Rats, oxen and the latest dumb idea from the EU
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 16, 2008 00:00
We at the Daily News enjoy the occasional visit to a Chinese restaurant. Part of the fun is the paper placemats that reintroduce us to the elements of Chinese astrology. You know, the 12 year cycle of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep , monkey, rooster, dog, and boar. Children in particular enjoy this game. For the record, we are currently in the "Year of the Rat." Soon, in 2009, we will enter the "Year of the Ox."
With apologies to China, however, we believe that foreign policy should not be run like children comparing their birth years with the characteristics of animals. Which is how it appeared to us yesterday upon reading that Foreign Minister Ali Babacan declared in Paris that 2009 will be the "Year of Afghanistan."
We shook our heads because we remember that just a year ago, Babacan and President Abdullah Gül were telling us that 2008 would be "The Year of the European Union."
We are not alone in fears that 2008 will go down in history as the year Turkey’s half-century EU quest died. History will then record 2009 as the year these aspirations were buried.
The much-respected International Crisis Group said as much in its detailed report on the topic which we reported yesterday. It notes that Turkish public support for the EU has dropped from a high of 65 percent to a low of 27 percent in one poll in 2007. Nationalist sentiment is on the rise, and anti-European attitudes have become mainstream, the report argues.
From the European side, growing ill will has set in motion a "vicious circle" in which "European slights are interpreted by Turkey as reasons to do nothing and Turkish inaction is interpreted (in the EU) as disinterest in the EU." And downward we collectively spiral.
With that warning on one front, we also reported yesterday from another front. This is the latest dumb idea from Brussels: the proposal of Hannes Swoboda, vice president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. He offers an "interim step" of retooling the existing (and malfunctioning) Customs Union with the EU into a "political union" so that Turkey could become more engaged in development of EU foreign policy. Don’t worry, he adds, this is not to be confused with "privileged partnership."
Just what "EU foreign policy" is he talking about? His proposal is offensive and absurd.
The idea of Turkey’s membership in the European project, articulated by thinkers and statesmen such as Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer for a union of transcendent democratic values, is as valid today as it was when Turkey first formally signed on in 1963.
What went wrong in the interim? We wish we knew. Today Europe’s politicians talk in oxymorons, while Turkey’s leaders offer up platitudes best left behind with the used chopsticks at a Chinese diner.
We shook our heads because we remember that just a year ago, Babacan and President Abdullah Gül were telling us that 2008 would be "The Year of the European Union."
We are not alone in fears that 2008 will go down in history as the year Turkey’s half-century EU quest died. History will then record 2009 as the year these aspirations were buried.
The much-respected International Crisis Group said as much in its detailed report on the topic which we reported yesterday. It notes that Turkish public support for the EU has dropped from a high of 65 percent to a low of 27 percent in one poll in 2007. Nationalist sentiment is on the rise, and anti-European attitudes have become mainstream, the report argues.
From the European side, growing ill will has set in motion a "vicious circle" in which "European slights are interpreted by Turkey as reasons to do nothing and Turkish inaction is interpreted (in the EU) as disinterest in the EU." And downward we collectively spiral.
With that warning on one front, we also reported yesterday from another front. This is the latest dumb idea from Brussels: the proposal of Hannes Swoboda, vice president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. He offers an "interim step" of retooling the existing (and malfunctioning) Customs Union with the EU into a "political union" so that Turkey could become more engaged in development of EU foreign policy. Don’t worry, he adds, this is not to be confused with "privileged partnership."
Just what "EU foreign policy" is he talking about? His proposal is offensive and absurd.
The idea of Turkey’s membership in the European project, articulated by thinkers and statesmen such as Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer for a union of transcendent democratic values, is as valid today as it was when Turkey first formally signed on in 1963.
What went wrong in the interim? We wish we knew. Today Europe’s politicians talk in oxymorons, while Turkey’s leaders offer up platitudes best left behind with the used chopsticks at a Chinese diner.