ABSORPTION
By Husnu Mahalli (Aksam)
Turkish Press
Oct 11 2005
Press Review
AKSAM
Columnist Husnu Mahalli comments on relations between Turkey
and the European Union. A summary of his column is as follows:
“If Europeans can absorb Turkey and Turks, they will make Turkey
a European Union member. However, those who talk about Europe and
Europeans absorbing Turkey and Turks don’t talk about Turkey in
turn absorbing Europeans. For example, what about European countries’
hypocrisy and double standards? Let’s consider the Cyprus issue. The EU
previously prodded Turkey and Turkish Cypriots and last year claimed
that it would do what was necessary, but did it really do this? The
Greek Cypriots who rejected United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
Annan’s plan in the April 2004 referendum were made EU members and
the Turkish Cypriots who accepted it were left in the cold. What’s
more, the EU then started to put pressure on Turkey and asked it to
recognize Greek Cyprus. It stated in the negotiating framework that
recognizing Greek Cyprus or opening our ports and harbors initially
was a precondition for continuing of the membership process.
Now, let’s talk about the Armenian issue. The European Parliament
called on Turkey to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide and said
that otherwise this issue would influence the process of membership. It
should be remembered that when our membership talks end, our possible
EU membership will face a vote in the European Parliament. Therefore,
I attach great importance to the European Parliament’s voting on the
issue of genocide.
I wonder if Turkey, which previously absorbed the EU’s hypocrisy
concerning the Cyprus issue, will be able to absorb its stance on the
Armenian issue. What’s more, the same Europe condoned the Armenian
ASALA terrorist group killing nearly 40 Turkish diplomats in the early
1980s. These diplomats were killed in Paris, Brussels, Athens, Geneva,
Madrid, Vienna and other major EU capitals. If I’m not mistaken, none
of these murderers have been caught. Such a Europe forgot its own
guilt by association and now it wants Turkey to recognize the genocide.
The most important issue is that the EU is leaving the countries free
to choose the method they will choose for making Turkey an EU member.
As part of this, countries will vote on the agreement concerning Turkey
in their parliaments or bring it to referendums. Right now there
are 25 EU members. If we add in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, that
makes 28. Now I wonder how many of these 28 parliaments will accept
Turkey’s membership. Let’s not forget that if even one turns us down,
Turkey won’t get in the EU. The same holds for the referendums. All
the publics of EU member states have always said in polls that they’re
against Turkey’s EU membership and everybody has their own grounds
for this. Austrians can’t forget the Siege of Vienna and the Greeks
still remember the conquest of Istanbul.
However, all of Europe remembers the Ottoman Empire. If you consider
economic and political interests and calculations, you can see how
difficult the situation is. So we can see at least 25 parliaments of
EU countries among the 28 member states would certainly reject our
EU membership.”