OPEN LETTER FROM ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MASSIMO D’ALEMA: "ITALY, TURKEY’S CRITICAL ALLY IN EUROPE"
Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy
June 13 2007
Dear Editor,
In my institutional and political talks in Ankara, I have brought a
message of strong support from Italy at a highly sensitive time for
the country. Turkey has been going through a very sensitive time on
both the domestic and international levels over the past few months.
The force of attraction that Europe has exercised since the start of
membership negotiations in October 2005 has unquestionably had a very
positive impact on the political situation in the country.
The widespread difficulties that we now see in Brussels are in danger
of causing fault lines to re-emerge in Turkish society over complex
issues of political ethics and of national identity, and of strongly
undermining the support for the European project that the country’s
political, social, and economic forces have shared to date.
That is another reason why Italy continues to back Turkey’s journey
towards membership of the European Union, above and beyond any
current circumstances. We are prompted to do so, among other reasons,
by geostrategic reasons linked to our common Mediterranean location,
which is capable of imparting better balance to the Union’s internal
component parts. Also, Turkey represents a pivot between the Balkans,
the Middle East, the Caucasus, and central Asia, and it is a hub
for energy transit from the Black Sea to the Caspian. But above all,
I am convinced that membership on the part of a country engaged in
reconciling Islam and secular nonconfessionalism, development and
stability, and modernity and tradition, can serve at one and the same
time as an encouragement to the reformist forces in other countries in
the area, and a challenge for Europe to prove that it is not closing
in on itself.
One of the most complex, and in many ways crucial, matches for Europe
is being played out over the prospect of European membership for
Turkey: namely, whether the Union should define itself in terms
of an "exclusive" identity, or whether it should not, rather,
be characterized as an open – albeit demanding and consistent –
political project based on a sharing of values. The process of
Turkey’s rapprochement with the European Union has set out on a
solid track, but the convoy’s advancement, its speed, and its regular
progress depend a great deal on those driving it today and on those
who will be driving it in years to come. People in Turkey are aware
that membership of the Union does not mean membership of an alliance
with a vaguely defined outline, but that it involves a full fledged
power of "transformation." Europe does not "export" democracy, with
all the attendant risks and unknowns involved; it tends, rather,
to generate or, if you prefer, to consolidate the local democratic
tendency in those countries that join or aspire to join the Union.
Turkey’s membership process will have to be assessed on the basis of
specific issues which are still open or unresolved (full freedom of
expression and of worship; solutions, as yet unforthcoming, regarding
relations with Cyprus; the "Kurdish question"; and relations with
Armenia); it must not decided or influenced by considerations based on
abstract identity-related or generically "cultural" criteria. A common
idea and project joins some very different countries together in a
solid bond today – countries such as Greece and Sweden, or Portugal
and Denmark – without anyone invoking cultural homogeneity.
What matters is what we want to do and become together.
It is likewise important to have efficient institutions designed to
make it possible to debate and to assess together, but to then reach
a decision. Europe needs a "deliberative democracy." That is why
institutional reform is so crucial to Europe’s very credibility. Yet
firmly backing the prospect of EU membership for Turkey does not mean
that we underestimate the membership negotiations’ complexity. Quite
apart from the political aspects, the country’s very demographic and
economic size will necessitate the search for new, delicate balances
in Community policies, from the Common Agriculture Policy to policies
for cohesion. But then, the European Union’s future depends also on
its ability to resolve these difficult problems.
For our part, we have imparted a fresh boost to our "strategy of
attention" towards Turkey, setting up a "Turkey table" comprising
members of the institutions and representatives of the worlds of
business and of finance. Italy is Turkey’s third most important trading
partner, with trade figures constantly on the rise (over 15 billion
[currency not specified] in 2006) and with over 500 firms operating
in the country.
We are determined to consolidate our presence not only in the major
areas of industry and excellence such as transportation, energy,
helicopters, and construction, but also in the fields of banking and
of small and medium businesses. Technological innovation, finance,
and trade are solidly rooted in a country with a very high growth rate
(around 6 to 7 per cent) and with immense potential for expansion.
In this complex, multilateral and bilateral, path, it is our ambition
to act as a careful and aware interlocutor for Turkey, but also as
a partner capable of using the credibility that it has acquired to
keep alive a dialogue that is assiduous, vigilant, and if necessary,
even critical, in order to support the country on its journey towards
complete European integration.