Fw: BBC report on xenophobia in Turkey

[Red Rebel]

----- Original Message -----
From: "STEVE KACZYNSKI" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 11:04 PM
Subject: BBC report on xenophobia in Turkey


> (I have translated a statement by DHKP-C prisoners, but I need the meaning
> of a couple of difficult points checked. In the meantime, here is a
> commentary about Turkey on the BBC World Service by Chris Morris,
broadcast
> at 22:10 on February 2. I have inserted some comments of my own in
brackets,
> and you are welcome to forward this. Steve Kaczynski.)
>
> By Chris Morris in Istanbul
> When the Ottoman Empire was in decline it became known to its detractors
as
> the Sick Man of Europe.
> Its modern successor - Turkey - has taken on a rather different role.
> On issues big and small, this proud and often stubborn nation has become
the
> Angry Man of Europe.
> In every direction it seem to perceive an insult or a conspiracy against
it.
> A recent newspaper survey showed that the countries which Turks most
> distrust are all near neighbours. (The encouragement of xenophobia has
long
> been a technique of Turkey's rulers, and it has also contributed to the
> growth of Turkey's fascist movement, one of whose favourite sayings is,
"The
> only friend of a Turk is another Turk." The position this puts the large
> Kurdish minority and the smaller Arab minority in can be imagined. The
Arabs
> who live near the frontier with Syria, for example, are treated as
potential
> traitors, especially during periods of tension with Syria.)
> Of late, though, much of the anger has been directed towards Europe.
> The French parliament's decision to pass a law formally recognising as
> genocide the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire is the
> latest in a long line of European actions which are seen here as
profoundly
> anti-Turkish. (In the same way, during the 1936 Olympics in Germany when
> there were large numbers of foreign visitors, the Nazis put up signs in
> German and English saying, "Don't believe Jewish atrocity propaganda.")
> Even Turkey's urbane foreign minister, Ismael Cem, described the French
> decision as "post-modern fascism". (Yes, Cem would know all about
fascism.)
> It is, many Turks believe, another sign of the "Christian Club" mobilising
> to keep a large Muslim country out. (Former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller
was
> fond of making such statements, especially when she was Prime Minister,
but
> she also has US as well as Turkish citizenship.)
> From a Turkish perspective, there seem to be constant provocations.
> Belgium was accused of harbouring violent left-wing militants (DHKP-C.
> S.K.), Germany of giving shelter to Islamic fundamentalists. (In both
cases,
> the authorities in Turkey wanted people to be extradited back to Turkey by
> European countries. In fact, some people are extradited from Europe,
> especially if campaigns are not organised in time. But these cases are not
> given much coverage in Turkey. The well-attested practices of the police
> there always make the claim that the extradited will be tortured a
credible
> one - which is why the authorities often do not get their hands on the
> people they want. In 1999, British police tried to get two DHKP-C
supporters
> who had been detained on immigration grounds to turn informer. The police
> threatened to extradite them to be tortured in Turkey if they did not
> cooperate. They did not give in and were not extradited in the end.)
> A German parliamentary delegation was rapidly shown the door in Ankara
when
> one of its female members was spotted wearing a hair band in red, yellow
and
> green - the colours of Kurdish nationalism.
> Even the European Union as a whole is not immune. Turkey may have been
> campaigning to join the union for years, but the EU still provokes many of
> the old suspicions.
> After the EU asked Turkey to consider allowing broadcasting and education
in
> Kurdish it was accused by a senior general of promoting the agenda of the
> Kurdish rebel movement, the PKK.
> Much of the paranoia about European intentions dates back almost a century
> to the birth of the modern republic. (Morris is by and large pretty
> sympathetic to the authorities in Turkey, so it is interesting that even
he
> uses the word "paranoia" to describe their attitude.)
> An obscure treaty, never implemented, is still a byword in Turkey for
> European duplicity.
> The Treaty of Sevres would have divided modern Turkey between several
> countries, leaving the Turks themselves with only a rump state in central
> Anatolia. The Turks fought and won their freedom, but the spectre of
> betrayal has never gone away.
> Even today, senior politicians believe there are influential forces in
> Europe who want to revive the "spirit of Sevres" and see Turkey weakened
and
> divided.
> In a country which is often described as being in the throes of a
prolonged
> identity crisis, it can be comforting to blame the outsider.
> For those Turks who are leading the campaign to join the EU, however, the
> shadow of the past holds many dangers.
> If Turkey's European project is to succeed, it needs more confidence in
its
> dealings with European institutions, and it needs - in the words of one EU
> diplomat - "to stop making mountains out of molehills".
> Of course there are those in Europe who are opposed to Turkey's EU
ambitions
> - the Christian Democrats in Germany, for example, make no secret of their
> belief that it is inappropriate to admit such a large Muslim nation as a
> member.
> Turkey also finds it difficult to make some Europeans understand the
unique
> security challenge presented by its geographical position between the
> Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East. (Turkey has a much larger
> population than all of the countries around it, with the possible
exception
> of Iran. Even if countries as disparate as Greece, Iran, Iraq and Armenia
> were to combine against it, Turkey would still be formidable. The security
> issue is, I suspect, brought up because it provides Turkey's generals with
a
> pretext for the huge amount of power they wield.)
> But Turkey has many friends in Europe as well, and diplomats argue that
> Turkey should start trusting them a little more, and practising the art of
> compromise. (Those friends almost never stint when it comes to supplying
> weaponry, a fact that Morris does not mention. Moreover, the USA never
makes
> the tepid criticisms of the Turkish government's policies that European
> governments sometimes make.)
> The Commissioner for Enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, said: "The EU needs
> Turkey, more than Turkey needs the EU."
> A final decision on whether Turkey does join the union could be 15 years
> away. There will be many bumps in the road to come.
>
>
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