Bizarre Haider headlines

In a very bizarre twist, a leading Austrian politician, Stefan Petzner, has revealed a “special relationship” with the late Jorg Haider. Haider, the famous anti-immigrant far-right politician, died in a motorcycle crash earlier this month.

The new head of the Freedom Party (Haider’s party) admitted that “Haider was the man of my life.”

Heider was Roman Catholic and married with two children. The party fired Stefan Petzner yesterday.

Wow.

The Alliance for Austria’s future is Austria’s loudest anti-immigrant, anti-Turkey voice. Haider once made the puzzling observation that “Turks do not integrate into society.”

Austria is one of the greatest obstacles to Turkey’s EU bid. Will the combination of Haider’s death and the new leader’s surprising revelations derail popular support for the far-right movement in Austria? If so, this weird news could be good news for Turkey.

 

French Senate passes referendum law

The French Senate has approved a measure that calls for a national referendum every time time a new country seeks to join the European Union. This bill is a revised version of the law that was rejected earlier in the year. The earlier draft was written so that only Turkey’s EU accession would be put to a referendum (French Senate ends Sarkozy plan to block Turkey). The bill must still be approved by the French National Assembly (lower house of parliament).

While the new law does not specifically target Turkey, it does allow the President of France to decide whether or not the “yes or no” vote will be a nationwide referendum or merely a parliamentary matter. Thus, countries such as Croatia may very well be spared the danger of a referendum, while Turkey will likely have to face one. It is inconceivable that a majority of French citizens would vote for Turkey’s accession to the EU.

Thus, Turkey’s hopes of joining the European Union just became dimmer.

 

Turkey gets millions from EU

Turkish Daily News reports that Turkey will receive 495 million Euros worth of development assistance from the European Union. While this figure may sound like a lot of money, Serbia will receive 186.7 million and Croatia will receive 138.5 million. When viewed in terms of Euros per capita, Turkey’s sum appears even less significant.  Croatia will receive about 30.8 Euros per capita, Serbia will receive about 18 Euros per capita, , and turkey will receive about 7 Euros per capita.

 

France and Turkey: Denying Muslim women their rights since no one can remember when!

A brief glance at any Turkish newspaper printed in the last six or seven years shows that one of Turkey’s most pressing internal problems is the split between the country’s so-called “secularists” and so-called “Islamists.”

To grossly oversimplify the situation: the “secularists” dogmatically follow the ideals of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. They believe that religious symbols should be banned from the public sphere, and they believe that the AK Party of Tayyip Erdogan secretly wants to turn Turkey into an Islamic state. They think the headscarf — known in Turkey as the turban – oppresses women.

The so-called Islamists are led by the Erdogan and the AK Party. In reality, they do not advocate an Islamic state. They do believe that headscarved women should be allowed to attend public universities and enter government buildings. In short, they call for an American-style of secularism.

 

Turkey, the EU and the Armenian Genocide

There are many hurdles Turkey must overcome before it can think of joining the EU. One is the Armenian Genocide issue.

Armenians claim that over 1 million Armenians were systemically murdered by the Ottoman military in 1915. They, along with scholars from across many discipline, call these murders genocide.

Turks disagree. Some claim that “people were killed on both sides” and that what the Armenians suffered was not worse than what Turks suffered. Some claim that the Ottomans were justified in brutally ethnically cleansing Anatolia of Armenians because of the likelihood that the group would collude with advancing Russian troops. Most Turkish historians claim that not more than a few hundred thousand Armenians were actually killed in and around 1915. For a Turkish view on the subject read this article in the Turkish daily Hurriyet.

These claims are bunk.

 

Turkey agrees to attend first “Mediterranean Union” meeting

The new “Mediterranean Union” has been hyped by French President Nicholas Sarkozy since his 2007 election campaign. At the same time, the idea has been derided in Ankara and various other capitals across the EU and Muslim Mediterranean.

The impetus behind this Sarkozy project was to let Turkey think that it was actually joining Europe while denying the very large and very Muslim country membership in the European Union. Perhaps of equal importance was the chance to cast France as a “regional power.” Of course, the first meeting of the Mediterranean Union will be in Paris, with Sarkozy playing host.

Until recently Turkey steadfastly opposed the Union. It has agreed to attend the first meeting of the block in Paris, on the condition that Turkey will be recognized as a country “conducting membership negotiations with the EU.”

