Is the Blame Game afoot?

The debate about Turkey's stalled EU-accession negotiations is heating up. I have previously commented on Erdoğan's Newsweek Op. Ed., in which he described the EU in rather harsh terms. Now, in a meeting at Davos Turkey's former top negotiator and current Deputy PM, Ali Babacan (pronounced Baba-Jaan) has warned that the Union is turning into a "Christian club."

Ali Babacan at Davos in 2008. Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)

According to the AFP, Babacan remarked that the "open door policy" of the EU is simply "not there" anymore. And that

one of the big themes about why Turkey cannot become a member of the European Union is because it is a Christian club. This is in our view very, very dangerous

There are several ways to interpret these moves, but my best guess is that the Turkish leadership is

Charlie Rose's interview with Stephen Kinzer

I am having trouble finding the time to post in-between grading and teaching. But here is Charlie Rose's interview with Stephen Kinzer for your weekend pleasure. (Clicking on the picture will take you to Charlierose.com and the interview.)



The first half of the interview covers Turkey's emerging role in international politics and, among other things, Kinzer there rejects the assumption that Turkey is "turning East."

Weekend reading tips

Here are some fresh reading tips for those wanting to catch up and reflect on Turkey, the EU, Europe and Islam:

James Traub has an extensive biographical sketch of Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Davutoğlu, in the New York Times Magazine. He ties the FM's visions and personality to broader issue of the orientation of Turkish foreign policy.

On January 6 & 7, the Harvard International Review published an online feature on Turkey, Europe, and Islam. Among others, the issue contains a piece entitled "Europe was yesterday" by Mabel Berezi of Cornell University, which echoes my concerns about the inward direction taken across the European continent. In Berezi's words:

The current European mood is undeniably national and is eerily backward, rather than forward, looking.

The feature also includes an examination of Turkey-EU relations by Bahrı Yılmaz of Sabancı University and a piece on Turkey and European identity by Dimitris Keridis and Constantine Arvanitopoulos (Panteion University, Athens and University of Macedonia, respectively). Jan Rath of University of Amsterdam debates multiculturalism and Raphaël Liogier shows how Islam has become a "scapegoat for Europe's decadence."

I'm hoping to post a commentary on these articles, but that will have to wait until another day. Perhaps then I will be joined in a discussion by any readers who will then also have read and thought about some of them, too.

MEP Andy Duff's dire FT piece

Andy Duff, a longtime critical supporter of Turkish accession in the European Parliament and now also monthly columnist for the Financial Times, has a long and depressing piece in today's FT. The piece reeks of gloom and pessimism; an unsettling fact for supporters of Turkey's EU bid given Duff's privileged position as a long-time EU insider. Efforts by Parliament and the Commission to move forward on the issue are, in his view, now largely symbolic.

The European Commission continues doggedly to pursue its mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU, and is doing some good work inside Turkey, but actual progress is far too slow to transform the dynamics of integration.

While continuation of the effort is respected by the European Parliament, it is difficult to find MEPs who are still outright supporters of Turkey’s full membership.

In Duff's opinion, it seems, the Turkish quest for EU membership is all but over. A combination of "enlargement fatigue," failure to move forward on reforms in Turkey, the absence of a solution to the Cyprus issue, and rising Islamophobia in EU member states make for a too formidable obstacle. Duff's only suggestion is for Erdoğan to make use of the "one last chance to swallow his pride" and settle the Cyprus issue (on which, by the way, Duff is much more balanced than most).

FT.com / World - EU and Turkey avoid last ditch Cypriot talks

Erdoğan's Newsweek Op Ed - The Battle of Narratives

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has written an interesting Op Ed for Newsweek today. I am afraid I have to prepare for teaching tomorrow so I do not have time for any more extensive analysis.

But, very briefly, it is clear that Erdoğan is trying to establish what we might want to call a counter-narrative to the hitherto dominant narrative in the EU. On that account, Turkey is the weaker party that is dependent on the EU - I write extensively about this in my forthcoming book - for support and help.

That narrative is arguably an extension of the nineteenth-century image of Turkey as the "Sick man of Europe," which of course is what Erdoğan is playing on in the witty title of his piece. "Turkey: The Robust Man of Europe." Whereas he describes Europe's economies as "stagnant" and its societies as "near geriatric" (ever the soft rhetorical touch...),

The Turkish economy is Europe’s fastest-growing sizable economy and will continue to be so in 2011. According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasts, Turkey will be the second-largest economy in Europe by 2050. Turkey is a market where foreign direct investment can get emerging-market returns at a developed-market risk. Turkey is bursting with the vigor that the EU so badly needs.

