Once the sick man, now the chimera of Europe

Sunday, January 1, 2006

Can Turkey ever be accepted as part of the European Union if it continues to uphold a law that prohibits freedom of expression? How can the Turkish judiciary file a case against a European politician? There follows the gloomy question: Is Turkey becoming anti-European? Turkey is a bit of a chimera -- the fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology with a lion s head, a goat s body and a serpent s tail. Just like this mythological creature, Turkey consists of numerous discordant parts.

  Can Turkey ever be accepted as part of the European Union if it continues to uphold a law that prohibits freedom of expression? How can the Turkish judiciary file a case against a European politician? There follows the gloomy question: Is Turkey becoming anti-European? Turkey is a bit of a chimera -- the fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology with a lion s head, a goat s body and a serpent s tail. Just like this mythological creature, Turkey consists of numerous discordant parts.

  But the last time Turkey was anti-European was in the 17th century, when the Ottoman Empire, still believing it could expand its vast territory at the expense of Christian Europe, besieged the city of Vienna and was badly defeated. Since then things have dramatically changed. The multiethnic Ottoman Empire increasingly lost territory and legitimacy, to the point of becoming the "sick man of Europe.” (At the time it was thought to be “sick,” though, few questioned its Europeanness.) The pan-Ottomanism that was hoped to serve as a supra-identity to hold all ethnicities together was unable to survive in the face of rising nationalism, particularly in the Balkans, and the empire dissolved into pieces. Upon the ruins of the Ottoman Empire the new Turkish nation-state rose in 1923 as a secular, modern republic.

  Throughout this transformation, both the Young Turks and their successors, the Kemalists, saw themselves as the “fathers of the nation” and viewed the nation as a “son in need of paternal guidance.” Both groups of leaders remained convinced that Turkey was part of Europe and not the Middle East. Turkey s reformist elite was dedicated to Westernizing, modernizing and secularizing society from top down by introducing a series of legal, social and political reforms from which, remarkably, women often benefited more than men.

  It was through these reforms that Turkish women were eventually able to enter the public sphere as equal citizens. Women s rights were “given” by the state elite and did not come as a result of an organized struggle from below, a women s movement. The fact that it was the state that bestowed rights upon women only strengthened the image of the state as a father figure. That is why, still to this day, a considerable number of Turkish women feel “grateful” to the Kemalists in general and Atatürk in particular, to the point of calling themselves the “daughters of Atatürk.” Accordingly, it comes as no surprise that, today, whenever a critical opinion is raised against the existing system in Turkey, female Kemalists react more harshly and fervently than male Kemalists.

  Male or female notwithstanding, Turkey s ruling elite has right from the start acted from above, seeing society as an old car to repair, with themselves as the mechanics, or as “social engineers.” They replaced the old car known as the Ottoman Empire with a modern car named the Turkish Republic, but they wanted to make sure no one but them had the key to operate the engine. This possessiveness in politics has left a legacy in Turkish political culture. To this day the political and military elite like to see themselves as the owners of the key, as the engineers of the system.

  Whenever this car called Turkey makes a “discordant” sound or when and if one of the passengers inside happens to raise a critical voice, the engineers like to pull the car aside to either kick that particular passenger out or to repair the car as they see fit. Their reaction is less a planned tactic than an old historical habit and a knee-jerk reflex. Possessive control by the elite over civil society in Turkey is nothing new. What is novel is that the society-as-a-car and rulers-as-its-engineers model is no longer applicable. This model that has served for more than a century is nearing its end, to be hopefully replaced by a more cosmopolitan, more multicultural and more democratic model. And everyone but the engineers see this.

  Turkey is not becoming anti-European. It is precisely because the country is accelerating its EU bid process that there arises a backlash from the people who traditionally have always been the key holders. The more the process of Europeanization picks up speed, the deeper the panic of those who as a result will lose their command and vested interests. As a result, today there is an ongoing clash in my country. There is a collision between the nationalists and the pro-Europeanists. The former want Turkey to remain insulated and enclosed while the latter want Turkey to open up and join the EU.

  As cosmopolitans in Turkey, it is our belief that Article 301 will eventually be changed. It will be replaced by a more democratic regulation. That is relatively easy. What is much more difficult to change is the monopoly of a political-military-cultural elite who firmly believe they can guide a society from above and who insist on acting as the mechanics of a car that no longer wants to go in their direction.