BY SEMIH IDIZ
AKSAM- I spent last Friday and Saturday with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Ireland, which holds the current EU presidency. This was no ordinary trip, because I spent 10 years of my life in Dublin. My professional career started there, I attended university there, met my wife there, and my child was born there. The most striking thing I remember from those years is the lack of prejudice from the Irish people against Turks. GAMA CEO Hakan Karaalioglu thinks it’s because the two nations have had little contact through the centuries. While this is true, the effect of certain historical intersections can’t be discounted. For example, during the devastating Potato Famine (Great Hunger) of 1845-50, which saw Ireland’s population fall from eight million to three, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecit sent three shipfulls of food relief, and this aid has never been forgotten. The coastal town of Drogheda, where these ships docked, still bears a crescent on its city emblem. It’s the expression of their gratitude to the Turks.
The second example is Canakkale. Those who visit ‘British’ graveyards on the Gallipoli Peninsula can see from their names that most of the soldiers interred there are actually Irish. European Parliament President Pat Cox visited Gallipoli as well because his grandfather fought in this bloody war too. A very old Irish person once told me once that during World War I, Britain’s Irish soldiers went from Canakkale to the Iraqi and Palestinian fronts. When they were fighting there against Turks, other soldiers back home revolted for Irish independence in 1916. However, this initiative was suppressed by Britain, and Irish nationalists leaders were executed. When this news reached the front, many Irish soldiers crossed over to the Turkish side. There are other interesting incidents along these lines. I can’t share them all here, but I would like to point out that those who believe all of Europe is arrayed against us are mistaken, as these incidents show. Meanwhile, as far as I can tell from our diplomats, Gul’s meetings with his counterparts from the European Union went off without a hitch. Turkey’s honest and constructive stance on Cyprus changed the atmosphere completely. In sum, contrary to certain claims in both Europe and Turkey, we’re no strangers to Europe.