Why is Turkey reticent to participate in the MU?

 

Anti-Roma racism: a source of shame for the EU and Turkey

Any traveler in Central or Eastern Europe will likely meet or see someone of Roma (Gypsy) descent. If said traveler happens to strike up a conversation with a friendly Bulgarian, Romanian or Slovak, there is a good chance that the traveler will be warned about “the dark people who will steal your money.”

Although it varies in its intensity, such appalling anti-Roma racism can be found in almost anywhere in Europe (Turkey included).

In a move reminiscent of its fascist past, Italy’s interior minister has ordered the fingerprinting of all Roma.

 

Croatia stands before the EU chopping block

The Irish No-vote will have negative ramifications for Croatia’s EU hopes. Sarkozy has said that without agreement on the Lisbon treaty, it is inconceivable that enlargement negotiations will move forward. Merkel has thrown her support behind Sarkozy.

Bad news for Turkey? Sort of. Even before the downfall of the Lisbon Treaty, Turkey knew that membership in the EU would not occur for at least 5-10 years. That said, Turkey will have to wait in line for membership behind Croatia. The longer it takes Croatia, the longer it will take Turkey.

For more, check out this article in Zaman.

 

Cyprus situation getting gloomier

The positive momentum between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots may be coming to a screeching halt (background: click here).

The Turks are angry over a recent memorandum of understanding between the UK and the Republic of Cyprus. The memorandum purportedly supports the Greek point of view in the conflict.

Furthermore, the Greek Cypriots have decided to conduct military exercises in the Mediterranean, with — you guessed it — France. The Greeks would have been hard pressed to find a military partner more irritating to Ankara.

On the other hand, the Greeks are angry at Turkish Cypriot moves toward establishing relations with foreign countries. TRNC Foreign Minister Turgut Avci recently attended a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Ughanda. Greek Cypriots view Northern Cyprus as illegally occupied territory, and thus view Turkish Cypriot efforts to conduct foreign affairs as a breach of Cypriot sovereignty.

Turkey must confront a number of challenges during its path to accession. The Cyprus problem is one of the most difficult and probably the most critical of these challenges. On the one hand, Turks are extremely reluctant to cede any ground — both literally and figuratively — on the Cyprus issue. Turkish soldiers died during the Cyprus invasion. Giving up Cyprus would be seen as a betrayal of those Şehit’s (the term used to describe Turkish soldiers killed in battle. Its literal translation is “martyr”). On the other hand, it will be absolutely impossible for Turkey to join Europe if the Cyprus situation is not solved to the satisfaction of all parties.

 

Will Turkey help Europe solve its energy woes?

The answer to the above question is, of course, yes.

And what are Europe’s energy woes? Obviously, EU countries must contend with high gasoline prices, just like almost everyone else in the world. Unlike other countries, Europe must also balance its need for natural gas with its fear of one-sided dependence on Russia. Russia has shown that it is willing to use its energy resources for political gain. Leaders in EU capitals are searching for natural gas transit routes that are not controlled by Gazprom, the Russian energy giant.

And that is where Turkey — along with numerous other non-EU countries — come in. Turkey already supplies Azerbaijani gas to Greece via its pipeline network. However, a new, more ambitious pipeline is in the works. The new pipeline, named Nabucco, would transit Caspian natural gas via Turkey to Southern and Eastern Europe. This would lessen Moscow’s grip on the European market. The ensuing competition would reduce prices and limit the spread of Russian influence.

The Nabucco Pipeline is rapidly becoming a reality. The blog World News Journal  claims that an agreement has been reached to transit Arab gas to Nabucco via Turkey. If so, this would be a huge boost to the project. On the Caspian side, Azerbaijani relations with Russia are frosty, and it is in the interest of Baku to join Nabucco. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are increasingly expressing interest.

When Nabucco becomes a reality, Europe will face higher costs should it alienate Turkey. A Turkey hostile to Europe could turn of the gas at any moment. It could also simply allocate a larger share of the pipeline’s gas for itself. This is a real possibility, as energy consumption increases as economies grow (and Turkey’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world).

Thus, while Nabucco isn’t a reason in and of itself to admit Turkey into the European club, it is a very good reason to try to keep Turkey’s hopes of joining Europe alive.