Message to some politicians of the European Union who seem to forget the important role of Turkey during the cold war: Turkey never deserted the European Union.

The European Union “adventure” of Turkey dates back to more than 40 years. Turkey always wanted to be a member of the EU for political reasons. Turkey is a founder member of the council of Europe. Turkey’s future is the EU. Well it will take Turkey “A long long way to go” to become an EU member. Although at the moment the turkish ship can hardly have a sight of the EU coast, every day it sails closer to the EU. The environment chapter is one of the hardest one, and it was opened last december.

Well let’s remember that Turkey is an official candidate country to the EU since 1999, and the negotiations started in 2005. All the EU states signed. But some irresponsible politicians like Mr Sarkozy behave as if the negotiations process began without the will of the EU.

At first Mr Sarkozy said that: “Turkey is a not a european country, it can’t be a member”. Then, because he realized that he was almost alone and that many countries kept on supporting Turkey, he began to say: ‘The negotiations will go on, but it will not lead to the EU membership”.

Many countries/politicians of the EU do support Turkey’s European Union membership, but they are not introduced enough to the european citizens. We can hardly hear them. But the ones who are too much heard in the european media, and as far as I’m concerned above all in France, are whether Mr Sarkozy, or the ones who object to Turkey’s EU membership because of various prejudices:

for instance some people and some politicians think that a load of turkish citizens will take advantage of their EU membership in order to invade the EU (!). Some people are afraid of muslims. Some people and some politicians are racist. Some politicians don’t want of Turkey because its religion is Islam, in other words when Turkey is a member, many turkish politicians will have the right to have a seat (nearly as much as the French or the Germans) at the EU parliament, but that is disturbing for them because they don’t want that muslim politicians take part to the decisions of the EU (according to them the EU must remain Christian).

Today they can tolerate a few muslims in the EU parliament, but they can’t tolerate several dozen. Some people and some politicians think that Turkey is not a european country. Or some think that Turkey will receive huge amounts of money. But these last ones should know that Turkey is about to become a rather rich country (Turkey has oil and gas in the black sea and in other places in Turkey) thence will contribute to the EU budget.

Let’s remember that terrorism has cost Turkey more than 200 billion euros, and this huge amount of money could have been invested in the east of Turkey if the EU hadn’t deserted Turkey in its fight against terrorism for more than 30 years.

To put it in a nutshell, we are quite often being watched those who object to Turkey whereas we are almost never being watched the ones who support it.

Let’s forget money, to all those politicians (not the EU citizens since most of them do not know Turkey well) who object to Turkey’s EU membership, I’d like to tell or remind them this:

during the cold war it was Turkey which was a faithful ally to the EEC/EU.

But there are some traitors among some european politicians and other people (of the media) who deny and want to forget Turkey’s vital role during the cold war.

The english politicians support Turkey because they do remember how a strong and reliable ally it was (their stance has nothing to do with the United States of America).

It’s very odd, very ironic: several eastern countries of the EU were the enemies of the EEC/EU during the cold war, however the EU accepted them a few years ago as full members, whereas Turkey is perceived as an enemy today. We call that treason.

To conclude, many people see Turkey as the one who is begging regarding its European Union membership because they have many prejudices. France is most probably the country where there are the worst anti-Turkey feelings.

As a turkish citizen, I have to say that I feel insulted and very ashamed because of the wave of hatred regarding Turkey (And if you want several examples that prove that many of the french media are biased regarding Turkey, click here but it’s in french).

Although some media and some politicians are used to being disgustingly quite negative and biased about Turkey, I’m positive and I still support Turkey’s EU path. Perhaps it would be better for Turkey if it didn’t become a member of the European Union, but I believe that there is one good reason why Turkey ought to be an EU member: united we are stronger.

As for the EU, it has many interests to have Turkey within it: economic, militaristic, energy ressources, and political interests. But the real interest for the EU is something else. The most beautiful gift that Turkey will offer the EU is its culture, because the turkish culture is very rich.

Regards

Cem