Moreover, Erdoğan attempts to set the record straight on the recently much-discussed new direction in Turkish foreign policy:

Turkey is becoming a global and regional player with its soft power. Turkey is rediscovering its neighborhood, one that had been overlooked for decades. It is following a proactive foreign policy stretching from the Balkans to the Middle East and the Caucasus. Turkey’s “zero-problem, limitless trade” policy with the countries of the wider region aims to create a haven of nondogmatic stability for all of us. We have visa-free travel with 61 countries. This is not a romantic neo-Ottomanism: It is realpolitik based on a new vision of the global order. And I believe that this vision will help the EU, too, in the next decade.

He is here clearly trying to correct or at least modify the emerging narrative that I have elsewhere on this blog baptized (also quite wittily, in my own, humble opinion) "Going East, Young Turk?". It remains to be seen if he succeeds, but it is and will be interesting to follow this battle of narratives.

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UPDATE: 2010/01/18
Reactions: The EUobserver presents the Op Ed as an attempt to jump-start the stalled negotiations. The Financial Times interprets the "tirade" mainly as an expression of frustration with their slow pace. But both, in my view, miss the larger narrative dimension. I haven't yet found many reactions in the blogosphere.

Turkey: Proliferation of Koran Translations Pushing Turks to “Verge of Division” | EurasiaNet.org

Very interesting article about the spread of new translations of the Qur'an in Turkey. Are we witnessing a Turkish Reformation?

Koranic scholar Ahmet Tekir estimates that there are now "almost a hundred" translations on the Turkish market. [...] "Nearly a million translations sell each year, costing anything up to $70 a copy: there is money in this for those immoral enough to look to make profit from the Koran."

But it isn't just personal gain that pushes people to offer up new translations, theologians complain. It is also the desire of various religious groups to carve out a niche for themselves in the market. "Each group has a different interpretation of Islam," says Ebubekir Sifil. "Each of them wants to legitimize their interpretation through the Koran. The best way to do that is to translate it." 

Original article here: Turkey: Proliferation of Koran Translations Pushing Turks to “Verge of Division” | EurasiaNet.org

Police, Kurdish protestors clash in southeast Turkey (SETimes.com)

Clashes between police and demonstrators in southeast Turkey, in conjunction with a trial in which 150 Kurds are being charged with links to Kurdish rebels. Article here: Police, Kurdish protestors clash in southeast Turkey (SETimes.com)

Yemen and Turkey Deepen Ties With New Accords - NYTimes.com

This just in from the New Your Times: Yemen and Turkey Deepen Ties With New Accords - NYTimes.com

Video: Turkey Rising - Sinan Ülgen

A good interview with Sinan Ülgen, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, about Turkish foreign policy. His basic argument is similar to what I have been advancing on this blog: that Turkey is not "turning East" but pursuing a broader foreign policy agenda in the face of EU's cold shoulders, and that it is primarily up to the EU to act so as to rejuvenate the accession negotiations.

Turkish-German row over Cyprus

German PM Angela Merkel criticized the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot leaderships during a trip to the Cypriot capital of Nicosia Tuesday. Praising Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias for his efforts, she chided the Turkish side for not reciprocating.

Unsurprisingly, reactions in Nicosia were as delighted as the Turkish response was angry. According to Cyprusnewsreport.com, the Politis newspaper (whose headline was an exuberant "Angela! Angela!") reported that Merkel's remarks "made President Christofias smile." The Fileleftheros noted that "She didn't mince her words," while the communist party organ, Xaravgi, exclaimed: "We Support You."

Ergoğan, for his part, did not mince his words in responding to Merkel:

I guess Ms. Merkel has forgotten what she has said. It was herself who said that it was wrong to admit southern Cyprus into the European Union. It is also clear that she does not know about history of the Cyprus issue.

It is hard to tell what, if anything this row means for the stalled negotiations but it is unlikely to help. Cyprus is undoubtedly a central obstacle to further progress, albeit not the only one. Nonetheless, my sense is that it is now largely up to Turkey to take some decisive steps toward a resolution - irrespective of the history or who is to blame for the current situation. The obvious matter to be resolved by Ankara being the implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Turkey-EU Association Agreement (ending the blockade of Greek Cypriot ships in Turkish ports).