I was in New York all last week, which both explains the relative scarcity of posts recently, and the vehemently pro-unfettered-movement-of-goods-and-labor stance of the next few posts.
It is time to stand up and be counted in favor of Turkey’s accession to the EU.
French ex-President Valery Giscard d’Estaing said 10 days ago that Turkey should never be a part of the EU, for two main reasons: Not enough of it is in Europe; and it does not have a Christian heritage.
What French ex-Presidents say is not usually important, for good reasons. But VGE is in charge of writing a presumptive EU Constitution, and it seems he is so intent on granting EU citizens rights via cultural and religious prerogatives that he is in danger of ensconcing the European identity in an ethnocentric, exclusive definition designed to outwit the aspirations of the Turks. To this end, he had an audience with the Pope recently, in which the pontiff and VGE no doubt patted each other on the back.
Nevermind what I think of people who should have retired from public office long ago but instead are still meddling in the affairs of a world they will not have to live in; in their rush to disbar Turkey, both the pope and VGE have forgotten their history. Turkey does have a Christian heritage, one that spans from Roman times until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. That’s a millenium’s worth of old-school Christianity, which is more than anyone should be forced to bear. But perhaps the pope maintains that it was the wrong kind of Christianity.
If VGE gets his way, the EU will define itself according to criteria which countries cannot choose themselves. Countries cannot choose a heritage. Countries cannot choose a physical location. They cannot choose a religion. But they can choose freedom of religion. They can choose freedom of speech, free elections and a market economy. These are the ideals that should define Europe—these are our successes over the past 50 years. VGE’s vision is exclusionary; a throwback, however feebly, to the old nationalist myths that sustained the fascist regimes of Europe’s past. And Le Pen approves.
Putting it more starkly: Saying that Muslim countries cannot be good European citizens is saying, not too subtly, that Muslims cannot be good European citizens. In fact, Muslims can be model European citizens.
Just last week, Turkey went out of its way to show us this. It peacfully transferred power to a democratically elected Muslim government that will continue to pursue EU membership by aligning its laws to that of the EU. The death penalty is already out. The press is newly free. Cyprus is about to be resolved (!). And now VGE wants to take away the carrot.
D’Estaing’s preference for an exclusionary stance rather than an inclusionary one is telling. It is the stance of a Europe in decline, either too smug in its arrogance or else taking a defensive posture in a world in which it feels besieged. I don’t know which it is, nor do I care, but it is an attitude I wish Europe would snap out of. The willingness of Turkey to join the EU is a massive compliment. By rejecting Turkey, Europe would be behaving as a snobbish high school clique rejecting the uncool newcomer.
But I’m afraid that Fortress Europe is an idea whose heyday is just around the corner, and as usual, a Frenchman has best verbalized the rationale for this particular odiousness.
[Mon, Nov 18 2002 – 11:27] eurof (email) A missing element here is the Greek connection, actually. Valerie is in fact a Greek stooge.
Not a lot of peeople know this, but Valerie is ardently pro Greek. She’s fluent in modern greek, loves Dolmadakia, Bouzouki etc, and when she was Presidente of France hosted the exiled Greek PM Karamalis (or something like that) during the time of the Generals’ CIA-sponsored dictatorship in the 1970s. In fact Karamalis is supposed to have shagged her daughter or something, maybe even Valerie herself. As soon as he got home and back into power, Karamalis made sure that all little Greek boys and girls had to learn French in school. Subsequently Andreas Papandreou got elected and in an act of spite switched the schools to English. My teacher at Greek School told me all this. Anyway, I reckon the Greeks are of course well freaked out about having the Turks in the EU, and have been on the telephone, itself a Greek word, to their erstwhile French Phihellene supporter, and told her to put the boot in.
[Tue, Nov 19 2002 – 13:13] Felix (www) (email) Stefan, do you really mean to start wittering on about how “countries cannot choose a physical location” and therefore their physical location shouldn’t matter for EU membership? In which case I’m sure Chile and Gabon would be members by now, not to mention, oh, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, etc etc. All of whom would score higher than Turkey on most accession criteria.
