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The Eurasian Politician - December 2002
Antero Leitzinger, 13th Dec. 2002
(Translation from Finnish by Anssi Kullberg)
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. (Der Spiegel, 50/9th Dec. 2002)