Obamania and Emma Bonino
The Washington-EU relations that were tense during the Bush administration may turn into a honeymoon with Obama. “Maturity” of Europe, as deputy speaker of the Italian Senate Emma Bonino terms, will also speed up the process of Turkey’s EU process.
If I am not wrong, one of the headlines I read the other day was: “Everyone is looking for his own Obama.”
Winning the presidential elections with an overwhelming victory, Barrack Obama has pumped such a leap of hope to the entire world that people are now going after an Obama dream.
Not just the Western world but also the Aborigines of Australia, who announced that someday even an Aborigine could run the country.If even Aborigines, to whom Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd publicly apologized in February for the “barbaric assimilation methods” of the country, have hopes, you imagine the rest.
“Obamania” makes a peakWhen he declared victory, I was in the Italian capital Rome for the 5th Italian-Turkish Forum. Italian and Turkish participants of the meeting, themed “Turkey, European Union and the Mediterranean,” spent the night in front of TV sets.
Italians and Turks congratulated each other in the morning for Obama’s victory.
The keynote speaker of the meeting was Marta Dassu of the Apsen Institute. She was busy all night long making comments about Obama’s victory on TV programs.
Honeymoon with Europe?The Washington - European Union relations that were tense during the Bush administration may turn into a honeymoon with Obama in the White House, according to Dassu, who believes that the United States will need close cooperation with EU and Turkey if the pull-out from Iraq begins as Obama promises. The issues of Iran, the Middle East and Afghanistan may take new turns, warns Dassu, saying that with Obama, an opportunity to change the world has arrived.
The next speaker was Emma Bonino, deputy speaker of the Italian Senate.
Turkish public opinion knows Bonino very well for being a member of the “Independent Turkey Commission,” and the “Turkey” rapporteur of the Turkey lobby.
As you may guess Bonino is one of the most passionate advocates of Turkey in its EU bid, so much so that she will be in Istanbul soon for an awards ceremony in which the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association, or TUSIAD, will praise her.
Bonina, at the beginning of her speech, said, “I look at the European press. As if the Europeans elected their own leader. We subconsciously expect that Obama will get into the White House and solve all the problems with a magic wand.”
Effect on Turkey’s EU bid
Dear Bonino is right.
Who said that Obama is a superman?
“Whether there is Obama or not, Europe has to be mature now. It should adopt a common foreign, defense and energy policy,” Bonino continued.“Maturity” of Europe, as Bonino terms it, will speed up the process of Turkey’s membership to the EU.
A Europe which has solved its own problems will, without doubt, embrace Turkey easily.
As for Turkey’s accession to the bloc, Bonino says, “The membership process should promptly speed-up. Both Europe and Turkey should exert efforts in this direction.”
She also makes the following call for Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini, who both attended the meetings:
“We know that the Italian Parliament clearly supports Turkey’s membership. The opposition should make its attitude clear too. The Silvio Berlusconi government should try to convince Italian public opinion to accept Turkey’s bid warmly. We should also find ways to convince France and Germany who are resisting Turkey’s accession to the union.”
Bonino is always ready to struggle: with or without Obama.
