The shifting winds of the latest Greek and French elections turned the June 2012 European Summit in Brussels into "a defining moment for European integration." Now that the collapse of the euro has been averted through easy-term bank bailouts and an empowered European treasury, it's time to reflect on why Europe got into this mess in the first place.
What lies at the heart of Greece's insolvency, Europe's economic woes and, by extension, the global economic crisis is the scuttling of the admission process into the European Union. It has become evident now that Greece was admitted to the EU with a marginal economic performance to spite its archrival Turkey, which was denied admission despite its impressive 9 percent GDP growth.
Zeus may have blinded Plutus, the Greek god of wealth, so that he would give money randomly and the Sufi mystic Bahlol may have distributed Sultan Mahmoud's treasure among the rich because he gave it to those to whom God has given, but the mythically intertwined Greek and Turkish destinies were playing on a European stage against a backdrop of religious bigotry.
The candidacy of no other state generated more controversy than that of Turkey. European leaders portrayed Turkey as a threat to Europe. The French Prime Minister Jean Marie Raffarin said, "Do we want the river of Islam to enter the riverbed of secularism?"
Speaking at Oxford University in 2004, Erdoğan argued for a European "union of values," not "a narrowly defined geography or a union of rigidity," and called for a "peaceful cohabitation between Christians and Muslims." He added that the idea of a "Christian Europe belongs to the Middle Ages. It should be left there."
But mindsets reflecting the dark ages still saw the EU as a "Christian Club." Frits Bolkestien, a former EU commissioner and head of Dutch Liberal Party in rejecting Turkey's bid, said the "relief of Vienna [from an Ottoman army siege in 1683] will have been in vain." Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor sums it up bluntly: "It's more or less spoken or more or less hidden, but the major component in popular rejection of Turkey's admission is Islam."
Turkey bent over backward in making concessions on Cyprus, on its Kurdish minority, and a host of other human rights issues in order to meet a threshold of European demands, but to no avail. The hostility was not just toward a Muslim majority state, but also toward a state under the stewardship of a non-secular Islamist leaning AKP, the Justice and Development Party.
The Turks found an answer in the cause and clause of its European rejection and turned to the Muslim East where its economy thrives along with its many welcoming trade partners. Had Europe treated Turkey fairly and admitted it into the Union, its formidable growth engine would have pulled Europe out of such doldrums. Erdoğan's prophecy at Oxford is coming true in suggesting that "Turkey represents a burden-relieving dynamic for the EU."
Turkey's 8.8 percent unemployment doesn't compare in a favorable way with Europe's: Portugal's 15.2 percent; Latvia's 15.3 percent; Croatia's 15.8 percent; Greece's 21.9 percent and Spain's 24.6 percent. Youth unemployment has reached a record high in Europe, and in Greece and Spain it is 52.1 percent.
The key economic indicator of debt-to-GDP ratio in several EU member countries has passed 100 percent and in Greece it has reached near 200 percent. Turkey, on the other hand, plans to decrease an already-low 40 percent debt-to-GDP ratio to 37 percent.
The Justice and Development Party has effectively wedded Islamic liberalism with economic liberalism debunking every stereotype of Islam's incompatibility with modernity and industrialization. Turkey's economic growth in industrial development, international trade, and responsible banking and finance stands in stark contrast to Europe's succession of economic crisis.
The Erdoğan administration runs such a tight ship that in the midst of global financial crisis, not a single Turkish bank has gone under. Forbes magazine has ranked Istanbul as the fourth largest financial capital in the world. Turkey is the fourth largest shipbuilder in the world, the sixth largest motor vehicle producer and the largest television producer in Europe. Turkish Airlines is one of the fastest growing in the world and has won Europe's Best Airline award. Industrial growth in the cities of eastern Turkey has earned them the distinction of "the Anatolian Tigers."
European leaders have conveniently blamed Greece through a flurry of vicious comments insinuating that the Greeks are lazy and irresponsible while they hide their own acts of sheer folly.
Europe's religious bigotry has also resurfaced in Spain, whose economy, like that of Greece, was saved by the EU's bank bailout, but where Muslim immigrants get targeted for the Spanish police "arrest and fine" quotas. Lest they forget that it was the Reconquista and Inquisition campaigns scaring away the best and the brightest that lead to the decline of Spain as a European superpower.
