It's Been a While and More on the EU Not Wanting Turkey

Due to Thanksgiving break and a lot of school work to catch up with, I haven't posted in a very long time. Sorry for the few of you who may have missed me. A lot of news in the last couple of days from Turkey. The pope is visiting, and some people protested in a peaceful fashion. Yup, peaceful Muslim protesters. Take that Islamophobic Europe.

The much bigger news is that the European Commission recommended 8 of the 35 areas of negotiation between the EU and Turkey be suspended. Tony Blair, probably the only European leader who actually wants Turkey to join the EU, has condemned this decision, Germany has said the decision is appropriate, and *surprise surprise* officials in France and Cyprus don't feel the decision is harsh enough.

Cyprus is threatening to straight up veto the EU-Turkey negotiations, thus ending Turkey's EU bid. The reason is that Turkey has failed to open its ports to ships from Cyprus, a measure the EU has demanded repeatedly from Turkey. Turkish officials have repeatedly said they will open ports to ships from Cyprus when the EU ends the economic isolation of N. Cyprus, as it pledged to do. So, if the EU pledged to end N. Cyprus's crippling economic isolation, then why hasn't it? Because Nicosia has vetoed any attempts at doing so. Therein lies the folly of the EU, one of the biggest foreign relations blunders in recent memory. By allowing Nicosia to enter the EU whether the island was unified or not by the deadline, they took away any incentive Greek Cypriots would have to negitiate and thus doomed the extremely balanced Annan Plan. Now, Nicosia can use its EU position as a bargaining chip to obtain all concessions it wants from N. Cyprus without conceding anything itself. Turkey needs to play hardball instead of keeping the soft stance it has now, or else there will never be a fair solution to the Cyprus problem. Turkey should threaten annexation if the economic isolation is not ended. This will ruin Turkish chances for EU membership, but I think those chances were ruined the moment Greek Cypriots voted against the Annan Plan.

At the same time France's interior minister and presidential hopeful Nicholas Sarkozy wants EU negotiations with Turkey completely suspended as well. Of course Sarkozy's argument is even more ridiculous than the Cypriots. Sarkozy says negotiations should be suspended because Turkey is not geographically in Europe. This is the type of argument a third grader would make for his one page paper on why Turkey shouldn't join the EU (I'm sure French third graders are given such assignments). Never mind that parts of Turkey actually are within the generally accepted geographical definition of Europe, or that Cyprus is no more geographically European than Turkey is. The real issue here is that the EU is an economic and political entity, not a geographic one. Nobody argues that the Israeli football association shouldn't be a member of UEFA or that the St. Louis Rams shouldn't be in the NFC West, because geography is pretty irrelevant to soccer/football or football/American football, just as they are to economic and political relationships.

The worst thing about this is that the Turkish people will suffer, especially those who value democracy and secularism. As we are shunned by Europe, many will join those who argue Turkey should look to ally itself with its neighbors in the Middle East. I am against this. Certainly Turkey must look for economic and political allies in this globalizing world, but the Middle East is not the place. Europe would have been nice, but they'll never have us. I personally think Turkey should look to improve relations with Russia. Sure, we've had our problems in the past, but as of late relationships have gotten much better. And although Putin's Russia is more than questionable when it comes to democracy and civil liberties, I wouldn't be too quick to call some EU members as liberal democracies either (remember, no free speech in France or Netherlands). Plus Russia is a big market and a growing economy.

Cyprus veto article

Give Sarkozy his crayons

Oh, and here is some nice anti-Turkish propaganda. Apparently Turkey's entrance into the EU will mean the Islamization of Europe.

Ecevit, Former Turkish Prime Minister, Dead at 81

Bulent Ecevit, until recently leader of the DSP and an important politician from the 70's until his party's large defeat in the most recent elections, died at a hospital in Ankara yesterday. He had been in a coma due to a stroke since May of this year.

To me Ecevit has always been one of the most interesting Turkish politicians. My father has told me about how he at one point, in the late 70's/early 80's thought Ecevit was the only politician in Turkey who had a vision for the country. He had represented the hopes of many, and his influence in the politics of the country helped steer Turkey in a more secular and liberal direction. We can thank Ecevit for authorizing trade unions and giving workers the right to strike. His mix of liberalism and nationalism was extremely appealing to many Turkish voters.

Unfortunately, Ecevit lost touch with the public in his last years in office. He refused to step down, despite his old age, declining health, and the fact that many blamed the economic crisis on him. Many joked that Ecevit was becoming senile. Ecevit failed again when the threat of the AKP become apparent. He refused to form a liberal coalition and many members of the DSP resigned the party and created the Yeni Turkiye Parti (New Turkey Party), attempting to form a coalition themselves (an effort which also failed). This turmoil allowed the AKP to take control of the government, and could be remembered as Ecevit's legacy as the new government may take Turkey in a completely new direction.

To many Ecevit was a beacon of hope, a leader with the vision to get Turkey into the European fold. Unfortunately, Ecevit accomplished much, but in the end his failure is what will probably be remembered most. Hopefully someone with Ecevit's vision will come along again and lead us to the Turkey he promised us.