Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?
By Antero Leitzinger
The Journal of Turkish weekly
2 February 2005.
Turkey applied for membership in the EEC as early as in 1970s, when she had
been indisputably and for a long time a democratic market economy, one of
the founding members of the Council of Europe, and a country with a decent
record on human rights, compared with the military dictatorships of Greece,
Spain and Portugal, let alone the countries of Eastern Europe. The upheavals
of Southern Europe in the mid-1970s, the intensified internal political
situation of Turkey, and the military regime of early 1980s, as well as the
surprising membership of Greece in the Western European community sidelined
Turkey for two extra decades to wait for acceptance.
Finally during Finland’s chairman period in 1999, Turkey was finally
accepted as an applicant country for the European Union. This encouraged
Turkey to make legal reforms, which have been carried out for three years
now, despite the hard economic crisis. Guerrilla war in the Kurdish
districts is past now, and on 30th Nov. 2002, even the last province was
officially returned to normalcy. The PKK has abolished itself, and the death
penalty of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been changed into life
imprisonment. Turkey’s prisons have been reformed according to the EU norms,
lots of inmates have been amnestied, and previously used parts of the
criminal law have been overruled. In allowing media and school teaching in
Kurdish languages, Turkey has exceeded France and Sweden in the progression
of her minority policy.
However, Turkey has traditionally had dedicated enemies in Europe. As early
as in 1800s, conservative Christian and idealist liberal civil movements,
acting on behalf of the Christian minorities of the Balkans, were organising
lecture and newspaper campaigns and demonstrations against Turkey. The
ancient Greece was adored under the banners of philhellenism (1821), and
medieval myths were revived by telling horror stories of the “Bulgarian
atrocities” (1876). The propaganda war culminated in the after-play of the
First World War in 1920s, but was again revived from 1965 onwards, on the
initiative of third generation Armenian emigrants of France and America, who
were inspired and directed by Soviet Armenia.
Nowadays it is hard to believe that Turkey could anyhow get released from
the constant criticism by human rights organisations, since criticising
Turkey has become the lifeline of many of them. For many international human
rights organisations, regular campaigns against Turkey have become the most
successful kind of activity, and Turkish illegal immigrants willingly
participate them in order to base their asylum applications. International
organisations, researchers and media outlets are using Turkish extremist
groups as their sources, but the credibility and relevance of the
information they provide is very low. For this reason, the criticism against
Turkey often repeats echoes from years away. In its latest issue, Der
Spiegel (50/9th Dec. 2002) added to its article on Turkey a picture of a
Kurdish demonstration from 1992.
Turkish asylum seekers still refer to the destruction and evacuation of
frontier villages in mid-1990s. Although repatriation of these villages has
been started, the Human Rights Watch report predicts the return to fail,
because it would be too late without EU support (i.e. many who have moved to
cities, are reluctant to return to the periphery).
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (28th Nov. 2002) tells that torture became more common
in Turkey during the short military reign of 1980s. After that the
government tried to get rid of the phenomenon by sending the cruel policemen
from cities to the countryside, which, however, spread the problem
especially to the Kurdish districts. Accusing the policemen was made
difficult by a law that demanded acceptance of the superior to rise a court
case. The fact that many trials were taking more than five years caused that
many accusations became obsolete. The new government has suggested a legal
reform that would correct these problems, and enable overruling existing
verdicts on political crimes.
Against this background we have to understand the interest of the Turks in
the question, whether they are Europeans in the others’ eyes, or if they
fall outside Europe already in principle. When the Westernisation that has
prevailed in Turkey for 80 years becomes questioned by other Europeans, the
nationalist and pan-Islamic alternatives become stronger. Same kind of
development was experienced already in early 1900s, when the originally
liberal Young Turks changed into ferocious nationalists and rushed into the
First World War. In today’s Turkey, many people think that if the EU will
turn her back to Turkey, Turkey must turn towards Arab countries, Iran, the
Caucasus, and Central Asia. In co-operation with Pakistan, Turkey could
develop her own nuclear weapon. The successful military co-operation between
Turkey and Israel would be endangered. The 300-year rivalry between Turkey
and Russia over the borderlands would intensify.
Turkey is a bit poorer than Romania, when the GNP per capita is compared,
but the reason is the very rapid growth of Turkish population. It is
estimated that after 10 years there will be 90 million inhabitants in
Turkey, more than in Germany. In one way or another, that will compensate
the shrinking population of Europe and Russia. Chronic inflation plagues the
Turkish economy, but economic growth has been strong for a long time, and
there is plenty of potential. Unemployment (8,5 %) is lower than in most of
the countries of Eastern Europe, and industrialisation is more developed
than in Bulgaria and Romania. (Der Spiegel, 50/9th Dec. 2002)
Political Islamisation of Turkey would influence Europe especially through
the 2,5 million Turkish-originating immigrants residing in Germany. It is
hard to imagine how the EU could isolate herself from Turkey and the Middle
East. The EU can, however, choose, whether she will passively surrender to
be a side theatre of the problems of the Middle East and the whole Islamic
world, or whether it takes an active initiative to support moderate Muslims
and Turkey in her relations to her neighbours.
It is expected that the attitude towards Turkey, the Turks, Muslims and
foreigners in general, will become a hot election issue in the election of
the German state of Hessen in February. Both radical right and radical left
oppose the EU membership of Turkey. The present red-green government has
tried to balance between the views and the former Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl
had a Turkish daughter-in-law. Compared to these, future seems more
controversial. Already half million of the German Turks have German
citizenship, and their votes for the left and for the Greens was decisive in
favour of the present government in last national election.
Antero Leitzinger is a political historian and a researcher for the Finnish
Directorate of Immigration. He wrote several books on Turkey, the Middle
East and the Caucasus.
Source: Global Politician, 2 February 2005.
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