Society + Culture
Turkey’s EU dream would remain a Chimera
Only at the end of a marathon two-day negotiations on 3 October in Luxembourg, where Austria dug in its heels to downgrade Turkey‘s full membership of the Europe Union (EU) and thus renege on the commitment made at the December 2004 Summit, was persuaded to give in, that Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul left Ankara to officially begin formal entry talks. In this act of duplicity, smacking of religious bias Austria had the tacit support from other members like France, Holland and Germany.
The latest drama only entitles Ankara an indefinite stay, say 10, 15 years, or more, at the European gates after an arduous long journey of 40 years, with incremental conditions being added on and yet with no promise of final admittance. Turkey must now begin discussions on 35 "chapters", covering everything from free movement of goods to judicial reform, with each chapter only to be closed with the approval of all 25 members, and others, if admitted before Turkey.
Turkey, which became in 1963 an Associate member of the Community, as the Union was then known, missed its best chance of joining the EU in 1978 when it was invited to join along with Greece. While Athens joined, Ankara declined unsure if it could withstand the economic changes required. It formally applied for full membership in April 1987 and was officially recognized as a candidate only in December 1999, and last December the EU agreed on a date for membership negotiations to begin.
In spite of all the pious talk of reconciliation between Christian and Islamic civilizations that the talks would usher, any chance of even a secular Muslim nation joining the Christian Club was irrevocably buried along with the debris of New York Trade Towers on 9 September 2001. Nor would Ankara be an example, as claimed by the West, as an ideal democratic Muslim nation for others in the region.
Turkey under Kemal Ataturk fought a bloody war of independence and expels Greek, British, French, Italian and other foreign troops from its soil, while Arabs, who were encouraged to revolt against the Caliph in Istanbul by the likes of Lawrence of Arabia in the First World War, were soon colonized by perfidious Great British and France. Since then the Arabs have suffered one tragedy after another. Despite a secular republican Constitution since 1923, Turkey opted for multi-party system only in 1946. Its experiment in democracy goes wobbly from time to time and ironically brought back to the rails by its military. 
The theatre at Luxembourg should be an example to those Indians , who support New Delhi’s vote against Iran’s nuclear power program which is in accordance with its obligations even under the inequitable Non-Proliferation Treaty ,in the hope of relaxation for India of Washington’s policy on non-proliferation, with USA’s known record of breaking treaties and written promises at will. As EU, USA is even more likely to change goal posts as was the case regarding supply of Uranium fuel for India’s nuclear power station at Tara pore.
EU is basically a union of Christian states, which its many leaders so regularly proclaim, including former French President Giscard de’Estaing, the architect of the now rejected European constitution. He said before the 2002 summit that Turkish membership would signal "the end of the EU". Turkey was "not a European country". It had "a different culture, a different approach, and a different way of life". In 2004, he told le Monde that the wording of the draft charter effectively diminished Turkey's chances of joining the EU. The French and Dutch voted out the Constitution with Ankara’s entry becoming the focal point.
France and Holland would hold referendums on Turkish entry when it suits them. French President Jacque Chirac has said the Turkey would need a cultural revolution to enable it to enter Europe. With Germany's Angela Merkel of Christian Democrats, wannabe Chancellor and France's Nicolas Sarkozy waiting in the wings it will remain a difficult road for Ankara to traverse. Now more than 50% of the European population is firmly opposed to Turkish membership.
Christian Europeans forget the violence they inflicted on Asians and Africans but cite Ottoman victories in Europe to arouse feelings against today’s Turkey. They talk of the siege of Vienna, 321 years ago, when the Polish king, John III, after a plea from the Vatican, marshaled a huge Roman Catholic army to save Christendom, Europe and Austria, by routing the Turks and halting the Turkish advance into the European heartland. This is the first school lesson children in Austria imbibe.
In Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, killing of Muslims was regarded as revenge against Ottoman violence. In Catholic Slovenia, the poster boy of post-Yugoslav success, integrated into the EU and NATO as a stable and prosperous democracy, Ljubljana is the sole EU capital city without a mosque. For decades, Slovene Catholics have thwarted attempts by the country's 50,000-strong Muslim community to build a mosque, even after the constitutional court last year finally threw out demands for a referendum to ban it. Recently USA suddenly discovered that Saudi Arabia has no religious freedom. Double standards of Christian nations who preach to others.
