Certainly, everyone is still aware that the policies adopted for the EU bid will affect the general elections and that the public will have to make a choice regarding the EU once the policies are announced. Until a few years ago, around 70 to 80 percent of the Turkish public supported the EU membership. With the encouragement of such broad support, Bülent Ecevit’s government took important steps in this regard. At that time Evecit’s coalition partner was the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). But even the MHP had said that EU membership was not a government issue but a national policy. The main reason for a three-way coalition government proceeding towards the EU was the mass public support.
After winning the Nov. 3, 2002 elections, the AK Party used its parliamentary advantage to establish a government by itself. They achieved important reforms on the way to the EU. Modifications to laws were based on the Copenhagen criteria. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan traveled to just about every European country to seek support for Turkey’s EU membership. Several times Erdogan repeated, “As a Muslim country, Turkey’s EU membership will strengthen the alliance between civilizations.” This approach was widely approved of by the Turkish public.
The greatest challenge facing the AK Party administration was the following: With the power invested in it, the AK Party had introduced liberal and reformist laws, yet though the laws were now liberal a large part of those implementing the laws were still rigid conservatives. The bureaucracy was not fond of the reforms. That is the reason Prime Minister Erdogan spoke several times of a “bureaucratic oligarchy.” The prime minister was basically trying to say, “I want a more liberal administration and I am taking steps towards this, but a group of conservatives are trying to decelerate democratization with their passive resistance.”
Moreover, the public’s trust in the EU has been shaken. The major reason was that opponents of the EU in Turkey, and Turkey’s opponents in the EU, have been hampering Turkey’s EU bid. Both sides have extreme reactions and profound fears. Within Turkey, some are slipping towards xenophobia and view the EU as an enemy. Within the EU, some perceive Turkey as an enemy and are denying the basic values of the EU and are violating the very purpose of its existence.
However, Turkey’s EU membership has advantages and disadvantages for both sides. If the advantages of both sides are regulated, the issue could turn into a success story for both Turkey and the EU. But this can only be achieved with well-intentioned approaches. Prejudiced attitudes will not only waste time but will also destroy the modern world’s philosophy of sharing responsibility.
Turkey is not bound to join the EU, and neither is the EU bound to accept Turkey. Failure would not mean the end for Turkey. But it would mean a tremendous failure for the EU because it will have missed a great opportunity. The advantages Turkey has to offer the EU include a young population and its success in democratization as a Muslim country as well as its military strength. The EU’s concerns about Turkey include the difficulty in securing proportional representation, its unemployment may affect EU countries, an identity change effected by Turkey’s large Muslim population and its insufficient level of human rights.
Anti-EU Turks believe that Europe is just “stringing Turkey along” and that it has disguised under human rights masks its ambitions to tear Turkey apart. Anti-Turkey Europeans perceive Turkey to be a Trojan horse for American influence and fear its Muslim identity. There are also many technical issues that need to be understood and agreed upon. We all know that these technical issues can be resolved through diplomacy. But it is impossible to resolve these technical issues without resolving the prior clashes of mentality.
Turkey-EU relations will certainly dominate the agenda again after the elections. The only way that world peace and the alliance of civilizations can be normalized is for smart and rational people to take control out of the hands of the xenophobes, the anti-EU Turks and the anti-Turkey Europeans. Otherwise, the clash to occur will be like the diplomatic version of the Titanic. The secret in politics should be to steer towards the future and not be mired in the past.
