Turkey stays out of the pecking order
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16 January 2007
By Ranjini Ramaswamy
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It turns out that Leonardo Da Vinci, may have had a Turkish mamma. A 60% chance that his mother was of Middle Eastern Origin, according to Luigi Capasso, the director of the Anthropology Research Institute at Chieti University, Italy. The mere possibility that the master of the High Renaissance in Europe had Eastern roots put a completely different spin on the “clash of civilizations” and the tired homilies we are so used to accepting. Personally, it was much more than the short Associated Press story so widely circulated across the internet. It was yet another powerful affirmation that the “us” and “them” routine is a sleazy trigger for conflict, when we all come from the same complicated mush of humanity.
But the present political climate is not conducive for such mellow thoughts. Consider EU-Turkey relations, strained by the EU's efforts to partially suspend and bubble-wrap membership talks indefinitely. The list of objections to Turkey’s entry has been lengthening ever since the 1999 Helsinki summit when it was for the first time declared a legitimate candidate for full membership. Some of these objections sound reasonable, even legitimate such as the human rights violations against the Armenians, the inflexibility over the Cyprus issue, high rates of illiteracy and poverty especially among women and domestic political volatility. However, EU membership is not about an ethical, economic or even a progressive standard.
In fact, all it took for Bulgaria and Romania to be red-carpeted in on New Year’s Day was demonstrating “the capacity to apply EU principles”. This happened in spite of numerous unresolved crises in the two countries pertaining to rampant institutional corruption, decaying justice systems, organized crime, money-laundering and over a 100 unsolved assassinations. The two new members have 6-monthly reform report cards to turn in and various other ‘soft’ control measures to put up with, but the support for their membership was never in question. Shortly before the live TV Sofia extravaganza, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso flamboyantly announced “Welcome to Europe, which has always been yours”. Soon after, he expressed the EU’s reluctance to include more members in the near future, stating that “there are some limits to our absorption capacity.”
The EU’s country club standards have created a powerful wedge in the democratic efforts of multicultural modern Turkey. Imagine if they had allowed Turkey in with a light slap on the wrist or mandatory report cards. Call it hope, reform or even strategy, Turkey is a populous emerging market bursting with possibilities. The direction these possibilities take will indelibly be defined by the failed EU talks, by the explicit exclusion. It is the EU’s loss that they have not been able to proactively optimize or encourage democracy in a country that stands on the tinderbox junction of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus with a NATO membership card.
The EU bloc itself is struggling with secularism. The increasing influence of Le Pen apprentice, France's National Front party’s, Bruno Gollnisch or the redoubtable granddaughter of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Alessandra on the Parliament is palpable. Romania and Bulgaria have now added their right numbers to this melange which will soon form the EU’s first ever right wing caucus. This vocal group among other things evangelises traditional Christian culture and stricter migrant laws, a far cry from the pluralistic common platform the EU professes.
What is worrisome is that the current rhetoric, strategy and posturing is encouraging the most virulent forms of political and religious extremism to thrive all over the world. Economic prosperity, resources, development and education feature like a postscript in the global discourse. The beauty of using culture, religion and the “us” and “them” construct in any global platform is that it allows vested interests to manipulate these endlessly never quite moving towards any solution since such matters are so “complex.” In Turkey’s case it becomes even more “complex” since it does not neatly fit into any category. And very often, well-meaning commentators who try to be fair and honest about the domestic situation in Turkey provide ammunition for the global East-West separatists.
"It's a subject that makes me sad these days. And that's the most critical comment I can make these days,” said Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk recently on the partial suspension of Turkey’s EU bid. A rather anaemic response from a writer whose sharp political commentary in My name is Red and Snow got him tried for insulting nationalistic sentiments. Pamuk who has described “fanciful” notions of East vs. West and Clash of civilizations as a “dangerous idea” and a generalization has accepted a prize which on its citation talks about how he has “discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures”. By accepting the Prize with all its political baggage, Pamuk not only became the poster boy of the so-called East-West clash, but he also revived the very generalizations he had sought to expose and destroy.
The Catholic Church knows only too well how potent these ideas can be. In a bold swipe at political redemption the Pope, who in his Cardinal avatar had strongly opposed Islamic Turkey’s inclusion in the EU, has now expressed his support noting that the country could become the "bridge of friendship and brotherly cooperation between the West and East". The problem is that the Pope’s efforts at reconciliation sound premeditated or worse, like resignation.
Turkey might be justified in its suspicions about the backlash against its entry into the EU but it does not mean that it should stall reforms, resign itself to introversion and become a cautionary tale. Turkey should not wait for validation from the EU, virtual bridges or a fingerprint analysis. It has no one but itself to convince of its right to seize whatever opportunities come its way and change its social, economic and scientific destiny and that of its region. It has a responsibility of doing that simply by belonging to the global community of nations. Because change in “us” will affect “them”. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.