EUROPE, ISLAM AND
NATIONALISM
BY TAHA AKYOL (MILLIYET)
Prime Minister and ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip
Erdogan yesterday continued campaigning for March
28 local elections in the central Anatolian cities
of Afyon and Eskisehir. Speaking to packed
campaign rallies, Erdogan said that his government
didn’t want to raise tension in Turkey. “We must
ensure peace and unity in our country,” said the
premier. “Don’t pay any heed to those trying to
sow the seeds of separation among us.” Pointing to
the historic single-digit inflation rate announced
this week, Erdogan touted his government’s success
during its 18 months in power. /Turkiye/
Addressing an Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO)
conference yesterday, Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas said that his
point of view on the United Nations Cyprus plan
hadn’t changed, adding that if there was a
deadlock in the current negotiations, he could
walk away to campaign against the plan’s
acceptance in an April referendum. “We want to get
certain changes in the plan,” stated Denktas. “If
we’re unable to get them, then we will urge the
nation to reject the plan in the referendum.” The
plan in its current form would mean the
“destruction of the Turkish Cypriots,” Denktas
charged. He added that he was opposed to pressure
on the island’s two sides to reach a resolution by
May, as doing so would be difficult. Greek Cyprus
is scheduled to join the European Union on May 1.
/Cumhuriyet/
Visiting Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
President Rauf Denktas yesterday met separately
with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to discuss the
ongoing negotiations over the island. Speaking
after meeting with Gul, Denktas said that he would
do his best to reach a resolution by May, when
Greek Cyprus is scheduled to join the European
Union. Denktas complained of the Greek Cypriot
administration’s “intransigence” in rejecting all
his propoed changes to the United Nations Cyprus
plan. For his part, Gul said that the two sides
were trying to reach an agreement in light of the
realities of the island, adding that doing so by
May was their aim. In related news, later,
appearing on television after his meeting with
Denktas, Erdogan called his meeting with Denktas
“very positive.” He also charged the Greek
Cypriots with a failure to negotiate in good will,
adding that the TRNC would never retreat on
certain “sine qua non” issues. /Aksam/
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat warned yesterday
that negotiators on Cyprus reaching an agreement
on all issues by March 22, when Ankara and Athens
are due to intercede, would be quite difficult. “I
believe that we will agree on some issues, but not
all, by that target date,” added Talat. /Aksam/
Following two years of negotiations between
Turkey and Israel, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary
Ugur Ziyal and his Israeli counterpart yesterday
signed an agreement to sell water from Turkey’s
Manavgat River to Israel. Under the agreement, 50
million cubic meters of water will be transported
annually to Israel over a 20-year period. /Turkiye/
State Minister Kursad Tuzmen accompanied by a
delegation of 200, including deputies, bureaucrats
and businessmen, yesterday traveled to Syria.
Before his departure, Tuzmen told reporters he
hoped to discuss bilateral economic ties with
Syrian officials, with an eye towards
strengthening them. The delegation is expected to
meet with President Bashar al-Assad and Prime
Minister Mohammed Naji Otari as well as other high-level
officials. /Turkiye/
The months and years to come see a rise in
investments in Turkey, predicted Industry and
Trade Minister Ali Coskun yesterday. Speaking at
the 18th International Optical Products Fair in
Istanbul, Coskun said that after the righting of
macroeconomic balances in 2003, this year would be
one of rising investments. Referring to the
chronic crises of years past, he added, “We’ve
overcame most of the hurdles [of these crises],
and we’re determined to tackle the others.” /Turkiye/
Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities
Exchanges (TOBB) Chairman Rifat Hisarciklioglu
yesterday urged increased investments in Turkey’s
less-developed regions. “We need to invest more in
provinces where per capita income is under
$1,500,” said Hisarciklioglu. “But first we need
to draw up a strategy for boosting these
investments.” /Milliyet/
European Investment Bank (EIB) President
Philippe Maystadt and State Minister Ali Babacan
yesterday signed an agreement for the EIB to lend
250 million euros to the Turkish private sector
and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Babacan said that the loan would be distributed
through the Turkish Industrial Development Bank (TSKB),
Vakifbank, the Turkish Development Bank (TKB),
Halkbank and Ziraatbank. /Hurriyet/
World Bank Turkey Director Andrew Vorkink
yesterday said that the WB might provide financial
and technical assistance to Turkey’s judicial
reforms if Ankara requested it. Stressing that
anti-corruption efforts and establishing
transparency were both very important for
establishing a robust and efficient business
environment, Vorkink added that the WB was ready
to provide assistance to the Turkish government in
these areas. He also stated that the WB had never
insisted on the privatization of state banks but
rather had presented Ankara with a number of
options for overcoming major hurdles in the
banking sector, only one of which was
privatization. /Hurriyet/
An initiative is underway in Washington to
revive an aid package for Cyprus which was first
discussed over 15 years ago, when President Ronald
Reagan was in office. The proposal never went
forward at that time since an agreement on the
island was lacking. But recently the US House of
Representatives resurrected the proposal, which
envisages a $250 million grant for use in Cyprus’
“peace and restructuring” process. In addition,
Special US Cyprus Envoy Thomas Weston has also
signalled that Washington is ready to provide
financial assistance to the Cyprus peace process.
