When I stepped out of the terminal building, however, I came across taxi cabs driving around proudly adorned with Turkish flags. In the evening, while watching the game between Turkey and Germany at the hotel where I was staying, I was pleasantly surprised to see Dutch people around me cheering for Turkey. The next day, I was shown a cartoon in one of the leading Dutch dailies that wittily said, "By losing against Germany, the Turks have proved that they are truly Europeans." There is no doubt that the Turkish national team's successful performance in the European Championship has contributed to a favorable image for Turkey throughout Europe. Turkey-EU relations are, however, going through perhaps their most troubled period, due to crises on both sides.The purpose of my visit to Holland was to attend the conference on "Perceptions and Misperceptions in the EU and Turkey: Stumbling Blocks on the Road to Accession" organized by the Center for European Security Studies (CESS) and the Turkey Institute of Holland. Various aspects of the current crises on both sides were taken up at the conference, attended by academics and experts.
It is clear that the EU is going through a crisis, mostly due to the reactions to enlargement in the wake of the accession of 12 new members since 2004. Those social segments who are the losers in EU enlargement and globalization are increasingly turning against the project, which has consolidated peace and democracy in the continent. Fears are spreading among such groups that globalization threatens the welfare state and that immigrant communities, especially Muslims, threaten European national identities. Populist politicians are exploiting these fears to further spread intolerance of different cultures and lifestyles. The principle of "unity in diversity" seems to no longer appeal to an increasing part of EU populations.
The current crisis in Turkey seems to bear similarities to the crisis in the EU. Aren't the closure cases against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Democratic Society Party (DTP), the former representing Muslim and the latter Kurdish identity, primarily a consequence of intolerance of different cultures and lifestyles promoted by uni-culturalist official policies and nationalist politicians? Aren't those who are increasingly opposed to the EU project those segments of Turkish society that are (in both economic and political terms) the losers in the EU accession process in particular and globalization in general? Resistance by losers to globalization and integration can be said to be the root cause of the crises being experienced in both the EU and Turkey today.
There is no doubt that the coinciding crises gravely threaten Turkey's EU hopes. In these circumstances the closure of the AKP and DTP by the Constitutional Court in Ankara will seriously raise the risk of suspension (never to resume) of the accession negotiations that have made scant progress since their start nearly three years ago.
A Dutch official that we listened to at the conference said roughly the following on the current state of EU-Turkey relations: "Turkey was declared, somewhat reluctantly, a candidate for membership in 1999. When Turkey achieved significant reforms, it was decided at the end of 2004 that it 'sufficiently' fulfilled the Copenhagen political criteria, and accession negotiations opened at the end of 2005 despite demands by some member states that Turkey be offered privileged partnership instead of membership. Ankara, however, failed to fulfill its legal obligations to the EU and insisted on non-recognition of a member state. And now Ankara threatens to close down its government party. If that is the case, who can argue that Turkey fulfills the Copenhagen criteria? Many member states, with France in the lead, may very well demand suspension of negotiations. Currently, Sweden is the only remaining member state in the EU who is earnestly fighting for Turkey's interests against France."
If the real purpose of the closure cases against the AKP and DTP is to derail Turkey's accession to the EU, the Constitutional Court may very well achieve that end.
