06 10 05 - Brussels’ Sincerity on Turkey’s EU Membership

http://www.turkishweekly.net/editorial.php?id=19
Turkish Weekly-Sedat LACINER- Wednesday,28 September 2005 (FROM A.M. USA)

The European Parliament called Turkey to recognize the Armenian allegations before the EU talks. The EP lawmakers issued a nonbinding resolution saying recognition of the killings as genocide should be a prerequisite for Turkey to join the EU. The MEPs, and parliamentarians in the national parliaments in the EU spend hours and hours on the 1915 events. The French Prime Minister, Austrian CUD leader and many more EU politicians focus on the 1915 Armenian Relocation Campaign and try to force Turkey to recognize the Armenian ‘genocide’ allegations. If you read the European newspapers, you may think that the Armenian issue is the most vital problem of the European peoples. However all the things happened during the First World War before the EU and Turkey. It was Ottoman Empire years, and it is really difficult to understand the connection between Turkey’s EU talks and the 1915 Relocation Campaign. One may argue that the European politicians are very sensitive about the human rights abuses during the war and conflicts. However the same European politicians say nothing about the Armenian occupation in Azerbaijan. Almost 20 percent of Azerbaijan has been under Armenian occupation for more than a decade. About 1 million Azerbaijanis have been refugees, worst than the Bosnian tragedy. Thousands of Algerians were massacred by France forces, many were tortured, yet the French politicians refuse to apologize from Algerian people. Paris is even reluctant to admit 1945 Massacres. French Prime Minister says “let’s leave all these issues to the historians. This is not our business but historians’”. However the same French leaders urge Turkey to take political decisions. Turkey called Armenia to establish a joint committee to discuss the historical disputes, but Yerevan strongly rejected the offer. No EU leader did make any pressure on Yerevan to shift the Armenia’s decision.
Many Turkish Cypriots were massacred in Cyprus during the 1960s but the European parliamentarians do not ask anything about that to their Greek Cypriots MEP sitting near them. The EU accepted the Greek side as the only representative of the island though there are two societies and two different states on the island. And now they ask Turkey to recognize the Greek Cyprus as the only Cyprus Government. They created the problem and they expect Turkey to solve it by sacrificing Turkish Cypriots.

It is obvious that the European politicians are not sincere enough in both Armenian and Cyprus issues. There could be two reasons for their partial attitudes: First they are very sensitive on the Christians’ problems and they simply ignore the Muslims in Europe. As a matter of fact that there is no significant differences between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus but religion. The EU accepted the Christian Cypriots and kept the Muslims ones outside. Similarly when the Christian Armenians massacred the Muslims during the First World War and during the Karabakh War no EU parliamentarian condemned the Armenians. The Armenian warriors committed a genocide in Khocali, and the Armenian ASALA terrorists massacred more than 40 Turkish diplomats during the 1970s and 1980s, and the European parliaments just focus on the Armenian casualties of almost a century ago.
If the EU politicians are not racist or religiously-discriminative they should be anti-Turkish. In that case they give no importance to the Greeks or the Armenians but they simply do not want to see Turkey inside. If this is the case, the anti-Turkish EU politicians abuses the Greek and Armenian problems.
If the EU wants to be a superpower, the EU should be based on universal values. The EU leaders and politicians should at least be honest and sincere. They should not hide behind the Cyprus and Armenian problems.
Please remember, not the Ottoman Empire but Turkey is the candidate for the EU, and you are not the MPs of European imperialism but of the modern European Union. By sabotaging Turkey’s EU talk, the anti-Turkish groups also undermines the EU’s interests, and ethnic-religious harmony in the EU countries. More than 15 million Muslim EU citizens and all of the Muslim world are aware of these dirty plays. You deceive nobody. By the way the EU’s double standards and politic games to prevent Turkey’s membership by indirect ways will cheer up Osame Bin Laden. He knows that he can abuse the differences between civilizations as far as the EU continues to its existing policies towards the Euro Muslims. There are 5 Muslim states in Europe and none of them is EU member.

slaciner@usak.org.uk, or sedat62@hotmail.com
0090 312 212 28 86 or 0090 312 212 28 87
Fax: 0090 312 212 25 84

V.V