by Ugur Akinci, Ph.D.
http://tork.blogspot.com
President Nixon was the only American president who could afford to engineer a breakthrough with People's Republic of China without being accused with “selling out to the commies.” Having established his credentials earlier as a staunch anti-communist, Nixon could go to Beijing to shake Mao's hand without losing any credibility in the eyes of the conservative majority back in the United States. Nixon was one of them, hence there was no fear of “selling out” America's vital interests. That's why his 1972 visit to Beijing has been such a milestone event in East-West relations in general, and American-Chinese relations in particular.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is similarly one of those few politicians that Turkey has produced within the last 20 years who can establish a similar breakthrough with the European Union without being accused by the Islamists back at home with “selling out to the godless infidels.” Having established his credentials earlier both as an able administrator (as Mayor of Greater Istanbul Municipality) and a staunch conservative, he can pry open Brussels' door without losing credit in the eyes of neither the religious voters nor the secular civilian and military establishment.
The recent tragic bombings in Istanbul actually strengthened Erdogan's hand. By categorically condemning the bombings and taking a principled stand against terrorism of all kinds, Erdogan helped differentiate his party from the kind of Islamic zealotry that concerned the secular Turkish establishment the most. These terror attacks also brought the country together in a patriotic reflex of survival and self-defense, thus positioning Erdogan as the leader of not a fragmented but unified country.
If the European Union of today is as smart as the China of 1972, they would green-light Turkey's full-membership process in the upcoming EU summit in December. Otherwise they will prove that they are too dense to understand this simple fact: Europe's borders end at the Turkish-Iraq-Iran border, and not Turkish-Greek line. Both the Istanbul bombings and Erdogan's response to them have proven the point pretty well.