‘The EU is pushing us towards a federal system’

Kamuran Inan, answering questions by the Turkish Daily News, criticized the behavior of the former deputies from the now disbanded Democracy Party (DEP) after they were released from prison. He said he saw the recent surge in the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacks as a dangerous sign of the start of a new era.

Inan’s answers to the TDN were as follows.

TDN: Where do you think the government is heading? What do you think it is doing?

INAN: There is a quote by the former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissingert that says, "If you don’t know where you are going, all roads lead there." Unfortunately, the government’s policy is just that. It has no idea where it is going, and chooses to go wherever it can. The government has a two-tier policy and each tier runs in the opposite direction. One is the objective of getting into the EU with excessive desire, which almost sounds like a plea, while the other is maintaining good relations with the Islamic world.

At a time when the "Clash of Civilizations" is talked about, Turkey winning the post of secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is part of the second strategy.

TDN: Do you find these developments dangerous?

INAN: Unfortunately, yes. If you consider the death of more than 3,000 people in the rape of New York on September 11, the bombs that exploded last year on November 15 and 20 in Istanbul, the 13 bombs in Madrid on March 11 that killed more than 190 people, in addition to attacks in Nairobi, Bali, Casablanca, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, it is obvious that Samuel Huntington’s thesis on the "Clash of Civilizations" is intensifying everyday. Today, there is great fear in the West towards Muslims. The radicals in Islamic countries have concerns about Christians. Now, 800 years after the crusades, the world is once again split in two.

Under such circumstances attempts to integrate with Europe, while trying to maintain closer relations with the Islamic world, are not consistent.

TDN: Should we interpret the recent EU Parliament elections from this perspective?

INAN: Turkey’s integration with the EU became one of the important topics in the elections, especially in France. We saw many upsetting campaign posters hung from walls. German Social Democrats leader Edmund Stoiber, in his latest public statement, says "no." He asks for a special formula for Turkey, and says he will implement his strategy together with France. If you trust in what the French Socialist Party is saying, its leader called for Turkey’s recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide to be set as a prerequisite to a date to start membership negotiations. No one seems to realize that Austria is also against Turkey’s admission.

The latest European Parliament elections have two aspects. The first is the crisis and confusion within the EU. We see this through the low participation rate that was around 17 percent in Slovakia and 23 percent in the largest of the new entrants, Poland. In Britain, the Independent and Freedom Party, which wants to withdraw Britain from the EU, got 17 percent of the vote.

The second aspect is that no additional entrants will be considered for the foreseeable future. There is even some doubt about Bulgaria and Romania. The Western press is constantly saying that Turkey’s membership will never be on the agenda. At a time like this, terrorism in Turkey has increased. Around 30,000 of our citizens were killed between 1984 and 1998. Now, there is a chance that such actions will resume. There are also the efforts of radical groups to topple governments that cooperate with the West. This is especially apparent in Saudi Arabia.

TDN: What affect do the developments in Iraq have on these matters?

INAN: Turkey, by its decision to reject U.S. troop deployment on March 1, 2003, lost all its ability to influence developments in the Middle East. It transferred all its strategic cooperation from the United States to the people of northern Iraq. In a recent article that appeared in The New York Times, Kurds in Iraq were described as America’s closest and most loyal allies, and said, "We cannot abandon them." Turkey talked about red lines for a while before all these declarations disappeared. Turkey is in a very difficult situation and unfortunately, the facts are not shared with the public.

Turkish diplomacy is taking place within the country. However, the international facts are entirely different. In European countries, at governmental level, there is a belief that Turkey can become a bridge. That is correct, but if you consider the attitudes of common people there is a great fear of Muslims. The facts should be understood and assessed correctly. I want to believe that the government knows what it is doing. However, the way I see it is that the government doesn’t know where it is going and it has yet to grasp the important matters of the world. They are unable to see the facts.

Germany announced its intention to call for a public referendum in the event of Turkey’s membership being allowed. However, everyone knows that even Turkey’s Constitution would be rejected in a referendum. The EU is confused. The promises made by the EU to this government are baseless and all its funds and the budget has been suspended. Poland is very troubled about the developments. In their recent European Parliament elections, the party against the EU received 29 percent of the vote. Why? Because a farmer in Poland will receive only one quarter of the subsidies that a French farmer gets. The government should soon realize these facts and reassess its policies.

TDN: What do you think of the government’s U.S. relationship?

INAN: The crisis of trust between the two countries of last year has yet to be resolved. The Greater Middle East Initiative has zero chance of success under present conditions. There is intense outrage against the West in these societies. Moreover, recent developments show that the 22 countries covered by the initiative are in danger of succumbing to a "Taliban" style government, let alone becoming democracies that is the objective of the plan.

Despite all these developments, is Europe sincere in its efforts to cooperate against terrorism? No! There are still countries in Europe that exploit terrorism as a foreign policy tool in trying to destabilize other countries. One of these countries is a very close ally of ours. However, it has been using these forces against us for the last two decades.

