By Dogu Ergil
TDN- The first thing I learned as a young player was the principle that “competition is a higher moral quality than winning.” This principle has guided me through the direst moments of my life. Turkey—European Union relations are also a competitive process. This is not a competition between each other, but a historical test they will both pass. There are those who make history and are exalted as the subjects and/or authors of the grand narrative in which we all take part. And yet there are those who resist. They are sooner or later crushed and become the object of history over which people walk on during their journey of destiny.
Turkey and the EU are about to hold hands with their entanglement like that of two embracing centipedes. They will begin on Dec. 17 and continue into the next decade, maybe longer, and when they are finished the EU will be a formidable power, economically, politically and militarily.
The EU in itself is the greatest peace and cooperation project in history. Turkey’s membership will make it unique in that it will represent the reconciliation of civilizations. Two bodies like two spouses coming from two different family backgrounds will unite in matrimony and embark upon the most challenging test of their lives. They make their own family and chart their own way in their particular history as they agree on the terms of the union and leave their maternal familial differences behind for a new life. Turkey and the EU are to be engaged on Dec. 17 and be married in the foreseeable future. This is the newest civilization project after enlightenment from which a new understanding of the world ahead will emerge. This test is both challenging for Turkey as much as it is for EU countries. There will be no more foes, only partners.
Conservatives and nationalists on both sides are resisting this historical event. I have always found it hard to understand conservatives for they spend a lifetime keeping things as they are but cannot conserve their own lives as they all die. And the nationalists try to project a nation that was in the past independent and autarchic. But the evolution of nations resembles that of the human individual. They are born dependent (on their state or parents), later they mature and become independent. As they grow older and their interests -- professionally and socially -- diversify, they develop independent relationships with others. The nationalists have never understood the merit and necessity of interdependence for their vision is limited and they are scared of the magnitude of forces and problems that will be unleashed by interdependence. But in every new phase in the evolution of an individual, a nation or a human family of nations problems and opportunities arise. Should we be scared of and be deterred by the problems or seize the new opportunities? This is the time to distinguish the men from the boys, or politicians from statesmen and leaders. I hope both sides prove to take pride in making history where their children will live in peace, harmony and affluence.
Amen.