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Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?

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  • Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?

    Global Politician, NY
    Feb 2, 2005

    Does Turkey Belong In the European Union?

    2/2/2005

    By Antero Leitzinger
    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).

    http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/turkey/

    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.
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