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  • Turks' patriotism raises flags as EU talks near

    The Houston Chronicle
    May 01, 2005, Sunday 2 STAR EDITION

    Turks' patriotism raises flags as EU talks near;
    The country's sacred symbol is cropping up as nationalism rises

    by GARETH JONES


    ANKARA, TURKEY - Anyone visiting Turkey in recent weeks might be
    forgiven for thinking the country had just gone to war or at the very
    least won a major soccer tournament.

    Public buildings, homes, buses, taxis and private cars have been
    festooned with the national flag, which bears a white Islamic crescent
    moon and star on a red background.

    Rallies and protests featuring the flag have been held across Turkey.
    In the eastern city of Erzurum, the German ambassador was prevented
    from cutting a cake decorated with the Turkish flag on the grounds
    it could signify disrespect.

    This outpouring of patriotic fervor was sparked by an incident last
    month in which youths tried unsuccessfully to set fire to a Turkish
    flag during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in the port city of Mersin.

    An overreaction? Turkey's military General Staff did not think so. It
    issued a statement vowing to defend the nation to its "last drop of
    blood." Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced sternly that the flag
    was a sacred symbol for Turks.

    Security officers detained the 13- and 14-year-old boys accused of
    setting fire to the flag, along with nine others.

    'Feeling cornered'

    The flag-waving has raised some questions about Turks' state of mind
    as they prepare for the start of talks in October to join the European
    Union, a club founded on the rejection of nationalism that enjoins
    its members to share sovereignty and focus on common values.

    "Turks are feeling cornered, besieged from outside and betrayed from
    within," said Dogu Ergil, head of the liberal think-tank TOSAM. "The
    explosion was waiting to happen. In Mersin, somebody simply lit
    the match."

    The perceived threats from outside include EU pressure on a range of
    sensitive issues including Cyprus, as well as the presence of U.S.
    troops in neighboring Iraq. Inside Turkey, he said, people fear
    "betrayal" by Kurds and other ethnic or religious minorities.

    The reaction to the Mersin incident is just one of a number of signals
    troubling advocates of Turkey's EU membership.

    Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic tract Mein Kampf has shot onto the
    best-seller lists. Turkey's best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk has
    received death threats for backing Armenian claims of genocide at
    Turkish hands in World War I. A government minister said Christian
    missionaries threaten national unity, even though only a handful of
    Turks have converted.

    Perception gap widens

    The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy
    real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions
    on foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm
    national interests.

    The ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, has vowed to press
    ahead with those two laws. But the impression from these incidents
    is of a country succumbing to paranoia and trying to retreat into
    its shell, diplomats say.

    "The perception gap between Turkey and the EU is wider than at any time
    since the AKP came to power" in November 2002, said one Ankara-based
    European diplomat.

    The diplomat noted that nationalism is a founding principle of
    the Turkish Republic and is viewed as a very positive force, while
    Europeans are far more mindful of its destructive power, which led
    to the decision to set up the EU.

    "Turkey did not go through the catharsis of World War II. To
    reject nationalism here is to reject the republic and (its founder
    Kemal) Ataturk. This difference in experience can feed a sense of
    incompatibility between Turkey and Europe," he said.

    Emin Sirin, an independent member of the Turkish Parliament, said
    the Turks' "pressure cooker" discontent stemmed mainly from a sense
    of hurt pride over the EU's treatment of their country.

    The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy
    real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions
    on foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm
    national interests.
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