This, in return, can be attributed to the remnants of the anti-Christian foreign policy of the Ottoman Empire on one side, and to the colonialist and domineering policies of the Western powers on the other. The emotional perception in Anatolia is that “Westerners will never accept ‘us’ among themselves” and that “they will never favor ‘our’ good.” In addition, there is an established reference to “barbarism” based on years of experience, and the expectation that potential harm can be expected from the East and “Turks.”Therefore, relations between Turkey and the EU cannot be discussed with reference to a simple mechanism of accession. There is a confrontation at hand that goes deeper than the tension between France and Germany or the repressed conflict between the UK and continental Europe. So, we can safely argue that if it were not for Turkey’s candidacy for EU membership, bilateral relations would be much softer and the parties would treat each other with much more understanding and tolerance. However, when the ancient “other” came closer and the distance between them decreased with the likelihood of it becoming part of the same identity, this created discomfort on both sides which is hard to define.
Thanks to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Turkey is quickly overcoming this uneasiness. This is because having its roots in social groups with increased Islamic sensitivities, the AK Party has pursued policies that are openly pro-EU, and this has greatly mitigated the anti-Western attitudes of the conservatives in the country. Yet, the main dynamics are on the reverse. The new middle classes of Anatolia, who seek to integrate with the world and who have become secularized while preserving their religiosity, no longer regard the West as the “other.” This is mostly attributable to the self-confidence that the religious groups have built since the 1990s as modernity began to lose its luster.
As the salient elements of this foreign policy, we can list the new dynamics of the global world, the room for maneuver in this world, and the dialogue-based method for settling issues -- which was embodied by US President Barack Obama, and in general, extensions of a democrat mentality. On the other hand, I would also like to note that the AK Party has moved away from the Turkish Republic’s ethnicity-oriented vision and come closer to the Ottoman Empire’s multi-cultural mindset.
The Western world, on the other hand, has not yet been able to come up with a perspective to understand Turkey. Western observers, though they are EU members, still have nation-state-based analytical perspectives. Accordingly, they fail to grasp the real changes as they try to place every development on the past’s typical foreign policy framework. In this case, they cannot realize that the new relations Turkey established with its neighbors are prerequisites of “global harmony” and rather, they tend to view it as an “axis shift.” Those who want to understand Turkey should never forget this simple truth: Turkey seeks to become a global player in the world and to this end, it is eager to fulfill attitudes, behaviors and actions that being a global player requires, and more. While doing this, it also tries to integrate two different understandings: its proximity to religious identity and to the Muslim world on the one hand, and the democratic politics and the opportunity to become a global player thanks to this, on the other. In the past, the merger of the two was not possible. For many Westerners, this is probably still not possible. This is because although the great majority of Westerners are the natural carriers of globalization -- and perhaps due to the convenience this has created -- they are far from the democratic mentality that today’s world requires. As a result of the modernist perspective, they think that secularism is a categorical constant and, and what’s worse, they nurture the non-secular assumption that the Muslim identity cannot be categorically secularized.
Yet, the success of the dynamics of change in Turkey is not independent from the developments in the West. The current amalgamation of Muslim sensitivity with democratic politics -- which would have been impossible in the past -- is still attributable to the emerging critique of modernism in the West and, more concretely, the collapse of the Bush world.
Many people are uneasy about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s position about Iran’s nuclear energy policy. The Turkish prime minister does not think it is ethical to block Iran from developing nuclear power while allowing every other country to do so. Still, his position cannot be explained by merely resorting to solidarity among Muslims because Turkey is as uneasy as any other Western country concerning how Iran will use this power. But there are ethical norms which we want to dominate the world of the future.
These days, the world is being re-established. Not every country may feel this renewal at the same rate. The societies that have Western Europe’s established political culture, and its habits may not even be aware of such a change. But in Turkey, we can feel this new world to our core because we live in it.
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