Simitis adresses Turkish audience on EU

 An economic technocrat who never appeared comfortable with public speaking had started his term with a major crisis, which almost brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of a war over the sovereignty of a two rocky islets in the Aegean. It was followed by a humiliating hand over of the leader of PKK Abdullah Öcalan to the Turks under American pressure.

Costas Simitis, who is the guest speaker this evening at a public lecture organized by the European Institute of Istanbul Bilgi University, has linked his record term as a prime minister of Greece (eight years and two months from January 1996 until March 2004), with an almost obsessive allegiance to the European Union ideal. An economic technocrat who never appeared comfortable with public speaking had started his term with a major crisis, which almost brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of a war over the sovereignty of a two rocky islets in the Aegean. It was followed by a humiliating hand over of the leader of PKK Abdullah Öcalan to the Turks under American pressure.

He became a hate figure for the Greek Church and was blamed indirectly for the collapse of the Greek Stock Exchange which led to hundreds of thousands of small investors losing their savings. It was during his tenure that corruption surfaced as an endemic symptom of Greek social life, going hand in hand with government spending and major public works.

Yet it was during his tenure that the term "modernization" became an integral part of a new national policy aiming at drastically changing the infrastructure of an ailing Greek economy. Through a program of tough austerity economic measures and the allegiance to the European Union as a panacea of all ills of Greece eventually Ğ his critics say by the help of some "creative" accounting methods Ğ Greece was admitted into the Eurozone.

And it was during his term that the twin earthquake tragedy in Turkey and Greece became a catalyst for the start of the longest honeymoon period in Greek-Turkish relations, and it was during his tenure that Cyprus was admitted to the EU as a full member.

In January 2004, Simitis still in office, but with his government’s ratings falling dramatically, announced that he would not seek reelection as president of his socialist party PASOK and called for general elections in March of the same year. His defeat led to the victory of Costas Karamanlis’s New Democracy Party and the election of a new leader of PASOK, George Papandreou, until then Foreign Minister.

Since his bowing out of power, Simitis remained in the limelight of his party under the leadership of George Papandreou who failed to lead his party to victory at the last general elections in 2007. Last year Papandreou in a much criticized move removed Simitis from the parliamentary group of PASOK after a disagreement over the technical procedure for endorsing the Lisbon Treaty. Some analysts had already written his political obituary.

Yet, as early as two weeks ago, the 73-year-old Costas Simitis, Emeritus professor of Economics with studies in the LSE and a law degree from Marburg University in Germany, was brought back to the front stage of his party by no other than his former foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos who suggested that Simitis should lead the ballot paper of PASOK for the elections for European Parliament this June. The leader of PASOK soon followed with inviting him to a private meeting Ğ they had not met for over a year. The rapprochement was hailed either as long overdue to strengthen PASOK’s lead over the government’s party in the opinion polls, or as a way for Papandreou to eliminate a formidable potential opponent by sending him to Brussels. With an obvious inability by the current political leaders in Greece to come up with feasible policies against the onslaught of the economic crisis, the dull economic technocrat whose nickname "The Chinese" filled countless Greek shows with merciless political satire, suddenly became the center of attention. Could he be the person who could give some proper advice?

But it is not only his academic background on economy, his social-democratic philosophy and his personal political history that that are much needed at the moment. It is also the fact that he appeals to a "centrist" political electorate which has been hit badly by this economic crisis and whose electoral behavior may be crucial at the next general elections in Greece. As both main parties continue to run neck-and-neck, Simitis’s reinstatement could attract back the center-right PASOK voters who had emigrated to the government party.

There is an even more attractive scenario befitting the status of the Europhile Professor Simitis that sees him taking up a leading post in the European Union Ğ the term of the president of the European Commission JosŽ Manuel Barroso ends this year. The subject of Professor Simitis's public lecture at Istanbul Bilgi University this evening is to be "Democracy and Diversity in The European Union." It should be a speech of significant importance as Simitis has always been an outspoken speaker.

It should very important to listen to his position on whether Turkey should eventually be admitted to the Union. Although this position we already know.

One year ago, almost to the day, Professor Simitis had given a lecture to the students of Cambridge University. There he described his position on Turkey. Speaking about the future challenges for Europe in view of the new European treaty, he had said "the best solution is a framework of a special relationship with Turkey, and through this special relationship Greece may solve some of its problems in southeastern Europe É If Turkey becomes a full member in the EU, it will be difficult to solve the problems (with Greece). It will be easier to develop two and three speeds (related to the level of development of new members) within the Union É In a few years, Turkey will become a country of 100 million. It will be the biggest country in the EU and will have the highest number of votes in the European Parliament. It will be an unusual situation which I do not see it being accepted by the European countries."

We did wonder then and may wonder tomorrow too, if Simitis speaks like a politician or like an academician and whether his views on Turkey’s relations with the EU echo a change in policy by Greece who has been a firm supporter of Turkey’s entry.

But even more than that, with an unprecedented economic crisis shaking the very structure of the European Union we would be eager to hear the recipe of Professor Simitis for Europe retaining its principles of democracy and diversity against a background of economic shrinkage.