Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
removing restrictions on
. freedom of expression.
Emphasizing that Turkey
was a great country like Germany, he
admonished it, "Show how great you are. .
Take the frrst step in solving the problems
with Greece." Thus, he stressed the tie
between the solution of the two countries'
problems and Turkey's fullmembership
with the EU - if they couldn't be solved,
no membership. .
No new holds applied
Actually, Kinkel didn't sayanything new.
He merely repeated what Gennan officials
have been saying about Twkey's full membership
in the EU for years. But ifthat's the
case, then why have relations between
Germany and Turkey hardened in recent
months, and statements on both sides
become tougher? Before looking for an
answer to this, one must consider the claim
that Germany's objection to Turkey's full
membership is because the latter is a .
Muslim country. The report that German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl had made such a
statement, words which be subsequently
denied, looks ~ke un.founded propaganda
from those trymg to mcrease tension
be~w.een.the two coun~es and shape public
opmlOn 10 Turkey agaInst Germany.
However, Kinkel admitte3 during his
visit tha~ his school geograpby lessons
taught him t~a~ T~rkey was no~ in Europe
and that Chrisuaruty makes ASIa Minor
(Anatolia) an extension of the Holy Land.
So what does that malte us, Eurasian?
When high-level delegations visit countries
like Pakistan, sudderily Turkey is a brother
As~an country. But when ;Kohl says we're
ASI:m' we go crazy ..And If we're Eurasian,
can t we even be citIZens of the world?
Didn't Atatürk say, "One Turk has the value
of a.world?"' But let us a:ssume that the
obje~t~on to T~keJ'.s entry on the grounds
that It IS Muslim, vOlced in other EU countries
as well as Germany. is real - though
other excuses have been sug-
,gested for ~reventing or at
.least delaymg full membership.
If Turkey is determined
to continue its pursl,lit of the
elusive memberShip, isn't it
clear what must be done? Turkey
has to institute, through legislauon
and institutions, attheyery least,
European standards for human
rights and democratization. It
must solve the "Kurdish" 'problem
peacefully and negouate the
solutions to the problems with
Greece within the 'principles of
justice framed in mternational
law. What else could be
expected other than these?
Expectations are that certain
facts will be ignored,
that Turkey is a country in
. which criminal gangs within
the state can only be
.revealed by traffic accidents
such as that at Susurluk.
And that after this expo-
. sure, the investigations into
such activities will be
slowed down or even
obstructed, gang members
officially protected, and
public attention diverted by
artificial means despite
unprecedented extensive
protests
attempts
against official
to cover up what
hashappened. Europe is
supposed to ignore the facts
that a "dirty war" is bein~
conducted within Turkey s
borders and an ample number of criminal
organizations similar to that exposed by
Susurluk are being actively employed. It is
further expected that Europe should agree
with the blind obstinacy of the Turkish government
as expressed by Çil1er during her
meeting
Kurdish
with Kinkel that, "There is no
problem in Turkey." It is expected
that Turkey's response to the recent gestures
from Greece, which are important for
Turkey's EU membership and for the peaceful
solution of the problems between the
two countries, should be to reject them as
insincere and acts of political maneuvering.
And, on top of all this, German authOrities
are to be ashamed of opposing Turkey's full
EU membership.
The present state of Turkey-EU rela~ions
cannot be fully undèrstood without taking
into consideration that only two months ago
the European media was preoccupied with
the news that 80 percent of all heroin comes
to Europe via Turkey, that drug smugglers
are protected by high Turkish officials, that
Turkey finances its war against the Kurdish .
Workers' Party (PKK) through drug smug- •
gling revenues, that Turkey has become the .
Colombia of the Middle East, and that
Çiller' s name was being mentioned in
smuggling cases being tried in German .
courts. It would be a grave mistake to think
that all these items have been forgotten, or
never' occurred.
Let us come back to the subject of the .
recent rise in tension, lookin~ at the style in
which Turkish-German relanons are dis-
.cussed as opposed to the contents . .one can-
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