The EU is troubled by Turkey, which, with its 70-million-strong population, is situated on the most valuable strategic land mass in the world and has a great chance of becoming an energy transportation hub. Turkey has also discovered and is using the benefits of technology. If you have noticed, what the EU is trying to do is to change and topple our unitary state structure. It is obvious that the very least of what they want to do is to push us towards a federal system.

Moreover, there are also very disturbing domestic developments. Some groups are once again trying to turn Turkey into a country of constant bloodletting. This is very troubling. Some recent rallies and unnecessary statements are thought-provoking. At a time when Turkey is in dire need of recovery these developments are very disturbing.

The government is working in a closed circuit system. It has severed all contacts with the outside. It is ignoring public opinion. It is dismissing the views and support of political institutions and constitutional bodies, and is behaving as though it thinks it is the state. However, the facts in Turkey are very different. If you ask me, the policy followed by a government should be practical and be supported by the entire country. Parliament, in terms of foreign policy decisions, is ignored. Unfortunately, our media is giving credence to such unfortunate statements.

TDN: The EU’s objective is said to be elimination of the unitary state anyway. Some say it aims to establish a higher identity of vertical religious and horizontal ethnic regionalism. Some say that’s why they are trying to end the nation-state model in Turkey. Do you think this objective is practical?

INAN: The EU is always talking about minority rights, cultural rights, political rights, whatever, but if you look at individual countries, you realize that the situation is not as they portray it to be. The French pass a law that aims to protect their language and say that no other can be considered as an official language. Germany, which is perceived as being very sensitive on the issue of minority rights, refuses to grant 2.3 million Turks living in their country minority status. Their objective is obvious. They are trying to weaken Turkey’s unitary structure to pave the way for a federal system. They want to prevent Turkey from becoming a competitor. Unfortunately, some intellectual groups in Turkey are being tricked by this game.

TDN: Will the matter of Turkish troops patrolling the region between Kurds and Arabs in northern Iraq come up during the NATO summit in Istanbul?

INAN: The NATO summit in Istanbul is very important with 26 NATO members and 20 partner countries, including the Russian Fereration, attending. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s announcement he will not be coming is very important. The summit is crucial from the public perspective, but no important decisions such as preserving the Greater Middle East Initiative or the possibility of NATO contributing troops to stabilize Iraq will be made during the meeting. These issues may be discussed, but I don’t think there will be any final decisions.

The issue of Turkey sending troops to Iraq or Turkish troops patrolling the region between Kurds and Arabs cannot even be considered. Only recently the provisional foreign minister of Iraq said that they did not want a single Turkish soldier within their borders. Also, don’t forget that the government pushed through a proposal to send 1,000 Turkish troops to Iraq, but the United States rejected it just to keep on the right side of a few clan leaders in northern Iraq. It would not be right for it to request troops now.

TDN: Who do you think will lose and who will benefit from the clashes in the Middle East?

INAN: This is very unfortunate, but eventually it will be the Islamic world that will lose, because the West has both the technological superiority and the unity of purpose. Can you see such unity among the Islamic nations? No! Each country sees the other as the enemy. Moreover, in at least 45 of the 56 Islamic countries the heads of state do not act in the interests of their people, but act like the representatives of industrial countries.

Our government should stop behaving as if it follows the best policies and should reassess its attitude. It is too concentrated on the EU summit in December. However, in the West, there is excessive alarm against Islam. How else can you explain a Turk becoming OIC secretary-general? Turkey wants to both become an EU member and be an influential member of the OIC. In today’s world you can’t prance around carrying two or three different identification cards. You need a single credible ID card. You need to show where you stand. If you try to be everywhere at the same time, you’ll eventually end up nowhere.

TDN: The government says that if the membership negotiations are not initiated after December they would consider other options. Is this true? Does Turkey have other options?

INAN: Such statements are usually without any basis. Such words were used during the Cold War. Where will we go, if not towards the West, the East or the Third World? Such statements became out of date once the Cold War ended. If Turkey can utilize all its resources it will become its own alternative, just like Japan. Japan was the poorest country in the world in the beginning of 20th century. Two atomic bombs were thrown at it in the middle of the century, but still it was able to become the second largest economy in the world towards the end of that century. It has almost no farming land or energy resources. However, it has a national income of over $3 trillion. Turkey has got used to laziness. Despite having a total of more than $300 billion in foreign and domestic debt, we remain one of the nations that works the least. Turkey’s stance towards the EU is both very upsetting and thought-provoking. We are telling them: "We are unable to govern ourselves. We cannot create jobs for our people. We cannot increase our production. Please take us in and govern us. Use us, so that our people’s living standards improve." This is a disgraceful situation. We should look at our history and be ashamed. Norway’s exports, with its 4.5-million populace, is worth $55 billion, even though it is not an EU member. Turkey’s exports, with its 70-million populace, has just approached $50 billion. We have received outside help for the last fifty years. What happened to it? All of it was wasted on luxury items for the state. The government promised the tightening of state expenses and a reduction in bureaucracy. What happened? Turkey is still looking for answers from the outside.

No one should forget that the true strength of a country is based on their history and their honor.