Ukrinform
If you have ever been to the shores of the Bosphorus, you have undoubtedly admired the fantastically beautiful bridge across the strait, over which you can cross from Asia to Europe and back in a few minutes. As the magazine "Europa" notes, the one-and-a-half-kilometer bridge has become one of the symbols of the Turkish Republic, which since the time of its first president, Kemal Atatürk (1923-1938), has been slowly transforming into a European state, despite the fact that only 20% of its territory is in Europe.
Modern Turkey is a half-Eastern, half-Western Eurasian country located on the territory of the central part of the former Eastern Roman Empire, which had a huge influence on the formation of European civilization. Numerous monuments scattered throughout the country recall Greco-Roman colonies and the Christian tradition. For example, the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul, built by the Greeks in the 6th century, where, according to legend, stood the cradle of St. George the Victory-Bearer, and where later envoys of the Russian prince Vladimir the Red Sun were introduced to the Christian faith, believing they had been in paradise. In 1453, when the capital of Byzantium - Constantinople - fell, the cathedral was turned into a Muslim mosque, and in 1935 Atatürk, wishing to end the discord between Christians and Muslims, turned it into a museum.
Kemal abolished the sultanate and the caliphate, separated the church from the state, emphasizing its secular structure, reformed clothing, introduced new civil and criminal codes based on European models, Latinized the alphabet, introduced surnames (becoming Atatürk – "father of the Turks"), and granted women the right to vote. Even during Atatürk's time, the republic's foreign policy began to orient toward the West.
In the 1960s, due to the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East, the role of Islam in Turkey began to strengthen again, and the country, which had already been in NATO for 10 years, was promised that someday it would be invited to the community of European nations. Turks often recall the words of Pope John XXIII, who said then: "Turkey will certainly become one of the advanced Western countries." However, over the next 30 years, no one in Europe dared to view an Islamic state, where the military had unlimited power, annexed part of Cyprus, openly violated the rights of national minorities, and so on, as a partner for the EU. The other thing is Turkey - a NATO member and as an outpost in the Near and Middle East, which became especially important in the context of global geopolitical changes caused by the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact.
In 1999, Europe, fearing that the domestic political development in Turkey, which found itself at a crossroads, would pave the way for a much more pronounced nationalist and Islamist policy, granted it the status of a candidate for EU membership. This coincided with the emergence of a hotbed of tension in the Balkan region, where there was a redistribution of political and economic influence, and Turkey played a significant role in strengthening the position of the North Atlantic bloc in the Adriatic, the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea straits.
After September 11, 2001, EU countries became involved in creating a new security system, and the United States led the war on terrorism. The Greater Middle East region, that is, the space from the Mediterranean Sea to Afghanistan, began to acquire particular importance. Turkey's accession to the EU, which today has a huge and well-trained army, could have a significant impact on the entire EU policy in this region, where large energy resources are concentrated.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won in Turkey in 2002, although it has pronounced Islamist roots, represents politicians of the younger generation oriented toward Europe. Striving to meet the Copenhagen criteria, the Turkish "perestroikists" accelerated the large-scale democratic reforms of legislation that had begun a little earlier (constitutional amendments, a new criminal code, abolition of the death penalty, expansion of the rights of the Kurdish minority). Hundreds of standards in the national economy are being revised, from the width of sockets in electrical outlets to the size of police batons. Today, there is a combination of Muslim values with the ideas of liberalism and democracy.
As a result of the AKP's use of Islam as a political instrument, there is a "politicization and ideologization of the entire traditional environment," which wittingly or unwittingly leads to the gradual secularization of Islam in Turkey, and this, apparently, will facilitate the stay of a Muslim state in the "common European home." However, years are needed to fully bring its legislation, economy, state and political systems into line with EU norms.
If not everything is so well within Turkish society, then relations with the EU in recent years, especially in the economic sphere, have developed excellently. For example, Turkish tankers alone transport up to a third of the crude oil consumed by the EU. Already in the autumn of 2004, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan boldly declared Turkey's compliance with all the requirements that the EU imposes on candidates for accession, which it had patiently waited for 40 years. Wanting to hasten Europe's decision, the prime minister emphasized that Turkey, upon joining the EU, would help prevent a clash of civilizations that would otherwise be inevitable.
As soon as Turkey's accession gained a real prospect, albeit pushed back by 10-15 years, the European public became seriously worried. It turned out that not all Europeans are ready to live in one integration association with a republic of 70 million, which for them is "too large, poor, distant Muslim country."
Back in 2002, a veteran of European politics, the head of the EU Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, was one of the first to state directly that Turkey is not a European country if its capital and population are not in Europe. The opinion was considered purely personal. Two years later, during discussion of a special report by the European Commission on the start of negotiations on Turkey's accession to the EU, people talked about "the high cost of accepting Turkey into the EU," "geopolitical danger," "the taking of Vienna," and "the end of Europe."
European society turned out to be split. On the one hand, the European political elite, representatives of the largest corporations, and senior officials, who are set on globalization and hold a stable majority within the EU's supreme executive body, the European Commission; on the other hand, the European middle class. However, even among the then members of the Commission there were opponents. According to Fritz Bolkestein, accepting Turkey would lead to the Islamization of the EU and would turn it into an Austro-Hungarian empire of the period of its collapse. Moreover, "given demographic dynamics, the Union by the end of the current century risks becoming an extension of North Africa and the Middle East." And Franz Fischler, a former member of the Commission in charge of agriculture, fears that this would hit the EU's common agricultural policy. After all, Turkey (by 2020 it will already be an 82-million-strong state) would be entitled to annual agricultural subsidies of 11.3 billion euros. That is more than all 10 countries that joined earlier receive under this heading.