/Turkiye/
Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on Turkey’s
prospects for receiving a date for European Union
membership negotiations. A summary of her column
is as follows:
“Journalist Zeynep Lule was recently in
Istanbul with a group of journalists from leading
dailies across Europe. These European journalists
first went to Ankara and met with Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul. They all said that they were impressed by the
government’s determination. Recently the EU
started to give us some hope and optimism on our
membership bid. Their messages have been
optimistic, but there’s an important issue in this
happiness, namely understanding each other. Europe
wants us to implement reforms as soon as possible,
that is, ensuring a sound judiciary, a solution to
the Cyprus issue, etc. All this still holds. But
they haven’t understood us completely, because
there’s nothing clear yet on a very sensitive
issue. ‘Please don’t talk about a date for
membership negotiations,’ warned Lule. Indeed,
sometimes there’s even discussion of giving us a
date for membership negotiations at top-level
meetings.
We received a date for a date at the Copenhagen
summit last year. If we can fulfill the Copenhagen
criteria, the EU will decide at its year-end
summit to start membership negotiations with
Turkey. We want not a date, but the beginning of
negotiations from the EU. I don’t mean that the
messages from the EU are insincere. Recently
European politicians have started to see that
Turkey would boost the EU’s influence in the
region. A Europe including Turkey would be
stronger in terms of security and foreign policy.
We’ve been getting positive signals. However, it’s
important to understand the other side’s words and
expectations as well as to explain our wishes, so
that we’re not disappointed.”
Columnist Taha Akyol comments on pluralism in
Europe and Turkey. A summary of his column is as
follows:
“I was talking to French journalist Christophe
Midol-Monnet at a recent dinner for foreign
reporters thrown by the Dogan Media group. He is
general broadcast director for the Euronews TV
channel. Midol-Monnet supports Turkey’s European
Union membership bid, and his reasoning is this:
‘Turkey’s EU membership as a majority-Muslim
country would send an important message from the
West to the Islamic world and prevent the rise of
Christian fundamentalism in Europe!’ If Turkey
joins the Union, then religious pluralism would
flourish, thus heading off a growing
fundamentalism, says Midol-Monnet, who believes
that Christian fundamentalism could rise in Europe
in an age of globalization. Yes, what Midol-Monet
says is a sociological fact: Differences would
encourage tolerance as long as there is no
political conflict… The fear that the EU
membership process would cause a harder line in
Turkey is also little more then paranoia.
Aren’t there other factors making Turkey’s EU
membership necessary? ‘Turkey is a very large
market both for investment and sales,’ he told me.
‘Moreover, Turkey’s strategic importance is better
realized now, and Europe needs this…’ According to
my French colleague, Turkey has been seen as the
United States’ arm in Europe. But after the Iraq
war, they realized that this wasn’t the case. The
latest reforms have also strengthened Turkey’s
‘democratic’ image. If so, why is French President
Jacques Chirac staying silent? ‘There are domestic
and external balances he is attending to,’ said
Midol-Monnet. ‘But I believe that he will
eventually support starting accession negotiations
with Turkey.’ Mentioning his leftist credentials,
Midol-Monnet added, ‘Your ruling Justice and
Development Party [AKP] is a conservative party,
but in terms of some issues, like EU membership,
democracy and pluralism, it resembles the social
democrats of Europe!’ He was right.
Could we consider a weak-centered federation
with three regions, three languages and three
peoples, a la Belgium? I know some Kurdish
intellectuals in Turkey favor such a model. I
asked Belgian journalist Didier de Lafontaine
about this. He laughed. ‘The Belgium model has no
secret or a magical formula, and it’s peculiar to
Belgium. It’s unthinkable for Turkey. How many
Kurds live in Istanbul? This can’t apply to a
population which has such a complicated structure.’
It would be a catastrophe if the issue turned
into a clash of nationalisms. We’ve again come
across the issue of developing shared values that
will enable us to live with differences and
provide tolerance by shoulder-to-shoulder
differences… Midol-Monnet’s thesis about
‘pluralism versus fundamentalism’ is very
important; it is also useful for ethnic problems.
Globalization creates both a feeling of
universalism and a feeling of embracing ethnic,
regional and religious roots. It could lead to
wealth or else a ‘clash of civilizations.’ In
world history, Turkey is a candidate for a role in
‘peace among civilizations.’ Blocking this would
enact a severe cost, both in Turkey and Europe as
well…”
