MILLIYET- Columnist Taha Akyol comments on Turkey’s bid to integrate with Europe. A summary of his column is as follows:
Yesterday’s comments by Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and his Greek counterpart Costas Simitis in Copenhagen showed that the old enemies had developed a new friendship based on common interests. Simitis sincerely talked about friendship and said that Greece firmly supported Turkey’s European Union friendship. However, he had one condition: First the Cyprus problem should be solved! Mr. Gul gave a good answer to this. He emphasized the importance of Turkey’s EU membership bid and the Turkish-Greek friendship. But he had a condition as well: First give Turkey the date it requests! Each problem, including the Cyprus issue, can be solved within the house of Europe.
The per capita income of the 10 countries now slated for EU membership is two- or threefold of Turkey’s. Even in Bulgaria, per capita income is $6,000, compared to $2,000 in Turkey. What’s more, Bulgaria went through the economic depression of communism! The much more rapid development of the Balkan countries, former territories of the Ottoman Empire, caught the attention of both the Ottomans and the first generation of the Turkish Republic. This situation hasn’t changed for 80 years, and some pointed the finger at Islam. This is the root of Turkey’s ‘militant secularism.’ The Balkan countries also claimed their lack of development compared to Western Europe was rooted in ‘Ottoman oppression.’ Contrary to the claims of these Balkan countries, the Balkans were richer than the Anatolian steppes due to the productivity of their territory and trade. Omer Lutfi Barkar’s research into the Ottoman budgets shows this. Or, as the Turkish racists claim, did the ‘racially mixed Ottomans’ neglect Anatolia and enrich the Balkans? As we learn from George Ostrogorsky’s History of the Byzantine State, the Balkans were richer than Anatolia during the Byzantine era as well. This is intimately tied up with long-term developments in geographical movements, climate and world trade.
One reason for the development of Turkish-Greek relations is of course the expectations of common political and economic interests weighing more heavily than the reasons for conflict. Accordingly, the two nations’ way of writing history is slowly changing. I’m sure that historians of the two nations will one day write a ‘History of the Aegean.’ Now, in the course of history, no two countries have been more hostile to each than the Germans and the French. However, a pair of great leaders, France’s Charles de Gaulle and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer, managed to establish the European Union around the German-French axis. The European writing of history is changing as well. A General History of Europe, published by Longman, is considering incidents not from a nationalist point of view, but from the point of view of being European. Turkey’s economy, culture and regime will develop in the direction of Europe, and the Islamic and Turkish culture’s integration with Europe will create a new synthesis for Eastern nations. Of course there will be great problems, and even tumbles, on this long and narrow road. But if we don’t lose our way, then we can overcome them.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION