Mehmet Y. Yilmaz:The path Turkey will take has been clear now for 84 years
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 28, 2007 09:44
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a message yesterday to the EU through a speech he gave before AKP party members in Ankara. "Make up your minds. Don't tire yourselves and us out. If you have some negative thoughts about Turkey, make your decisions, and we can go on our way." I interpret these words from Erdogan as meaning basically "Make up your minds, and if you're not going to take Turkey as a member, but do't make us jump through hoops for nothing! Let us know so we can draw up another plan for ourselves."
It's clear to me that the Prime Minister still has not been able to fully grasp this process. In his first years as leader, the founder of the Turkish Republic drew up his plan: For Turkey to become a part of modern Western civilization!
And so Turkey's membership in the EU is just one part of the larger modernization project. And so the desire to achieve this goal does not originate from a point outside of ourselves, but instead directly from within us. The essence of the idea here is this: People living in Turkey should have whatever rights people living in any other civilizations in the world have. Turkey's economic and political order should not be behind those of any Western civilization.
Reaching these goals does not necessarily walk hand in hand with becoming an EU member. Yes, while trying to reach these goals, being an EU member might bring about some advantages, but it is ultimately a side product of striving for the main goals.
And when we reach our goals, we can either be an EU member, or not. If we can achieve all this, they might even spread a red carpet under our feet and beg us to join, but the ultimate choice is ours. Which is why Prime Minister Erdogan's warning yesterday of "if the answer is going to be negative, we will draw up other plans!" shows that the whole idea of Westernization has not been embraced deeply enough. Because Turkey has no need to search out "other plans." When the Republic was formed, our route was already planned out.
And so Turkey's membership in the EU is just one part of the larger modernization project. And so the desire to achieve this goal does not originate from a point outside of ourselves, but instead directly from within us. The essence of the idea here is this: People living in Turkey should have whatever rights people living in any other civilizations in the world have. Turkey's economic and political order should not be behind those of any Western civilization.
Reaching these goals does not necessarily walk hand in hand with becoming an EU member. Yes, while trying to reach these goals, being an EU member might bring about some advantages, but it is ultimately a side product of striving for the main goals.
And when we reach our goals, we can either be an EU member, or not. If we can achieve all this, they might even spread a red carpet under our feet and beg us to join, but the ultimate choice is ours. Which is why Prime Minister Erdogan's warning yesterday of "if the answer is going to be negative, we will draw up other plans!" shows that the whole idea of Westernization has not been embraced deeply enough. Because Turkey has no need to search out "other plans." When the Republic was formed, our route was already planned out.