Worse yet, racism is spreading to Europe's pacifist north to the lands of Wallenberg, Hammarskjöld and Galtung. This gives credence to the claim that religious and ethno-linguistic "superiority" in Europe is determined by a spatial and directional gradation favoring the north and west. The subliminal cross in the logo of NATO subconsciously implies the superiority of a Western alliance of the North (Atlantic Treaty Organization). In this twist of irony, Turkey on the shores of the Black Sea is too far for an economic integration, but Libya in North Africa and Afghanistan, "a major non-NATO ally" in Central Asia are close enough for Western military power play.
A genuine European political and economic integration requires a mindset upgrade receptive to racial and religious diversity.
that's why Erdogan worked so hard to create a Turkey-Syria-Iran axis.
Iraq could also be a viable partner, as soon as Turkey stops violating Iraqi sovereignty and air space on regular basis.
Really?? Last time I checked, Turkey still occupied 40% of Cyprus (a EU member) & was busy moving Turkish settlers there. And did I miss the establishment of the Independent Kurdistan, promised to the Kurdish people in the 1920s & never delivered because of the Turkish occupation? As for the rest of the "human rights", let me just mention the rampant repression of journalists in Erdogan's Turkey (see http://www.economist.com/node/21550334).
Mr. Stanizai falsely suggests that Turkey is not admitted to the EU because "of Islam". Wrong! Turkey is not admitted because of Islamism, not Islam. Despite some sporadic opposition, the country was well under way to being accepted before Erdogan's accession to power. At the time, I (and many others in USA & Europe) supported Turkey's candidacy. Not any more. Europe can accept majority-Muslim countries -- but not Islamist regimes.
I never heard such a boldface fib.
They have spread their language, cultures, legal systems and world-views all over the world.
But suddenly they become oh-so-paranoid when some of those they met on their world wide
travels come back and start affecting *their* local culture. Then it is clearly a problem
thank you Sarkosy and Merkel!
the astronomic cost of supporting, educating and assimilating them would far outpace any benefits any closer ties with Turkey would produce.
That sounds nice.
Unfortunately, there's another, more unseemly, side to Erdogan's relationship with Europe.
Erdogan seriously damaged the chances of Turkish ascension to EU by making series of belligerent speeches promoting Turkish nationalism and demands that Germans with Turkish ancestry reject assimilation into their German communities.
Der Spiegel reports.
"Turks living abroad should take the citizenship of their new home country -- not, however, with the intention of becoming an integrated part of that society, but so they can become politically active, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke at the event
Turkish prime minister then repeated a sentence which had already sparked fierce criticism when he said it during a 2008 speech in Cologne: "Assimilation is a crime against humanity."
"We need to inoculate European culture with Turkish culture."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,684125,00.html
What is wrong with the Turks defending their culture, religion and 1000 year old values?
Haven't you heard something called "multi- culturalism"?
You ought to be ashamed of yourself! What you are suggesting is a form of ETHNIC CLEASENING!
Nothing. As long as it is done in Turkey, not in Berlin.
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I agree with Prof. Zaman Stanizai's profound conclusion that a genuine European political and economic integration will require a kind of mindset which will be receptive to all ethnicities, races, and religions, irrespective of color of the skin.
In the absence of the above, we find that European Union is now being haunted by Its rejection of Turkey inspite of its robust economy, and 9% GDP growth. Campare this to Greece!
Not just by anyone who wants to enjoy access to European social net and wants to solve their social and political problems by exporting the indigent rural class to Europe, while rejecting European culture and core values.
Where do you think Protestanism came from in the first place?
an utterly ridiculous claim. The Turks did no such thing. By the sixties, Germany was already rebuild.
MuslimTurks never made any contributions worth mentioning and consume far more in welfare and subsidies than their presence justifies.
"Turks living abroad should take the citizenship of their new home country -- not, however, with the intention of becoming an integrated part of that society... "We need to inoculate European culture with Turkish culture."" Turkish PM Erdogan,
What are those" European values" that you talk about? As far as I'm concerned there are only universal human rights that are defined by the UN charters and that's enough for everyone concerned.. The rest is pure ideology...
Ignorance knows no limits...
As they say, he who laughs last, laughs longest. : ))
Who wants to be a part of that EU mess any way? Ick.