BY TUFAN TURENC
HURRIYET- European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso was in Ankara week with EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn, and his statements were full of hypocrisy and intimidation. He looked at us in the eye and lied about our EU membership, not caring that he was dragging Turkey into a tight spot on the issue. But the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) liked his statements, because it isn't interested in our EU membership. It only cared about his signaling that the EU supports us. So Barroso behaved like an actor and did what the AKP wanted. He gave the Constitutional Court the message that it shouldn't close the AKP, implying that otherwise relations with EU might be cut off. What else could he do?
What's more, he gave certain messages to strengthen the AKP's hand on the secularism and headscarf issues. He said the EU can't take a stance on the headscarf issue or impose standards, because each woman's ability to make her own choice is one of the Union's basic principles. Barroso thinks that Turkish women cover their heads of their free will, but he's wrong. He knows nothing about the pressure from families, neighborhoods and the environment, directions from religious sects, and the AKP's encouragement. He doesn't know that all this begins when girls are only 5 or 6 years old. I wish somebody had taken Barroso and Rehn to outlying areas to show them how people take little girls to Koran courses and deny their freedom to play. If Barroso had learned the truth, he could see how the EU's basic principle of protecting individuals' freedom against social pressures was being violated by the ruling AKP. Barroso said that the main principle was democratic secularism - that is, separating the state from religious affairs - and so could have understood that actually this is the critical problem in Turkey, and realized that the ruling AKP, which always quarrels with the regime, will do anything to make religion dominate the state.
If we look at pictures of the lunch given by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Barroso's honor, certain incidents become clearer. The exchange of information at these tables weighed large. Four journalists were invited, and what they said exceeded the AKP's expectations: 'Don't worry, because secularism in Turkey isn't in danger, there's no interference in social life, the headscarf issue is completely an issue of individual freedom, the military-bureaucratic oligarchy and their supporters are pressuring the democratic actors, and they are totally against the EU.' When Barroso, Rehn and others come to Turkey, they usually prefer meeting with the people who give the same messages, because such information and messages suit them. Afterwards, when they get back to Europe, they say, 'Islam and secularism and democracy can't coexist, a woman's wearing a headscarf is against our culture, and due to its different culture, EU membership for Turkey can never happen.