BY HASAN CEMAL
MILLIYET- The ghost of Islam and Turkey is hovering over Europe, and one could say that Europe can't become a region of peace and reconciliation without Turkey! In short, Turkey is still a subject of debate in Europe, along with Islam. Turks will become a bigger target due to June's European Parliament elections and Germany's general elections in September. We'll hear people say things like Turkey isn't European, it can't be an EU member, Turkey is outside Europe's geographical and cultural borders, and if we accept Turkey, why not also open our doors to Morocco or Jordan?
This debate, which started in France and then spread to Germany and the Netherlands after we got the green light for negotiations back in 2000, is still heated. What's interesting is that by discussing Turkey, Europe is also discussing its own identity. A Europe which excludes Turkey and takes a stance against Islam to a certain degree is facing the question of how can it make itself a region of peace and reconciliation.
According to Nilufer Gole, whose book 'Islam and the Public: Turkey, Iran and Europe' was recently translated from French into Turkish, Turkey's opening and its rapprochement with the EU triggered the EU's own identity crisis. Pluralist values, secularism, Islam and democracy, and whether Europe's own values can include Islam are being discussed now. France is on the verge of a new debate. Will photos of women wearing headscarves be acceptable for ID cards needed to go to university or take a bus?
French Muslim migrants make up 10% of France's population. Along with Turkey's EU membership, it's also discussing its own Muslims covering their heads or not. So the issue of what they're going to do about Islam is a big one. It's a very important issue, because it's related to the question of whether Europe will be able to make itself a region of peace and reconciliation, and whether Samuel Huntington's thesis of the clash of civilizations turns out to be true.
With this question, Turkey's EU membership bid gets attention, because Turkey is trying to become a go-between between the East and West. And here there's an interesting development. While Nicholas Sarkozy's France and Angela Merkel's Germany believe Turkey isn't part of Europe, Barack Obama's America says that Turkey's EU membership is a must for peace in Europe and the world.
Gole believes Obama ushered in a 'change of role' between the US and Europe, and that Obama is leaving Sarkozy's France in the past. She also says that Obama wants to use a peaceful, conciliatory language, as opposed to Bush's confrontational, polarizing policies towards Islam. She says that's why it sees Turkey as important and firmly supports its EU membership.
Can Obama's stance change Europe? According to Gole, it could, and I agree. It's not easy, but possible. If Turkey can set its house in order in terms of democracy and the rule of law, this would better the odds. I said during a Turkey panel at the Berlin Parliament last week that as long as Sarkozy and Merkel continue to reject Turkey, radicals and supporters of the Taliban or Osama bin Laden will be pleased and will work harder to provoke Muslims both in Islamic countries and Europe, and nationalist groups in Turkey which don't like Europe or real democracy will also be elated.
What will Europe do about Islam? This is the question and the problem. Will they consider Islam itself a problem, like Bush and the neocons and certain intellectual circles in France do? In other words, will they prove Huntington right? Or will they follow Obama's path? Europe can't become a region of peace and reconciliation by following the lead of Sarkozy's France and Merkel's Germany. Fortunately, they aren't all there is to Europe."