With no budget or a common foreign policy, EU remains an amorphous and confused body, without any clear direction. Petty countries resist dilution of their sovereignty while they claim to speak on behalf of the whole Union. Said a European commentator,"What has been happening in Luxembourg is dismaying. However, it is part of the bigger problem about where Europe is going. The votes on the constitution gave the impression of a shambles; the budget was another big blow. Both could have been avoided. “
Apart from genuine fears of Muslim terrorists, which could enter Europe, with free movement of 70 million Turks (which will be controlled even after entry), the historical enmity and wars between Ottomans and Christian Europe got revived again .In any case many European Christian democratic political parties would continue to exploit the fear of the Turk. As for the European’s claim that geographically Turkey falls outside Europe, Christian Greek Cyprus, now an EU member is tucked 60 km, south of Turkish coast in eastern Mediterranean, with Syria only 100 km, in the east.
A cascade of slim minarets piercing the Istanbul skyline bring to the Western mind memories of 1453 when the Byzantine capital Constantinople became the Ottoman Istanbul with the 6th century magnificent St. Sophia Church converted into a mosque by addition of minarets. But Istanbul and Turkey have monuments and ruins from its millennium and half long Roman and Byzantine past too. It is home to 40 civilisations .Turkey has more Greek monuments than Greece and more Roman sites than Italy .
Among others it boasts of Izmir, the old Smyrna, Homer's birth place, the fabled Pontus Trabzon and Sumela monastry on the Black Sea coast of the Golden Fleece, whence emerged Xenophon and his ten thousand after an arduous journey from Babylon and 6th century BC Miletus of Thales, Anneximender, Anneximenes, spiritual forefathers of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, where the Greek and Western philosophy first germinated , when Greek pirates came into contact with existing Asian civilisations. South of Konya is Catal Huyuk of 6250 BC , which may not be as old as Jericho ,but it had a community of 5000, living in crowded interconnected houses , with domesticated animals and some irrigated farming .
Asia Minor as Turkey was then known was also a cradle of Christianity with historic places like Chalcedon, Nicomedea, Nicea and all the churches of revelation. Also Testament's Mount Ararat and Noah's Ark , the Ephesus of St Paul's church and Antioch , where St Peter held the first Christian mass.
Austria, which made the last ditch stand, got its pound of flesh .Suddenly, The Hague Tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, reversed her earlier considered view that Croatia was not co-operating in hunting down war criminals, so the suspended talks with Zagreb were resumed. Catholic Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while the Ottomans Empire included Albania, Serbia and Hungary, with the Turkish Janissary drums, beating twice at the gates of Vienna in 17th century. With grievances imagined and real, like say Cyprus, part of which is still occupied by Turkish troops, but which rejected a UN proposed solution last year, it would make Turkey’s EU journey an endless obstacles race.
By the end of the latest hiccup with conditions added incrementally and regularly, the Turks, a proud people, including the fervently westernized and secular, had had enough. The polls, which until last year showed over 70% Turks in favor of EU, now indicate a majority against joining. Even main opposition party CHP and right-wing parties DYP and ANAP opposed bowing down to the European demands .All these parties argue that the Turkish Government got nothing but compromised a lot, particularly on the Cyprus issue. If Turkey officially recognized Cyprus, (South) its occupation of the north would be declared illegal with possible punitive consequences.
However, it was a great relief to Prime Minister Erdogan Recep Tayyep Erdogan and his Islamic roots Justice and Development party (AKP), which took over the baton from secular establishment for EU entry and invested heavily into the negotiations. "Either it will show political maturity and become a global power, or it will end up a Christian club," growled Erdogan when European Union leadership was dithering in Luxembourg. After the green light, said Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul “This is an historic moment.”
AKP, won a stunning 2/3 of the seats in the parliament with 35 percent of votes only (10 percent is the cut-off point ) in the November 2002 elections , becoming the first Islamic party to form a government, much to the dismay of secular establishment led by Turkish Armed Forces, who consider themselves the custodians of Ataturk’s secular legacy. It is some irony that an Islamic government has succeeded in taking Turkey right up to the gates of Europe Union. Except some recent cases AKP has, a clean governance record compared to the earlier corrupt regimes and should be easily re-elected.
The Pashas as the Turkish Generals are known intervened in 1960 and 1980 directly and forced a regime change in 1971 .In 1997, they forced a coalition led by Islamic Welfare party Prime Minister Najemettin Erbakan, to resign. Erdogan and Abdullah Gul were the leading lights of Erbakan’s party, who then left it to establish a new but less Islamic party, AKP. They say it is a conservative party like Christian democratic parties in Europe. They have done a commendable job in alleviating Western fears, when they were voted into power.
