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The Grand Turk
Good-bye, New Middle East
2010-07-04
Amid the wreckage of the New Middle East once envisaged by Shimon Peres, Turkey once stood out as a dim hope that someday something might change. As the Oslo process unraveled and peace with Jordan and Egypt remained cold, Turkey was an authentically Muslim country that befriended Israel and even viewed it as a strategic partner. Snuggling up to Israel was part and parcel of Turkish aspirations to be a part of the West, just as was its membership in NATO and its angling to join the European Union.

...The evidence is still equivocal, but it looks increasingly as if Erdogan plans to take his country down the path of Islam, picking up the political, social and economic baggage it needs as he ploddingly moves along. If he and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) aren't leading a Khomeini-style revolution, that's because Turkey's strategic location between Europe and the Middle East, its NATO membership and the distinct lack of enthusiasm on the part of Turks for religious extremism require him to proceed cautiously.

THUS, TURKEY hasn't officially given up on joining the EU. Indeed, Erdogan has embarked on a reform campaign to bring his country up to EU standards. But he can't possibly imagine that his Islamist prejudices, of which the outsized rhetoric against Israel is a critical part, won't create doubts among Europeans about a future marriage.
On the other hand, what could be more European than Jew Hatred?
Even when it was practicing Islam-lite pre-Erdogan, the EU had cold feet. Now, Turkey's leaders are not only talking solidarity with fellow Muslims but talking with Bashar Assad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Khaled Mashaal, the kind of Muslims who talk in terms of struggle with and resistance to the West.
The EU won't admit Turkey for two reasons:

1) the Turks are foreigners
2) the Euros remember the past 1500 years of history

Yes, one could argue that Euros were foreigners to each other, but the Euros do have a common history, one that they don't share with Turks and Arabs. They remember, at a deep, visceral level, the Muslim conquest of Spain, the fall of Constantinople, the sweeping of the Turks towards Vienna, and the Moorish raids. That shouldn't matter hundreds of years later but it does, and no amount of Erdogan 'bringing his country up to EU standards' is going to fix that.

Turkey is right to plot a new course that doesn't depend on joining the EU. Unfortunately, Erdogan has decided to make Turkey the center of the new caliphate.

History does repeat, doesn't it.
Posted by:g(r)omgoru

#1  Ironically, the EU facilitated the Islamists in Turkey by requiring, as a condition of EU membership, greater civilian control over the military. Erdogan used this civilian control to execute two purges of Turkish officers who were 'too' secular (or too pro Israel).

On the otherhand, the EU also required more autonomy for the Kurds and this has been done. In the next election there may be a anti Islamist shift.
Posted by: lord garth   2010-07-04 17:58  

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