Current state of affairs

No developed European country asked to become an EU member in order to simply survive or exist: They could have developed economically without the need for a union. The scandinavians were cautious about entering the union with Norway opting to remain outside. Britain became a member so as to influence what was occuring on the mainland.

Greece was the first country that entered with a different agenda. It overcame the deep crisis it suffered after our 1974 Cyprus intervention by becoming an EU member. Then came the membership of Spain and Portugal who had recently been military dictatorships. Both strengthened their newly established democracy by becoming members of the union. The EU helped them develop their economy.

EU membership is much more important for the central and Eastern European countries that had recently been under the domination of communism. They hope to modernize, democratize and ensure their security by implementing free market economy within the union.

For some groups in our country, the importance of EU membership is much greater than it was for other countries. The EU will not only help us to ensure macro-economic stability and free our democracy from guardianship, but will also make certain that we will fill in the domestic savings gap, increase our economic growth and our growing population’s employment needs will be satisfied. Our micro-nationalist and minority problems will be solved and regional development disparities will be alleviated.

We all saw how the economic crisis in 2000 came about in the 1990s. Turkey got stuck in a debt spiral. We almost became like Argentina. We now think we are incapable of resolving our enduring economic problems. We are frightened that if we don’t get into the EU, these problems will grow and overwhelm us. Our stock exchange, well aware of this fact, says that if we don’t get a date to start EU membership negotiations, there will be a very large capital outflow from the country and the markets will crash. No one can doubt that there is an element of truth in these arguments.

However, no one can escape these questions: "Doesn’t Turkey, which is considered to have the potential to become a great power, wanting to become an EU member just because of its inherent weaknesses a contradiction in terms? Is it right for it to see EU membership as the only way forward instead of using its own power to resolve its problems? Can it really resolve these issues by becoming an EU member? Even if we ignore all this, can Turkey enter the EU with such an attitude? Finally, will we be able to pay the cost of such a membership in the Aegean, Cyprus and the Southeast?"

As a result of arguments made by the generation that tried and failed to save the country by carrying out a leftist revolution, defending a liberal (even radical) democracy and the recognition of differences like an ideology of success, we have been forced to believe that the basis of all our problems was a lack of democracy. We want democracy imposed by the EU, instead of a democratization supported by socio-economic development.

Meanwhile, Turkey again entered the communication revolution as a consumer, but not as a producer. We are missing out on the coming revolution based on nano and genetic technologies. We are being pushed to the ground by our debts, while failing to tax the unregistered economy, which is as large as the registered one! Even if we raise our education levels it won’t matter as it’s plain for all to see what the standard of our teachers is together with their lack of knowledge regarding modern pedagogy.

In order to lead a Eurasian or Middle Eastern-centered socio-economic development process, like the one in east Asia, we need to have balance of payments surpluses, while our economy grows at a high rate. If not, we will not be able to resolve our own problems, we won’t be of any use to our region and nor will we enter the EU as a member on an equal footing.

What’s really is upsetting is that our political parties lack this vision of a regional socio-economic development and security, including the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP).