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December 19, 2006
Europe, Clash of Civilizations and the Turkish Plumber
[Originally published in Turkish Daily News]
There was a considerable article in yesterday's The Guardian. "Despite the chorus of pious hope," read its blunt title, "Turkey is not going to join the EU." Its writer, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, was making not an argument against Turkey's EU bid but simply an analysis of the prevailing attitude in the capitals of continental Europe. Despite the efforts of a handful of "soi-disant" leaders — such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair along with Finland's Prime Minister Erkki Tuomioja and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt — Turkey won't be in the EU "in any foreseeable future," according to Wheatcroft.
He might be right. To argue for or against this conclusion would fall into the category of prophecy, which is not what I intend to do here. However, it's worth taking a look into the reasons for this possible disconnect between Turks and Europeans.
Wheatcroft first mentions the usual troubles with Turkey, such as its relative poverty, its "patchy record on human rights" and the Cyprus conundrum. His more revealing insight is that the so-called strategic argument for Turkey's EU bid — that the embracing of a Muslim country would help prevent a clash of civilizations — doesn't make sense to most Europeans. To the insistence of the United States that Turkey should be welcomed, Wheatcroft replies that Europeans feel that they are "being asked to make a huge sacrifice to gratify American strategic interests."
In other words, those Europeans who are not cordial to Turkey's EU bid are also the ones who don't care about global relations between East and West. This is only a matter for the United States and the Middle East, they believe. Their more important concern is the potential influx of cheap Turkish labor into their beloved welfare states. In other words, their vision is shaped not by the "clash of civilizations" but by the Turkish plumber.
And this phenomenon nicely corresponds to what Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an pointed out last week when he criticized Europe for its "lack of vision."
This lack of vision is nothing new. When former U.S. President Ronald Reagan visited Berlin in 1987 and famously stood before the Brandenburg Gate to demand, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," most Europeans thought he was just a naive cowboy. As, Der Spiegel commentator Claus Christian Malzahn recalled last year: "Reagan was lampooned the next day on the editorial pages. He is a dreamer, wrote commentators. Realpolitik looks different."
For most Europeans, including many Berliners, tearing down the Berlin Wall and everything that it represented was yet another "American strategic interest" that was not only an unrealistic dream but also had nothing to do with their own interests.
According to Malzahn, the European lack of vision continues today. "Europeans today, just like the Europeans of 1987, cannot imagine that the world might change," he argues. "Maybe we don't want the world to change because change can, of course, be dangerous. But in a country of immigrants like the United States, one actually pushes for change."
Interestingly enough, Turkey itself is divided over the EU bid between those who push for change and those who resist it. The anti-EU block in Turkey consists of those who believe the world is stagnant. Europe, for them, is still the land of the Great Powers that pushed the Ottoman Empire into collapse and later on supported the invading Greeks against the liberation army led by Mustafa Kemal. Only those Turks who can save themselves from the burden of history can believe that a brand new phase between the East and the West is possible.
It is indeed possible. And it is not a Pollyannaish dream but a dire necessity. If Europeans really think that a clash of civilizations will hit the United States and the Middle East while they will be safe and sound in Paris or Berlin, they are daydreaming. In our globalized brave new world, there will be no more islands of prosperity and freedom surrounded by seas of poverty and tyranny. The United States gets it, and, at least for the sake of the memory of the Berlin Wall, the Europeans should take a hint.
Posted by Mustafa Akyol at December 19, 2006 11:32 AM
Europeans are too comfortable. The US isn't a comfortable place to live. It feels like we are living on shifting sands. But at least we can always get a job (maybe not a great paying one.) I have a friend in Europe who had a government job that was guaranteed employment. She chose to leave it to come to the US. However she came for the wrong reasons and is now back in Europe. She can't find a job now. That's what it is really all about. People need jobs for a sense of self-respect. There has to be opportunity and it has to be for everyone and not just for those in the developed world. However I can understand why Europe would be afraid of opening the gates to Turkey. Maybe some kind of quota system that would gradually be relaxed? We're having the same problem with Mexico. None of this is easy.
Posted by: Martin Bebow at December 20, 2006 8:54 PM
defining most europeans as people with their lack of vision is a good point, but yet somewhat dangerous...why?
it is told that in literature, politics, journalism, there are two manners of expression.
the british way of doing something and the american way of doing something
therefore, in fact, in this article Mr. Akyol is reflecting these quite wellknown manners by mentioning what Wheatcroft wrote in The Guardian and how Americans are approaching Turkish full membership of European Union.
even if Mr. Blair seemed as a "soi-disant leader" to be eager to say some words in favor of Turkish full membership of EU during his last Turkey tour, to be of having lack of vision is defined as a particular characteristic of European thought-let's say British- whilst to be able to think strategically and with wide perspective is being defined as totally American in Mr. Akyol's writing.
In spite of the repercussion of this kind of approach, and its danger in terms of sideless journalism, we cannot help us to uphold deeply his arguments when we read the last paragraph.
Posted by: Kubilay ANT at December 21, 2006 12:02 PM
Dear Mr. Akyol,
usually I am impressed with your ability to view topics from several points and make a conclusion that is not built on prejudice or quick assumptions. But with this article I have some difficulty, may it be due to me feeling wrongly portraied as a European or to me having real-life experience on some Europeans' attitude towards Turkey joining the EU.
Being a German, I must defend the issue of the attitude of our people concerning the demolition of the wall. I have seriously read here for the first time ever that tearing down the wall was an American interest. The majority of Germans considers the tearing down one of the deepest wishes of a seperated people. The purpose was to unite our country and unite families, weave new ties among a separated societiey.
Mr. Malzahn, whom you use as a source for information, also states that Europeans cannot envision changes in the world. This is not my experience. The only thing I agree with him is that many people in Germany are afraid of change. But in fact many feel that the world has changed recently. A new attitude has spread that resembles a fatalistic view, which leads me back to why this all has to do with Turkey joining the EU.
The media has a tight grip on the people’s minds it seems to me. If the newspapers write of the Turks who in their own country ignore human rights, who in Germany murder their sisters to reestablish the family’s dignity, who force their women to marry (a Turk, not a German of course), then that is exactly what many people think of Turkey and its inhabitants. What you find among German citizens lately is sadly not fear of change, but prejudice. Prejudice based on TV reports, prejudice based on newspaper articles, all of which are made to sell well, and what sounds harsh sells the best. When I have discussions about whether Turkey should join the EU or not, nobody brings forth issues of a certain depth. Such discussions in no time degenerate to the common prejudice mentioned before.
Now I urge anybody who read this to not make quick assumptions in the fashion of „Europeans are too comfortable” and judge the entire European Union members being prejudiced and narrowminded. Prejudice of any kind seems to be a big obstacle in this process, and often people are more guided by prejudice than a sincere concern for human rights.
Posted by: florian at January 12, 2007 11:29 AM