Fact is, as I told you in New York, there are already so many good reasons for Turkey not to join the EU that we don’t need bad reasons as well. If there were any indication whatsoever that Turkey was taking human rights seriously, or giving some kind of consitutional voice to its Kurdish minority, then we might be able to start moving on EU accession issues (although of course the Greek problem is pretty much insurmountable).
And although VG d’E might have put it in a less-than-optimal way, the word “Europe” does have many meanings, important meanings at that, and most of them don’t include Turkey. If all that Europe means to you is a free-trade area, then fine, but to most of us the European ideal is much more than that.
[Tue, Nov 19 2002 – 17:53] Charles Kenny (www) (email) Absolutely, the European ideal is more than that. To the French, for example, the European ideal is everyone else subsidizing their farmers. But can’t we be nice and let the Turks foot some of the bill, too?
[Tue, Nov 19 2002 – 18:35] Ben (email) I find myself, oddly, on Stefan’s side in this. Many of the same exclusionary arguments made about Turkey could be and were made against Greece joining the then-EC — the only non-Western Christian state in the club, etc. Say what you will about modern Greece, but I don’t think that arguments about their insurmountable differentness have proven true over time. I think that having Turkey (with numerous human rights improvements) enter the Union would do immesurable good for Europe. European governments are going to have to find ways to sensitize themselves to the requirements and challenges of their growing Muslim populations, and who better to assist in that process than an avowedly pro-European secular muslim government? Turkey is going to have to do something about the role of the army though… that is not a Muslim problem, that is a democratic control problem.
[Tue, Nov 19 2002 – 20:20] Matthew (email) if the turks join the EU, will they also have to put oil tankers on their euro coins?
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 03:10] Ayse (email) That “European ideal” thrown at Turkey, and which Felix relishes, is what many Turks, like myself, find revolting and obsolete. I actually can’t be too bothered with the actual accession. I just need EU discussions, criteria etc. so that Turkey has an external push (in addition to internal) to improve its human rights record, grant the missing individual freedoms and to increase political and economic stability. I really hope the EU accession talks will lead Turkey to become more democratic in line with what I see as international standards that cannot be attributed only to Europe. Beyond that, the outcome of the accession talks is pretty much irrelevant to me (apart from the Schengen visa misery). In fact, in due course, I think the EU might need Turkey more than the other way around, demographically and strategically. Oh and, I can’t seem to locate Gabon’s border with a European country unless Congo is still considered one.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 06:04] Jezza I agree about Turkey being more useful to the EU in the long term. Patronising ignorant comments like those made by that old french fuck just go to consolidate those Turks who would choose to reject the secular option for the country and push it into the arms of the fundies. And as for european culture, what are these important meanings that the word has? Apart from food and drink.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 07:11] eurof (email) Maybe the cultural things Europe is famous for is stuff like opera and ballet? In which case, sod off, and let’s have Turkey in and anyone else. Most real european culture comes from some sort of Anglo-Saxon transatlantic MTV mishmash thing at the moment; it’s all global anyway. Indigenous stuff like Morris Dancing, or beret-wearing, or Bierfests varies widely from EU country to EU country anyway, and would be unaffected by Turkey joining, just as people doing this stuff hasn’t been affected by joining the EU, which is a real shame in the case of Morris Dancing.
