Eu & Turkey: ready for a wedding?

At the beginning of February, during a visit in Italy, Erdogan claimed again the will for Turkey to enter in the European Union.

The relation between Europe and Turkey are becoming every year worse, especially since the mid-2016 failed coup attempt against Erdogan. And it is the news of few hours ago that the European Union threatened to cancel a summit with Turkey next month because of Turkish tensions with Cyprus over energy exploration (here more info).

Officially the position Brussels is very clear. The negotiation for the enlargement to Turkey is frozen till there will be a visible progress in the fields of human rights and independence of the justice.

But the situation within the Eu governments is much more complex.

From one side, Erdogan is necessary to contain the immigration from Syria. Moreover, Ankara is fundamental for the stabilization of the area.

On the other side, the Turkish government is far away from the principles of a democracy (rights, justice, freedom of expression,...). 

But even if Turkey was a democratic country - and this is my question - would Eu really allow Ankara to enter in the European? What about the building of a European Federation: would this be still possible after the enlargement to a huge and powerful country like Turkey? And which kind of integration could be possible?

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Can Mustafa Akıncı be a new beginning for Cyprus?

Few weeks ago the Presidential Elections were held in the Turkish part of Cyprus. The winner has been Mustafa Akinci (68), former Major of the Turkish Municipality of Nicosia and Member of the Parliament.

Mustafa Akinci

Akinci is a "leftist moderate", as he described himself. During the electoral campaign, he promoted a fraternal but not submissive relation with Turkey (that contributes for one third of Northern Cyprus public balance) and a stronger collaboration with the Greek part of the Island.

Cyprus is currently divided in two parts by the "Green Line",  a demilitarized zone, patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), that was established in 1974 following the Turkish invasion of the Country.

Cyprus is part of European Union since 2004 (at least the Greek part). And the capital, Nicosia, is the last city diveded by a wall in Europe. It is hard to believe that the Akinci election will bring to the reunification of the island. But let's be optimistic: it can be a new beginning for the Country, based on good relations between North and South.

We will see how Greece and Turkey will influence those relations.

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Are we really talking about the refusal of a Genocide?

Few days ago, Pope Francis has claimed that the Armenian Genocide, in the years 1915-16 when 1,5 million people died under the hand of the Ottoman Empire, has been the first Genocide of the 20th Century.

Armenians marched by Turkish soldiers, 1915

This declarations has caused the severe reaction of the Ankara Government. Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted: "The Pope's statement, which is far from the legal and historical reality, cannot be accepted". "Religious authorities are not the places to incite resentment and hatred with baseless allegations". 

Turkey doesn't recognize the Armenian Genocide for two kinds of reasons: from one side, it would mean the identification as killers of the Fathers of the Country (the Young Turks that were leading the Empire during the Genocide). From the other side, it could begin many trials for reimbursements from the victims’families.

Today, there are 22 States in the World that recognize the Armenia Genocide: among them, we find Argentina, Canada, Belgium, France, Italy and Russia. The US Congress has approved a motion that asks the President Obama to recognize the Genocide, but any official declaration came out about this topic.   

Are we really talking about the refusal of a Genocide?

It is not acceptable denying a Genocide. We should be shocked if Germany could say that Nazi Camps are just a lie. We should be shocked for the Armenian Genocide as well.

Turkey is a great and beautiful nation, a rising economic power and a strategic partner for Europe. But a great Country and a mature society should make it up with its past and recognize the mistakes and the horrors of the father's generations. It would release Turkey from one of the darkest page of its history and could honor the memory of those who lost their lives one hundred years ago.

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Miniskirts for Ozgecan

Ozgecan Aslan was a 20 years old student of Medicine, who has been murdered because she stopped a man who wanted to rape her. It happened the 11 February 2015 in the Turkish city of Mercin. This event deeply touched the public opinion.

UN Women provides impressive statistics about the violence against women. Just to mention some of them:

- 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence;

- around 120 million girls worldwide (slightly more than 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts at some point in their lives;

- between 40 and 50 per cent of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advances, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at work.

Just in Europe, one third of women some form of physical or sexual abuse since the age of 15. And in Turkey last year 300 women have murdered. 

The worst is that in many situation the victims and their families cannot feel protected by the law.

Can something change?

Of course yes. 

And in the case of Ozgecan Aslan something actually changed. During the funeral, the women, usually behind the men in the celebrations, decided to go ahead and take the coffin against the tradition. 

And many protests have been raised all over Turkey. Many men have decided to participate in those protests dressing miniskirts. This was the invitation on Facebook:

“If a miniskirt is responsible for everything, if a miniskirt means immorality and unchastity, if a woman who wears a miniskirt is sending an invitation about what will happen to her, then we are also sending an invitation!”

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Are Turkish events a huge failure of European Union?

What's happening in Turkey?

Few days ago two heads of police and at least 24 journalists have been arrested in 13 different cities. The Director of the newspaper Zaman, Ekrem Dumanli, and the Director of the broadcasting Samanyolu, Hidayet Karaca have been also included in the list.

It seems that those events are the result of an internal war inside the right wing of the Turkish politics. In particular, a contraposition between Endogan, President of Turkey and leader of AKP and Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, leader of an Islamic movement and considered by Erdogan author of the corruption scandal of the last year that deeply touched AKP.

Protests at the Headquarter of Zaman, in Ankara

Turkey is the country with the highest number of journalists in prisons in the World: 40 journalist, against 35 in Iran, 32 in China, 22 in Eritrea and 18 in Vietnam, following the report of the Committee to protect journalists.

European Union condemned the arrests, conflicting the freedom of press, one of the fundamental value of democracy and of Eu itself. But which are the responsibilities of Eu in the authoritative deviation of Turkey?

There are two main points of view presented in these days. Someone is pointing out how Turkey is not at all "aligned" to the European values and so it is not possible imagine an accession to Eu, now and never. Some others see the current situation as the consequence of a not-choice of the European Institutions about the adhesion of Turkey. 

It is clear that Europe didn't want a powerful Turkey inside their institutions. If Ankara have had entered in the Eu, it would have been the second most populated Country after Germany and the first military force, modifying the fragile balance that is still allowing the existence of the Union itself. 

Even if Europe didn't want a Turkey inside, would it have been possible a stronger relationship with Ankara? Would it have been possible to help the democratization of Turkey and therefore the  stabilization of all the area, where Ankara plays a central role?

But Brussels adopted another positions, well synthesized from the cartoon below, published in 2004 (but always current) by the International Herald Tribune.  A Turkish couple wants to enter in the Eu door and someone on the top of the wall says: "If I open the door, do you promise me not to enter?".

Source: International Herald Tribune (2004)

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