It’s the little blue flag with its 27 yellow stars that represents the European Union, and it’s a symbol that I’ve seen many times in the east of Turkey but never before in my own neck of the woods. The flag adorns a board advertizing work on a new sewerage plant, just the sort of infrastructural project that the EU loves.In my travels around Turkey, I’ve been amazed at the range of projects that have received EU funding. In Gümüşhane there was a bakery with EU backing, not to mention a project to help street dogs. In Gaziantep an old hamam at the foot of the castle has been restored with EU money, as have some of the massive old houses in the back streets of Şanlıurfa. Even in İstanbul the EU logo now adorns several houses in Balat, the restoration of which was funded by UNESCO through the medium of the EU.
Here in Göreme we did have one go at securing European Union backing for a project to train a new generation of stone masons. A consultant showed up here and spent an inordinate amount of time compiling the paperwork. He looked at me as if I was something the cat had dragged in which hardly endeared him to me. Not that it mattered much because that was the last we ever heard of the project. Further enquiries suggested that EU funding was more likely to be directed at the economically backward east of the country rather than at those parts of it that were already doing very nicely, thank you.
If the sewerage project is anything to go by, maybe that situation has started to change, and perhaps we should steel ourselves to battle the paperwork again. Goodness knows, there are enough things to be done here for which big money seems the only answer. In the meantime I’m remembering the lovely new visitor center at the Deyrul Zafaran monastery deep in the countryside near Mardin. Smart and modern with a cafe and bookshop, the visitor center is an example of an attempt to move things forward in an area seen as up and coming on the tourism front. Of course, it being an EU project it has impeccable disabled access even though no one with mobility problems would be able to get anywhere near it!
These projects suggest to me that the EU is more serious about admitting Turkey than other people seem to think -- which is not to say that it gets much thanks for its efforts. In the back streets of Urfa, I was admiring one of the renovated buildings. “It’s good that the EU is putting money into the houses,” I commented.
My companion looked morose. “It’s only because they don’t want us to go to Europe,” he said.
I thought of the grey skies of England compared with the bright blue ones of Urfa. “But why would you want to go to Europe if you could earn a living here?” I asked in exasperation.
Of course, he had no answer. Really, people are so ungrateful…
Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia.