A significant part of clerical circles within the EU declared that this would threaten the foundations of European civilization. "Europe is not a geographical but a cultural continent," said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. From Orthodox circles, there were also warnings and reports about restrictions on freedom of religion and the activities of the Constantinople Orthodox Church, which does not have the rights of a legal entity and cannot manage its funds, churches, cemeteries, educational institutions, which clearly does not correspond to European standards.
Not everyone likes the fact that Europe gradually, and in the last decade more and more rapidly, is turning into a "racial-ethnic salad bowl." There are problems in the social, political, and cultural integration of immigrants of the Islamic tradition that cannot be solved by improving their material well-being. Many Europeans were frightened by the immediate influx of labor from Turkey. Ankara hastened to assure that it would introduce restrictions on the free movement of that labor.
France is more active than others in opposing EU enlargement in the Turkish direction and categorically makes it clear that it will not allow Turkey to join the EU before 15 years have passed. And even then, only if a referendum on this matter gives a positive answer. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin asks his fellow citizens: "Do you really want Islam to pour into the secular mainstream?" But the fact is that the EU is a secular organization, and the criteria for joining it in no way stipulate the religious affiliation of candidate countries. Therefore, the Turks easily parry such statements, answering that they are negotiating not with the Vatican, which is a religious state, but with the secular institutions of the EU.
If in Italy and Spain the population is rather "for," then 60% of the French spoke out against accepting Turkey. Europe still has to integrate ten new members, which will cost tens of billions of euros in annual subsidies. Therefore, many believe that the redrawing of EU borders must stop, because accepting Turkey would move the borders of old Europe to the doorstep of Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Moreover, Turkey's accession could lead to an expansion of the circle of Mediterranean states declaring their European identity and wishing to become EU members, which would make it limitless.
More than half of Germans also spoke out against Turkey's integration into the EU. Many prominent Germans believe that political leaders of the new generation do not understand that this would undermine the foundations of European politics and would be suicide for Europe. They propose strengthening friendly relations with Ankara and working with it as a NATO partner of great strategic importance. Accession could cost Germany dearly, since it would have to transfer billions of euros in structural and agricultural aid to Turkey—twice as much as, for example, the Poles receive.
It turned out that universal human values are not as deeply rooted in the minds of the European middle class as in the European political elites and senior officials. For example, Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, who belongs to the political super-elite, said: "We Greeks want to see a European Turkey and support the country's accession to the EU." The voices of protesting Greek citizens were lost in the loud support for Turkey shown by their new prime minister. However, the then Greek president, Konstantinos Stefanopoulos, pointed to the need to resolve the Cyprus problem and some others, wishing, if possible, to postpone the moment of Turkey's accession to the EU, which would fundamentally change the balance of power.
Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac, while acknowledging that 65% of the arguments are so far against Turkey's accession, nevertheless spoke "for," of course, provided that all European criteria are met. They are echoed by voices urging Europe to demonstrate in practice its aspiration to democracy and to support Turkey in the Muslim-Arab world.
In Germany, there is a clear party interest in the votes of 600,000 Turks with German citizenship. Following the chancellor, the leaders of the Green Party spoke out "for," believing that refusal would contribute to further Islamization. According to polls, about 80%, that is, 480,000, of Turks intend to vote for them in the next Bundestag elections.
But Ankara receives the most active support from the United States, which is interested in having such a reliable NATO member in the EU. President George Bush has repeatedly described Turkey as an exemplary country for the entire Middle East, which, being a Muslim state, upholds the high ideals of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, and last summer at the NATO summit in Istanbul stated that he would do everything possible to expedite Turkey's accession to the EU. Britain, also supporting Turkey, hopes for an increase in Anglo-Saxon influence in the EU and for the opportunity to pursue a more independent policy. Turkey, as analysts write, turns out to be the very instrument with which it will be possible to simultaneously control Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and part of the Middle East. It is taken into account that the history of Turkish-Arab relations continues to exert a powerful political influence.
Turkey's role in the future could increase many times over, and Ankara's leaders do not hide their goal - in the coming years to become one of the ten most important world powers, confirming in practice the foresight of Pope John XXIII.
Despite the objections of the majority of Europeans, at the December 2004 EU summit the pro-Turkish position of the European Commission prevailed, and it was finally decided to open the doors of the EU to the "child of Atatürk," albeit with a series of reservations and with the timeframe stretched to the maximum. This event marked a kind of turning point in history, when not the simplest variant of the European future was chosen. After all, even earlier, such Muslim countries as Albania and Bosnia had also begun to be considered as potential EU members. Many analysts saw in this the development of an irreversible process of globalization. And in the debates about the future of Europe and the entry into the EU of a major Muslim power - a clash of two global political clubs, conventionally called the "Christian" one, defending the cultural and historical basis of European integration, which includes France, Belgium, Austria, Germany (despite Schröder's statements), the Netherlands, Cyprus, and the elitist – "universal human" one.
At the last conference of European churches, along with concerns, the idea was expressed that the close proximity of the Muslim and Christian worlds may nevertheless not only create divisions, but, by overcoming them, work out a model of peaceful coexistence of two civilizations (as was the case in the USSR). In this case, Turkey's entry into the EU will lay a stone in the foundation of a bridge between Christianity and the Islamic worlds, and then, quite possibly, the already existing bridge over the Bosphorus and the Hagia Sophia will also become symbols of the peaceful coexistence of two civilizations.
Olga Sokolovskaya.
magazine "Europe"