Turks turn to flag, nationalism as EU talks loom

ANKARA: Anyone visiting Turkey in recent weeks might be forgiven for thinking the country had just gone to war or at the very least won a major soccer tournament. Public buildings, homes, buses, taxis and private cars have been festooned with the national flag, depicting a white Islamic crescent moon and star against a red background. Rallies and protests featuring the flag have been held across Turkey. In the eastern city of Erzurum, the German ambassador was prevented from cutting a cake decorated with the Turkish flag on the grounds it could signify disrespect.

This outpouring of patriotic fervour was sparked by neither war nor soccer but an incident last month in which youths tried unsuccessfully to set fire to a Turkish flag during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in the port city of Mersin.

An over reaction? Turkey’s military General Staff did not think so. It issued a statement vowing to defend the nation to its “last drop of blood”. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced sternly that the flag was a sacred symbol for Turks.

Security officers detained the 13- and 14-year-old boys accused of setting fire to the flag, along with nine others.

The flag-waving has raised some awkward questions about Turks’ state of mind as they prepare for the start of talks in October to join the European Union, a club founded on the rejection of nationalism that enjoins its members to share sovereignty and focus on common values.

“Turks are feeling cornered, besieged from outside and betrayed from within. The explosion was waiting to happen. In Mersin, somebody simply lit the match,” said Dogu Ergil, head of the liberal think tank TOSAM.

The perceived threats from outside include EU pressure on a range of sensitive issues including Cyprus as well as US troops in neighbouring Iraq. Inside Turkey, he said, people fear “betrayal” by Kurds and other ethnic or religious minorities.

TROUBLING SIGNALS: The reaction to the Mersin incident is just one of a number of signals troubling advocates of Turkey’s EU membership.

Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic tract “Mein Kampf” has shot onto the best-seller lists. Turkey’s best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk has received death threats for backing Armenian claims of genocide at Turkish hands in World War One. A government minister said Christian missionaries threaten national unity, even though only a tiny handful of Turks have converted.

The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions on foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm national interests.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has vowed to press ahead with those two laws. But the impression from these incidents is of a country succumbing to paranoia and conspiracy theories and trying to retreat into its shell, diplomats say.

“The perception gap between Turkey and the EU is wider than at any time since the AKP came to power (in November 2002),” said one Ankara-based European diplomat.

The diplomat noted that nationalism is a founding principle of the Turkish Republic and viewed as a very positive force, while Europeans are far more mindful of its destructive power, which led to the decision to set up an EU in the first place.

“Turkey did not go through the catharsis of World War Two. To reject nationalism here is to reject the republic and (its founder Kemal) Ataturk. This difference in experience can feed a sense of incompatibility between Turkey and Europe,” he said.

Emin Sirin, an independent member of the Turkish parliament, said the Turks’ “pressure cooker” discontent stemmed mainly from a sense of hurt pride over the EU’s treatment of their country.

DOUBLE STANDARDS: The EU has said Turkey will face a tougher negotiation process, with much stricter monitoring of its reforms, reflecting widespread unease in the wealthy bloc about admitting the relatively poor Muslim nation of 70 million people.

“Turks see double standards ... Europe has a colonial governor attitude towards us,” Sirin said.

Even if Turkey successfully completes the lengthy entry talks, French voters could block its membership in a referendum promised to them by President Jacques Chirac. Germany’s Christian Democrat opposition, which could come to power next year, actively opposes Turkish accession.

Sirin said Turks felt more vulnerable because EU reforms threaten to emasculate the army — the country’s most respected institution — and could hamper efforts to crack down on Kurdish separatist guerrillas still active in the southeast.

Hasan Unal, a nationalist-minded professor at Ankara’s Bilkent University, said the benefits of Turkey’s strong economic growth were failing to reach many Turks.

Many AKP deputies fear that Turkey will have to make more concessions to the EU on the vexed issue of Cyprus, he said, adding that such nationalist concerns helped account for a steady trickle of defections from the party in recent weeks.

But TOSAM’s Ergil took a more optimistic view, noting Turks’ continued strong support for EU membership in opinion polls.

“There is no going back (on reforms). A good government will have to explain clearly to the Turkish people what is at stake.”—Reuters