BY SEMIH IDIZ
MILLIYET- European Union Ambassador to Croatia Jacques Wunenburger said recently that the latest public opinion polls show that more than half of the Croatian public doesn’t want to join the European Union, something never before seen in a candidate country. The Ante Gotovina issue lies at the heart of this situation. Gen. Gotovina is wanted by The Hague’s War Crimes Tribunal for committing war crimes against Serbians during the Balkan wars. However, the Croatian public considers him a hero, so Zagreb hasn’t delivered him to the court. It only claims to not know where he is. However, the tribunal even found out that the government is paying a regular salary to him. In this situation, Britain, France and Germany are preventing the European Commission from starting membership negotiations with Zagreb. The stance of such EU countries as Hungary and Austria favoring Croatia is of no use. Most Croatians, who surrendered themselves to extreme nationalism due to the Yugoslavian war, say in this situation that they don’t want to join the EU.
A unilateral stance concerning the Armenian genocide claims, promises about the Cyprus issue which weren’t kept, the Kurdish issue and now PKK terrorist group leader Ocalan’s possible retrial… With all these issues, could Turkey experience a similar syndrome? Considering the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) up-in-arms stance about his retrial, we can say that Turkey might experience a Croatian syndrome as well. So, would this be a gain or loss for Turkey? This issue is first of all our problem not with the EU, but with the Council of Europe, which we’ve been a member of for 50 years. In other words, if Turkey decides to take a different road on this issue due to its national sensitivities, first of all it would open its place into the Council of Europe to discussion. In short, retreating from the council would be moving away from Europe. For Croatia, which has always been a part of Europe’s general history and cultural, religious and social structure, the same doesn’t hold. In other words, Croatia can easily go back to Europe in the future. However, for Turkey, whose ‘Islamic color’ is very clear in the political sense and whose democratic development isn’t yet complete, it would be more difficult.
Of course, as a nation, we might prefer this. Actually if a nation most of which is unfamiliar with Europe culturally supports this choice, then Turkey will have to determine its place in the world again. This situation doesn’t necessarily have to be bad for most of the population. However, the CHP, which has a tendency towards demagoguery, or certain parts of society might not be pleased with this. Therefore, if we are going to get infected by the Croatian syndrome, we should carefully consider its meanings for Turkey very well.