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Moonshine, My Fight and Croatia
By SELCUK GULTASLI
Zaman, Turkey
March 24 2005
Thanks to the Internet search engines, when you wake up in the
morning, you can find almost all news that include the word Turkey on
websites that day. You can take a look at all the news written about
Turkey from all over world, on wide-ranging scale, from the Anzac Bay
disputes in Australia to Turks who opened a bakery for tsunami
victims in Indonesia, that does not have the tradition of eating
bread at all.
The point I have always been curious about for a long time, when I
start my day, is how Turkey is mentioned that day around the world.
The hit news during last year's spring season was the ruling Justice
and Development Party's (AKP's) political move over Cyprus, that
"shook Europe." During the dates when the progress report was
released, "the Turkish government's bold reform initiative" was
pretty popular. It was written and talked about on the eve of the
summit that the EU could not trigger such a successful transformation
in any other candidate country as it did in Turkey. Except a for a
few exceptions, the most noteworthy being the adultery debate, it is
possible to argue that Turkey was positively reflected in European
public opinion.
For a while now, this line has broken alarmingly. Those who died
after drinking moonshine have made banner headlines all over the
world, in news relating to Turkey, over the past month. Besides news
on the Internet, pictures of the women who were beaten on March 6
repeatedly were beamed across European TV screens, and this issue
also dominated some very tough debates. While the March 6 incident
seemed to have subsided, it is now being written everywhere that
Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf" (My Fight), is the bestseller in Turkey.
In a year that coincided with the 60th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz, it is being emphasized that "My Fight" is on the
bestseller list in a country, that is to start negotiations with the
EU on October 3.
I have to dwell on two more of these stories: One was a story which
was reflected in the European media as "Turks have begun an ethnic
cleansing of animal names," and it was about changing names like fox,
deer, sheep, which are Kurdish and Armenian words into Latin forms.
The other was that of a Turkish man, who dressed as his dead mother
for years, to collect her pension.
But the most alarming things are that efforts in reinforcing Turkey's
sick man image, which have begun to spread all over Europe, and the
government showing signs of exhaustion, occurred at the same time.
The government slowing down and the negatives emerging one after the
other overlap each other, and therefore help circles which oppose the
start of negotiations on October 3.
It is beneficial to evaluate the postponement of membership
negotiations with Croatia within this context. Saying, "Croatia does
not have any relevance to us" is once again not reading the issue
correctly. Turkey should impose the Croatia decision upon itself,
perhaps, even more than Zagreb does. Having been shielded with the
authority to stop negotiations at any moment through its good works
October 6 progress report and the December 17 EU Summit decisions,
the EU now has been strengthened and has become more powerful on the
Turkey front by the postponement of Croatia's accession talks.
March 21, 2005
Brussels
By SELCUK GULTASLI
Zaman, Turkey
March 24 2005
Thanks to the Internet search engines, when you wake up in the
morning, you can find almost all news that include the word Turkey on
websites that day. You can take a look at all the news written about
Turkey from all over world, on wide-ranging scale, from the Anzac Bay
disputes in Australia to Turks who opened a bakery for tsunami
victims in Indonesia, that does not have the tradition of eating
bread at all.
The point I have always been curious about for a long time, when I
start my day, is how Turkey is mentioned that day around the world.
The hit news during last year's spring season was the ruling Justice
and Development Party's (AKP's) political move over Cyprus, that
"shook Europe." During the dates when the progress report was
released, "the Turkish government's bold reform initiative" was
pretty popular. It was written and talked about on the eve of the
summit that the EU could not trigger such a successful transformation
in any other candidate country as it did in Turkey. Except a for a
few exceptions, the most noteworthy being the adultery debate, it is
possible to argue that Turkey was positively reflected in European
public opinion.
For a while now, this line has broken alarmingly. Those who died
after drinking moonshine have made banner headlines all over the
world, in news relating to Turkey, over the past month. Besides news
on the Internet, pictures of the women who were beaten on March 6
repeatedly were beamed across European TV screens, and this issue
also dominated some very tough debates. While the March 6 incident
seemed to have subsided, it is now being written everywhere that
Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf" (My Fight), is the bestseller in Turkey.
In a year that coincided with the 60th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz, it is being emphasized that "My Fight" is on the
bestseller list in a country, that is to start negotiations with the
EU on October 3.
I have to dwell on two more of these stories: One was a story which
was reflected in the European media as "Turks have begun an ethnic
cleansing of animal names," and it was about changing names like fox,
deer, sheep, which are Kurdish and Armenian words into Latin forms.
The other was that of a Turkish man, who dressed as his dead mother
for years, to collect her pension.
But the most alarming things are that efforts in reinforcing Turkey's
sick man image, which have begun to spread all over Europe, and the
government showing signs of exhaustion, occurred at the same time.
The government slowing down and the negatives emerging one after the
other overlap each other, and therefore help circles which oppose the
start of negotiations on October 3.
It is beneficial to evaluate the postponement of membership
negotiations with Croatia within this context. Saying, "Croatia does
not have any relevance to us" is once again not reading the issue
correctly. Turkey should impose the Croatia decision upon itself,
perhaps, even more than Zagreb does. Having been shielded with the
authority to stop negotiations at any moment through its good works
October 6 progress report and the December 17 EU Summit decisions,
the EU now has been strengthened and has become more powerful on the
Turkey front by the postponement of Croatia's accession talks.
March 21, 2005
Brussels