As it is, Turkey has been intimately involved in Europe for ages, mostly by invading us, is in fact undeniably geographically part of Europe (Constantinople), and has largely the same cultural interests that we do (football, the Eurovision Song Contest). I just don’t see the cultural argument at all. If you want to talk religion, then maybe they’re a bit different, but organising new states and regional associations based on religious boundaries seems a bit backwards in this day and age.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 09:46] Felix (www) (email) I have to say I like Ayse’s criterion of having a border with a European country. Once Turkey joins, that would make Iran, Iraq AND Syria next in line for accession. After Iran, Afghanistan, and after Afghanistan, China… soon the whole world will be European! Never mind the barrel of a gun, now we can effect colonialism through dangling EU carrots. Am I the only person here who detects a whiff of smugness and superiority in the idea that Turkey is only going to do the right thing with respect to human rights etc so long as it thinks it has a chance of EU accession? It’s as though we consider them to be children who, left to their own devices, will get up to all manner of mischief, but who, if they want to look good in front of Mummy and Daddy, might actually start to behave.
And I’m at a loss to work out what it is, exactly, that Ayse finds “revolting” in the European ideal. The way I see it, the EU and its predecessors were built mainly as a way of ensuring peace on a continent which had seen the two World Wars: it’s an ideal of Never Again, which I think is an excellent ideal. The fact that the European project has been so phenomenally successful that a war within the EU is now unthinkable is no reason to consider the ideal to be obsolete. In fact, Ayse’s own comment about the strategic necessity of bringing Turkey into the EU betrays how peace is still a vitally important part of the EU’s remit. I don’t, however, understand what she means about the EU needing Turkey demographically. Does she mean that Europe won’t be able to support its ageing population without fresh young Turkish blood?
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 10:19] joachim Yes, Felix. That’s exactly what we need. We are in desperate need of a country like Turkey. And instead of having them smuggled here in containers to work illegally, we’ll all be better off with Turkey in the EU. And if we take in Turkey, and Iran is next with fullfilling the criteria then let them in!
This crap about European identity, i have never understood. I’m european but I have much more in common with someone from Australia then with a portuguese. Is it the idea of “enduring peace” that makes someone European? Then Costa Rica and Bhutan should become members immediately, they don’t even have an army. The EU idea, if there is one, seems to be to raise trade barriers against the third world and desperately try and become a superpower to rival american influence in the world. Besides creating a class of corrupt bureaucrats that shuffle paper back and forth between brussels and strasbourg.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 11:25] ben (email) Since when is providing benign economic incentives for nations to modernize and recognize international norms such a horrible thing to do? Often national policies that are in violation of such norms survive because of power imbalances in society and mindless path dependency, not some deeply held desire among the population to have their human rights neglected. Providing Turkey with a carrot to change the less savory aspects of Kemalism seems perfectly reasonable to me. As for the parade of horribles (“Turkey today, Gabon tomorrow”) there are clear, principled destinctions that can be drawn between Turkey and other nations arguably on the margins of Europe, e.g., Turkey and the most imporant nations in the EU (no offense to Sweden) have been joined in a cooperative military alliance for more than 50 years — no other nation on the margins of Europe can claim such longstanding cooperative association.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 14:10] Ayse (email) Felix, either I write very badly, possibly because I was not raised in Europe as you know it, or you need to re-read what I wrote. I did not say that I think Turkey deserves to join the EU because it shares a border with Europe. However, the discussion on the possibility is merely more relevant or inevitable than, say, Gabon’s. I did not say that I found the European ideal, which is very subjective by the way, revolting and obsolete. I do think however that “that” being pointed out so freely and easily as the reason for rejection is revolting and obsolete by now and exclusionary on many bases which I am not fond of, anywhere in the world.
What is it you care for Felix, do you care for all those issues you wrote about in Turkey, human rights, Kurdish liberties, to change for the better? If you did, you wouldn’t be so fussed right now. Accession talks with Spain lasted something like ten years if I’m not wrong, so it is not like Turkey is joining any time soon. So why does it bother you in the meantime that I wish Turkey to lean on the EU as its external checks and balances? You do say that that has been the EU’s phenomenal achievement as far as the founders are concerned.
