Please do not get me wrong; I do defend democracy at all costs, but I do not agree with Brussels, Berlin or Paris when they think that their version of democracy is the only one that merits being employed all over Europe. Radio Free Europe decades ago in Hungary springs to mind, so does a newspaper originally owned by the late Robert Maxwell, The European, luckily long forgotten by now, which featured a few pages of European Commission tidbits while then addressing its core business -- how to use the European Economic Community (EEC) to one day convert socialist countries’ citizens into “good Europeans.”Many observers had thought that the process of a “negative, forced EEC/EU enlargement” had come to its logical end in 2004 and that the more liberal countries such as Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom would put an end to any further “eastern” enlargement. As Margaret Thatcher once implied in a landmark speech in 1987 in the medieval Belgian town of Bruges -- put into context, not cited word for word -- we should let Brussels get along with enlargement until the EEC/EU becomes ungovernable and falls apart.
Extremely clever as she is, she of course foresaw more than 10 years in advance that some of the eight former communist countries that ultimately joined the EU in 2004 would, over time, turn their backs against Brussels, too, and focus on their true vocations once more, hence becoming additional allies in the fight against a centralized Brussels after having been made to join. Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus and his more than justified reluctance to sign off the EU’s Lisbon Treaty some months ago are a belated validation of her political wisdom.
I would hope that Turkey opts for the economic concentric circle once the time has come, but this is a personal comment wishing the best for this proud nation. Turkey should not worry too much about the EU though. By the time Turkey joins, if it still wants to, the EU will have radically changed and those who favor more integration versus those who prefer a loose network of strong nation states will play their cards much more openly. Even the euro may be renegotiated -- think Greece and its national strike only this week. Has the euro really made the European economy that much stronger? Think the US, Japan, China… food for thought! It for sure has made life in central Europe much more expensive.
Fact: Yulia Tymoshenko lost, Viktor Yanukovych won. Fair? Yes, as stated by international observers. Partial election recounts? So be it, but you cannot try to repeat elections until you get the result you like. Tymoshenko has lost all of her democratic credentials if she ever possessed any.
I do not believe the so-called Orange Revolution was orchestrated from within Ukraine, but that it must have been financially and logistically supported well before it started by Western circles, perhaps even from far away Washington. Most Western newspapers still show support for Tymoshenko while few acknowledge reality. Although the country seems to be split in half between supporters of either Tymoshenko or Yanukovych, should it not be that we observers let the Ukrainians run their own affairs, similar to what we demand for our own countries’ affairs?
What makes me really happy is that Turkey did not need any unwanted foreign advisers or capital to have its own democratic revolution beginning in November 2002. The color and the flag stayed the same -- red with white and proudly displayed as ever. No need for cosmetics or politico-plastic surgery.
