By Yusuf Kanli
TDN- Can you think of another country where change has occurred as quickly as what we have experienced over the past few years? This is Turkey's dynamism, making us confident that if we don't encounter a 'road accident,' Turkey will accede to the EU at a much earlier date than anyone has ever imagined
I, along with a very select group of Turks and foreigners, recently attended a working dinner in honor of a retired Western diplomat whose last posting was to Turkey.
"Can you think of another country where change has happened as quickly as what we have experienced in Turkey over the past few years?" the retired diplomat asked, sending the guests at the dinner deep into thought on the transformation this country has undergone over a period of less than a decade. Sometimes reluctantly, often under European duress but mostly because we believed the people of this country deserve a better life, more liberties and broader democratic rights, successive governments over the past decade or so have achieved outstanding progress in many fields.
To be sure, Turkey still has many problems: Eradication of the feudal setup in the East still must be accomplished; the judicial system, which needs to be better equipped, must undergo a total overhaul for more effective and speeded-up functioning; the distribution of wealth needs to be readjusted on the basis of social justice; a new social charter -- a civilian constitution -- must be written, and so on. But seeing all that has been achieved in such a short period of time, we must be able to say with confidence that we can manage to bring this country up to European standards in all fields, provided we remain committed to reform and progress.
"I could not have imagined [separatist chieftain Abdullah] Ocalan would be captured, tried, sentenced to death, his sentence commuted to life imprisonment and no longer the top headlines of the Turkish press. I could not have imagined developments steering Turkey from its strategic partnership relations with the United States but bringing it to the point of complete conformance with the Copenhagen political criteria and coming so close to getting a date for the start of accession talks. I could not have imagined Leyla Zana getting out of prison, receiving a green passport (issued for serving or former top government officials and parliamentarians), traveling abroad and [finally] accepting the Sakharov Prize almost 10 years after being named winner of the prestigious human rights award."
Is there anything to add to that? All that was said was indeed a summary of the past decade of changes, particularly during the past two years, in this country.
The EU perception, on the one hand, and the capture of the separatist chieftain on the other -- as well as the suitable domestic conjecture created by the November 2002 parliamentary elections, which created a two-party parliament and a government with overwhelming parliamentary strength, has helped Turkey speed up the reform process and complete conformity with the Copenhagen political criteria. Naturally we had some "road accidents" as we moved forward, but the end result must be applauded without any political jealousy.
Since Ocalan's capture, this country has started experiencing a "social healing process" following more than 15 years of separatist terrorism that claimed the lives of over 30,000 of our people. This healing, naturally, will take some more time, and I hope that at a certain stage of the process, in order to accelerate it, we might need to consider a general amnesty -- as has been the practice almost universally resorted to after such cases of immense social trauma. The timing of such a step, however, must be well calculated in order to avoid a backlash.
Receiving the prestigious human rights award Thursday at the European Parliament, Leyla Zana used a very important phrase that reflected a change not only in her own mentality but which should as well be taken as a catalyst for all of us who want this social healing process be completed as quickly and as painlessly as possible. "Violence has outlived its time. The language and methods of solution of our age are dialogue, compromise and peace. It is not 'die and kill' but 'live and let live'."
Live and let live. I am confident that this country will manage not only to complete this social healing process in the not-too-distant future, and with the dynamism for reform and change it demonstrated in the very recent past, it will as well complete EU accession at a much earlier date than anyone has ever imagined, provided we don't encounter some other nasty "road accidents."