Greek elections: From bitter enmity against Turkey to rationalized nationalism

 Even when the election, scheduled for Oct. 4, was not this close, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis was delivering strong remarks, particularly on the issue of Cyprus and territorial matters between Aegean neighbors Greece and Turkey

 Diplomats in the Turkish capital do not seem puzzled at all by Bakoyannis' remarks or the statements made by different candidates while campaigning. Their cool-headed stance seems to stem from the fact that Ankara is already prepared both for the official-level haradening of stances due to an approaching key summit of the European Union where Greece will have an opportunity to use its leverage as an EU member on the Cyprus issue and the electioneering in the country since Turkey is almost always used as a campaigning tool in Greek elections.

 A rapprochement between Ankara and Athens actually started long before Turkey's efforts to normalize its relations with Syria or Armenia. The rapprochement between the Turkish and Greek peoples after the devastating earthquakes each suffered in 1999 provided another incentive to intensify diplomatic efforts for the improvement of bilateral relations. But occasional accusations of airspace and territorial water violations as well as the Cyprus issue continue to mar relations.

 In 2002 Greek and Turkish diplomats began exploratory talks on their disputes. Business deals have steadily increased and include a pipeline link that will be used to carry natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Western Europe. But the Aegean has remained a source of tension.

 Another issue has been illegal immigration. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants sneak into Greece each year, many heading to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast. Greece has signed an agreement with Turkey under which it can send back illegal immigrants who enter from Turkey, but Greece says the agreement is often not enforced.

 Meanwhile the EU, which suspended accession talks with Turkey on eight of the 35 negotiation chapters in 2006 over Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus, will review the situation by the end of this year.

 For example, Papandreou already said earlier this month that Ankara could face a veto if it “does not respect rules governing good relations and does not contribute to solving the problem of [ethnically divided] Cyprus,” a decades-old source of tension between Greece and Turkey.

‘Wait a minute!’

Taking into consideration the upcoming EU summit in December, one assumes that the rhetoric used during Greece's elections will not suddenly change the day after the elections, no matter who is elected prime minister.

 Celalettin Yavuz, the deputy head of the Ankara-based Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Analysis (TÜRKSAM), agrees that nothing much will change right after the elections, regardless of who is elected.

 “No matter who is in power after the elections, they will say ‘Wait a minute' to Turkey at the December summit concerning the issue of Cyprus,” Yavuz, an expert on security policies, told Sunday's Zaman.

 “At the moment, Turkey is the most important trump card in the hands of political parties during electioneering. However, the discourse they have been using does not reflect the typical enmity  towards Turkey, it is more of an anti-Turkey attitude,” Yavuz said, citing the gradual improvement in ties between the Aegean neighbors in the last decade as the main reason for such a change, when compared to the past, particularly the 1970s and 1980s.

 Turkey's use as an campaign tool is not something which is peculiar to Greece, especially after Turkey began full membership negotiations with the EU in 2005.

 Most recently, in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in June, Ankara felt the need to slam European political parties using the issue of its EU bid as an election issue to gain electoral support, warning that such electioneering was misleading the electorate and strengthening xenophobic tendencies.

 Recalling the European Parliament elections, Mehmet Hasgüler, an associate professor at Çanakkale 18 Mart University, suggested that European political leaders, particularly of France and Germany, were actually trying to veil the social discrepancy and economic injustice in their societies by launching a debate on Turkey's cultural and religious identity.

Rising awareness

“Greece is also suffering from severe economic problems which eventually led Karamanlis to call snap elections,” Hasgüler, also an expert on Cyprus and the EU at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), told Sunday's Zaman.

 While referring to Greece's youth unemployment, which fuelled the country's worst riots in decades in December and led to the social unrest in the country which has been simmering ever since, Hasgüler indicated that, as with the awareness on social issues, there is also a rise in the level of awareness among Greek youth concerning Turkey.

 Hasgüler said the internal dynamics in both of the countries, as well as globalization and the dynamics within the EU, led to such rising awareness, while stressing the importance of eye-witnessing more and more Greek tourists visiting Turkey.

 “As a result, what we see now, particularly in campaigning, is a rationalized nationalism,” Hasgüler said.

 When reminded of the impression that Turkey's efforts at normalization with some of its other neighbors have apparently improved more rapidly than has been the case with Greece, Hasgüler said Turkey's problems with Iraqi Kurds, Syria and Iran could all be labeled as “manipulative” problems, not “natural” problems, which are more difficult to resolve.

 According to Hasgüler, the bilateral problems between Greece and Turkey are “natural.” Additionally, the two countries do not have a “mutual dependency” relationship -- a fact which does not encourage them to rush to achieve the full normalization of relations, he said.

 One also should not forget that the notion of nationalism was created during the establishment of both of the republican countries through the nourishment of feelings of enmity of both peoples toward each other at the beginning of the 20th century, he added, suggesting that overcoming such a legacy was not that easy.