It’s good that it doesn’t seem like you are representative of the “European” view, at least on this page. Otherwise, it would be quite depressing for many other people I know and they are not necessarily Turkish.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 15:21] Charles Kenny (www) (email) I think its cheese that unites Europe. I’m pretty sure there are no indigenous African cheeses, and I’d guess there aren’t many Asian ones, though willing to sit corrected. But Turkey can do mean stuff with feta. Indeed, I wonder more about Greeks, given the only cheese thay had was so blatently stolen from Turkey along with the rest of their cuisine. This theory also helps to explain French dominance –it is, undoubtedly, the big cheese of Europe.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 15:43] Matthew (www) (email) having wisely stayed out of this debate–given my track-record with anyone hailing from southeastern europe–i nonetheless wanted to commend stefan for bringing up a subject that we can all discuss with calmness and emotional detachment. couple of suggestions for future postings: partial-birth abortion, enemy-combatant laws and hebron.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 16:29] Stefan (email) I’m just peeved that nobody has commented on the glorious pun that heads this post. I think from now on I will just pun on current events and not bother with the actual post. So, as for Matthew’s suggestions: You can leave your Hebron; enemy-combatant inlaws; and when I come up with a pun on partial-birth abortion I will let you know.
[Wed, Nov 20 2002 – 18:30] John G I agree with Ayse’s point of view. The EU can be an excellent motivator of important changes in Turkish society and governance. After all, another European country (which happens to produce some excellent cheeses — Pecorino, Parmigiano, Bel Paese, etc.) has been using Europe for years as a “club” to beat up on an ineffectual central government incapable of implementing meaningful economic reforms, managing a currency, etc. Why not Turkey too, whether inside or outside of the EU?
[Thu, Nov 21 2002 – 08:50] eurof (email) hmmm. just to give the beleaguered Felix another kick while he’s down, ayse’s point that non-EU countries bordering EU countries could be able to join is a lot more valid than the opposite, which is where he seems to be working from.
The cheese thing is good, Charles, but I would point out to John G. that so far as I know most Bel Paese is in fact US-produced cheese made to look like it is Italian from the packaging. There may be Bel Paese in Italy, but I haven’t come across any. Still, if anyone has seen Bel Paese made and sold in Italy I will defer to them.
The significance of this to the issue at hand is clear: like Turkey, the US could also qualify to join the EU. We should encourage them to do so to provide “benign economic incentives for [the USA] to modernize and recognize international norms”, as Ben puts it. Everything else he writes rings true:
“Often national policies that are in violation of such norms survive because of power imbalances in society and mindless path dependency, not some deeply held desire among the population to have their human rights neglected. Providing [the US] with a carrot to change the less savory aspects of [Bush-ism] seems perfectly reasonable to me. As for the parade of horribles (“[USA]today, Gabon tomorrow”) there are clear, principled destinctions that can be drawn between [the USA] and other nations arguably on the margins of Europe, e.g., [the USA] and the most imporant[sic] nations in the EU (no offense to Sweden) have been joined in a cooperative military alliance for more than 50 years — no other nation on the margins of Europe can claim such longstanding cooperative association.”
[Thu, Nov 21 2002 – 09:46] Matthew (www) (email) steffls, your glorious pun is missing a syllable.
[Thu, Nov 21 2002 – 11:01] ben (email) John, Don’t forget that the US, like Turkey, borders on an EU member state — in our case it is the UK (British Virgin Islands/US Virgin Islands). I will start working on our application papers right away, but we will have to insist on a complete EU-wide ban on Morris Dancing, which is inconsistent with the US Constitution (8th Amendment).
[Thu, Nov 21 2002 – 11:14] eurof (email) is the 8th the one against, “cruel and unusual punishment”? if so, that’s the one
[Thu, Nov 21 2002 – 12:13] John G Ben,
In support of your application papers, you can point out that the U.S. is starting to produce some really good, artisanal, even raw milk, cheeses. This should stand our candidacy in very good stead, and help mitigate the deleterious influence of all that artifical “Italian” Bel Paese being churned out various food conglomerates.