In 1994, when Gul was spokesman for foreign affairs for the Welfare Party, he said, "Turkey should not join the European Union; we have said this from the beginning. Look at a European city, and then look at Istanbul. It's not a Christian city." A few years ago, Erdogan recited a poem that included the verses, "Minarets are our bayonets, domes are our helmets, mosques are our barracks, and believers are our soldiers." For this, he was jailed and subsequently debarred from contesting the November elections. They have come a long way since then.
AKP utilized EUs’ Copenhagen criteria, to limit the political role of the Armed Forces, exercised by its domination of the powerful policy making National Security Council , which has now been reduced to an advisory body only. Thus, Erdogan and AKP have cemented their position. Gen Pervez Musharraf , who spent his impressionable school years in Ankara and like most Pakistan military leaders admires the Turkish military’s role in politics , established the National Security Council in Pakistan on taking over in 1999 .Except that the professional Turkish military goes back to the barracks after cleaning up the mess created by the politicians .
New EU conditions or break down of talks could have led to political turmoil in Turkey and re-emergence of fascists and fundamentalist forces and possible resurgence of its military sooner than later. After Ankara was denied an EU candidate status in 1998, angry Turks voted in leftist, nationalist, fascist and Islamic parties. Next year EU granted Ankara the candidate status.
The talks would hasten further westernization and modernization of Turkish polity, leading to greater cultural and religious freedom to Kurds, Alevis and other minorities, who have been ruled with a heavy hand. During the last decade, Turkey’s political system has been revolutionized with an array of Constitutional reforms, on human rights, rights of women and against torture, with death penalty abolished. AKP represents Conservative, pious up-and-coming Muslim leadership from central Anatolia, so it will have to soft-pedal its agenda of bringing back the Muslim headscarf and other conservative symbols and measures.
Others to breathe a sigh of relief were the secular layers of the Turkish population, mostly in Istanbul and other major towns. The claim in the author’s article on influence of Turkic languages on Hindustani, published in Turkey media that only 15% of Turkish population originated from central Asia, who helped establish the Seljuk and the Ottoman Empires, was challenged only in the fundamentalist media but they could not produce any facts to counter it. Majority of Turkish population are descendants of Hittites, Galatians , Clinicians, Cappadoccians and others , who inhabited Asia Minor, as Turkey was then known.
Blocked by Persia in the East ,the Ottomans ,as per practice ,could not recruit slave Turkish nomads from central Asia, so they selected Christian boys from East Europe and Asia Minor itself, who formed the shock troops called Janissaries , a terror for Europe and later for the Ottoman Sultans. The more intelligent among them were trained at the Palace who later became prime ministers , ministers, governors and senior military commanders. The question of identity will always remain a problem for the Turks as well as for the Europeans.
Of course, for UK, the current EU Chair with its recent disastrous record in foreign affairs, it was imperative to succeed, but the main pressure on Austria came from USA. Although relations between Washington and Ankara remain plunged and remain frosty because of US invasion of Iraq but in the region, Turkey with nearly one million armed personnel remains a key player and an ally. During the Cold War Turkey was known as NATO’s unsinkable aircraft carrier. 
Recently there has been a flurry of high-level visits and increased economic co-operation between Turkey and Russia , hitherto historic enemies. Ankara and its arch enemy Damascus have also made up ,much against US wish .Erdogan increasingly looks to the East with relations improving even with Tehran .Turkey’s almost ally level relations with Israel nose dived following the latter’s fishing in Iraqi Kurdistan , creating problems for Ankara from its own Kurds .But they are returning to normal , with Erdogan even facilitating a meeting last month between foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan in Istanbul.
For regional stability in EU’s east , beyond which is the “cauldron of chaos and terrorism” and as an insurance against Turkey tilting eastwards , success of the entry talks were a must. No wonder Javier Solana, the EU's putative foreign minister, declared that Europe and the world would benefit by binding a country of 70 million Muslims into the union.“ Everyone is a winner. Turkey is in a strategic region and in our neighborhood," said Solana.
Near Antalya in western Turkey on a hill overlooking its Mediterranean coast , methane fires have issued from crevices since ancient times, which the Greek pirates as they glided past at night wondered about . This formed the basis of the myth of Chimera in Greek mythology, a fire-breathing female monster that resembled a lion in the forepart, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind.
Chimera is now used generally to symbolize a fantastic idea or figment of the imagination. Much diminished now, Turkey’s dream of becoming a full EU member might just remain a Chimera.
(Gajendra Singh., served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan in1992 -96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to Jordan (during the1990 - 91Gulf war), Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies, in Bucharest. The views expressed here are his own
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