Obviously, these qualities of the West still appeal to people. But, the monopoly the West has been holding in these lands has started to be undermined. Indeed, in the geographies that represent diverse basins of civilization, including Japan, Singapore, Dubai and Shanghai, one can encounter more glorious buildings, cleaner streets and more successful production facilities.Thanks to the impact of globalization, you can see the same brands, same shops and identical architectural designs anywhere around the world. While the anti-globalists may be offended by this process of stereotyping, there are some good aspects to it. Because of this convergence, people are feeling or will feel the need to move from the surface to deeper layers and examine the fundamental elements of culture, religion, philosophy, politics, etc., in order to find differences.
During a five-day visit to the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, this is what I did personally, and what impressed me most were not the subways, shopping centers or streets, but the details concerning European politicians.
One such politician was German Green Party co-leader Cem Özdemir, whom we interviewed during our stay in Berlin. Mr. Özdemir, born in Germany in 1965, is a brilliant member of an emerging generation in Europe. Starting his political career with the Green Party in 1981 and acting as a member of the German Bundestag and the European Parliament, Özdemir has recently become a leader of his party. But his election as leader was not done for show. He was elected by the Germans in his party, and he became a leader who ran election campaigns all throughout Germany, trying to attract German voters, and he managed to leave the Social Democrats behind and bring his party to the second slot in Berlin.
For this success, we must congratulate both Özdemir and the Germans who supported his extraordinary performance despite all prejudices. If Germany wishes, this is the best opportunity it can use for the promotion of the country both internally and externally.
Making Özdemir's observations about German politics, the European Union accession process, Turkey and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) the subject matter of another article, I would like to stress his behaviors that impress me most as a party leader.
When we -- about 10 journalists -- went to a modest restaurant to meet with him, we found him waiting for us on his own. I do not know how many of us realized it, but he was the leader of a party that had made great progress. But there was no one next to him: neither an assistant nor a bodyguard.
During our conservation, we, who come from a tradition of politics where everything is possible if you are close to the leader, learned another striking fact. One of his close friends who had made significant contributions to the Greens in the European Parliament had requested his help in being elected from Germany. Although he was the leader of the party, Özdemir turned down his request, and risked hurting his close friend, since this would mean an imposition on the party's voter base. Indeed, his friend had no connection with the grass roots of the party.
What I saw after the meal was far more striking. Although he was the leader of a party that came in third in Germany and second in Berlin, Özdemir went out of the restaurant and, like an ordinary citizen, got into a taxi to go home.
When she says, "I come to Turkey every year, but I cannot see the European spirit," Emine Demirbüken Wegner of the Berlin State Parliament might be referring to a Europe that is not specified in laws or formal requirements. In a country where a judge orders the detention of a 5-year-old girl and her mother just because this girl beat his son, where a reporter can abruptly be taken to a police station while he doing his job, where the military sets up traps and plots against the ruling party and the civil society and where the leaders of leftist and rightist political parties act as if they are kings, can you see the European spirit?
If we really want to implement EU standards, we should stop bickering with Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, but turn a critical eye toward ourselves.
