NO RED CARPET FOR DUTCH POPULIST: TURKEY FRETS ABOUT GEERT WILDERS’ PLANNED VISIT
By Bram Vermeulen

Spiegel Online
,1518, 663638,00.html
Nov 26 2009
Germany

Is Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders a persona non grata
in Turkey?

The Turkish government fears a scheduled visit by Dutch anti-Islam
politician Geert Wilders, saying it could dent Turkish relations with
the Netherlands and Europe. But many secular and religious Turks say
they would welcome a debate with the polemic politician.

A planned visit to Turkey by Dutch members of parliament is up in the
air after the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said the delegation
would not be welcome if it included Geert Wilders, the controversial
leader of the populist Dutch party Party for Freedom (PVV). Wilders,
known for his anti-Islam film "Fitna" and for comparing the Koran
to Hitler’s "Mein Kampf," strongly opposes Turkey’s accession to the
European Union.

Burak Ozugergin, from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, told the news
agency ANP: "Such a fascist and a racist is not only unwelcome in
Turkey but also in many European capitals. We can’t find anyone who
wants to meet him."

Wilders said he was dismayed by the Turkish position. "This is not
a democratic way to deal with a democratically elected politician,"
he said. "Turkey is showing its dirtiest face."

A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry in Ankara had earlier stressed
that no decision had been made on whether Geert Wilders would be
allowed to enter in January: "It is up to the prime minister to
publicly disclose it."

"We feel the ideas of Geert Wilders are racist and unacceptable," the
spokesperson said. "That is why no one here is eager to roll out the
red carpet for him, and neither are many other European capitals. The
media attention for his coming to Turkey will overshadow all other
members of the delegation and jeopardize the excellent relations we
have with the Netherlands. We have to draw the line somewhere."

The spat has sparked a flurry of Dutch media coverage. It was the
Turkish daily Aksam which on Tuesday broke the news of the ministry’s
worries about the forthcoming visit of Dutch members of parliament
including Geert Wilders, but the controversy got little attention in
other Turkish media.

Wilders is just one of many European politicians who are opposed
to Turkey joining the EU. Observers in Turkey pay more attention
to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, who both oppose Turkish membership of the bloc and who wield
considerably more power than Wilders.

A Chat with Wilders?

But the ministry’s stance on Wilders doesn’t reflect the opinion
of the whole country. In fact, both secular and religious opinion
makers in Turkey who are familiar with Wilders say they would welcome
a conversation with the polemic politician, for reasons of their own.

Leyla Tavsanoglu is a columnist for the republican newspaper
Cumhuriyet, which has campaigned against political Islam ever since
it was founded in 1924. "Geert Wilders is a very interesting man. Do
you think he would have half an hour for me when he is here?" she
asked eagerly.

"I fear political Islam as much as he does," she said. "Because more
and more villages in Anatolia have banned alcohol, because my phone
is being tapped, because my 80-year-old boss has been arrested,
because someone threw a bomb over the fence here 18 months ago."

However she feels that Wilders’ solution is wrong. "It is precisely
because of these fears that we should admit Turkey into the European
Union," she says. "Or we will lose this country to radical Islam and
Europe will have a second Iran at its border. Surely that’s not what
he wants."

Secular Elite and Army Have Lost Power

Tavsanoglu’s point of view represents that of most secular Turks who
live in the affluent neighborhoods of Istanbul. She is the voice of
an elite that, over the past seven years, has been gradually losing
power to the emerging religious middle class, headed by the ruling
AKP party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ironically, it was the very reforms required for EU membership that
led the secular Turkish elite, and especially its guardian, the
powerful Turkish army, to rapidly relinquish influence. Army generals
are now being prosecuted for conspiracies and alleged coups, as are
many secular and republican opinion leaders. These persecutions are
among the 10 reasons Wilders has listed on his Web site for blocking
Turkey’s entry to the EU.

"Normally, the army belongs in the barracks. But I will make an
exception for Turkey," Wilders wrote. "The Turkish army is the greatest
defender of Kemal Ataturk’s legacy, the man who compared Islam with a
rotting corpse. Without the corrective influence of the army, Turkey
would already be a second Iran."

This position is incomprehensible and indefensible, said Mustafa
Akyol, a columnist and deputy editor of the Turkish Daily News and
a practising Muslim. "Wilders forgets that Ataturk in his time (the
1920 and 30s) turned Turkey’s face to the West, but that the West
wasn’t a very pleasant place at the time. Many of the European fascist
and nationalist ideologies of the time, like that of authoritarian
one-party states, were thus imported to Turkey and the secular Turks
have held onto them until now."

‘The West’s Biggest Fans’

When Akyol saw Wilders’ film Fitna in 2008, he invited the Dutch
politician to meet with him over a Turkish coffee so that Akyol
could explain why he should not fear Turkish Islam. Given the chance,
he said, he would tell Wilders that the ruling AKP party, with its
roots in political Islam, has done more for democracy in Turkey than
any of its predecessors. The government has continued its overtures
to the Kurds and neighboring Christian Armenia, despite opinion polls
showing many Turks oppose them.

"The Islamic movement in Turkey has changed radically since the
1990s," Akyol says. "The anger against the West originated from the
anger against authoritarian secularism. This disappeared as soon
as people realized European democracy would actually give them more
rights as Muslims."

"Muslims are the West’s biggest fans here," he says. "Wilders has
nothing to fear. I would like to explain that to him."

Bram Vermeulen is NRC Handelsblad’s Turkey correspondent.