy on xenophobic roots, Kjaersgaard won 12 percent of
the votes in the November 2001 elections and managed to bring 22
deputies into parliament, thereby becoming the key party in terms
of "parliament arithmetic." Kjaersgaard’s Dansk Folkeparti (DF)
supported the liberal-conservative coalition government from outside
parliament and left its mark on this term. Turning its rhetoric of
"Denmark belongs to Danes" into a commonly held view, he managed
to make this slogan the only topic of the election agenda. The word
"foreigner/immigrant" meant "Muslim" for Kjaersgaard. Asserting "Where
Islam exists, tolerance cannot exist," he also became the secret
architect of the harshest immigration law ever, which entered into
force on July 1, 2002, in Europe. The DF never allowed for Muslims to
cease to be in the spotlight and progressively increased its votes
with this policy. Having raised the number of its deputies to 24 in
the February 2005 elections, it won 25 seats in parliament in the
November 2007 elections, becoming Denmark’s third-largest party.

The Danish People’s Party attacks Islam and Muslims at every
opportunity and objects to Turkey’s EU membership. Placing an incessant
emphasis on Turkey’s place being in the Middle East, the party spreads
fears that Turkey’s membership will mean the invasion of Europe by
70 million Muslims. It also defends cartoons ridiculing the Prophet
Mohammed and Muslims published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in
2005 on every ground, while demanding that the headscarf be banned
in public places.

According to many experts, the rise of the right in Europe was
sparked by the DF’s rise to a key position in Denmark. The most
important reason for this rise is that the Social Democrat Party
remained indifferent toward problems faced by minorities during its
term in power between 1994 and 2001, thereby turning 8 percent of
the population into a problematic mass. Although social democrats
garnered 90 percent of the ethnic vote in the previous elections,
they left minorities high and dry with the rise of the far right and
because they changed their message accordingly. They were punished
for this by getting the lowest rate of votes of the last 100 years
in the November 2007 elections.

Racists become strong partner of government for first time

General elections held in Italy on April 13-14 gave the rightist
alliance led by Silvio Berlusconi a landslide victory. Berlusconi,
who founded the People’s Party for Freedom (Popolo della Liberta
[PDL]) with the support of the National Alliance Party (Alleanza
Nazionale [AN]), the latest version of the mutated Fascist Party,
and also supported by the Northern League (Lega Nord) from outside
parliament, was charged by the Italian people with running the country
for five years. The restoration of the rightist alliance to power in
Italy will not directly affect the lives of the 20,000 Turks living
in the country; however, the fact that Lega Nord holds anti-Islamist
and xenophobic ideas and the likelihood that it may put these ideas
into practice in the new Berlusconi government, the Turks, who account
for a very small percentage among immigrants who live in the country,
might also be negatively affected.

Berlusconi’s arrival in power again is not expected to precipitate
any negative developments in Turkish-Italian or Turkish-EU relations
because Italy supports Turkey’s quest for EU membership as state
policy. Just the contrary, it is highly likely that relations
between the two countries will further flourish since Berlusconi is a
pragmatist merchant-politician and has ties of personal friendship to
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Nonetheless, it should
not be forgotten that the smaller partner of the rightist alliance,
the Northern League, is anti-Turkish.

Swedish far right against both EU, Turkey’s membership

The same voting traits can also be observed in Sweden, with the
votes of leftist and social democrat parties progressively falling
and those of rightist parties increasing. In the general elections of
September 2006, the eight-year social democrat administration ended
and a rightist coalition made up of four rightist parties formed
the government.

Currently, despite the existence of the Folk Parti, a party known
to have a negative stance toward minorities, the government cannot
implement blatantly populist policies owing to dominant egalitarian
policies. What plays a great role in this is the Swedes’ ingrained
idea of being against any sort of discrimination. The most unusual
attitudes are probably those adopted by Nyamko Sabuni, the minister
of integration and an immigrant himself, whose statements against
immigrants and in particular Muslims draw very strong ire.

Like the previous social democrat government, the rightist coalition
in power fully supports Turkey’s EU membership. All of the seven
parties in the Swedish parliament believe that Turkey’s membership
would contribute a positive value to the union and that EU membership
is definitely necessary for Turkey to realize its reforms to the
fullest extent.

While xenophobia is not allowed to grow, Sweden’s racist party,
the Democrats of Sweden, is preparing to carry out an anti-Turkish
campaign in order to surpass the 4 percent election threshold to
enter parliament. Party officials think that opposing Turkey’s EU
membership would earn them new votes.

Party president Jimmi Akesson is known to be a defender of the idea
that Sweden should leave the EU. Although his party is against the
EU, they will spread propaganda against Turkey’s likely accession
to the EU. In the 2006 elections, the Democrats of Sweden got only
2.9 percent of the vote and won a total of 282 seats in 144 local
government councils.

With contributions by Today’s Zaman reporters Ali Ä°hsan Aydın
from Paris, Ä°smail Kul from Frankfurt, Hasan Cucuk from Copenhagen,
Ramazan Kerpeten from Stockholm, Ä°brahim Kaya from Rome, and Kamuran
Samar from London.

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