Brüksel’de Marmara Grup’ta Yapılan Konuşma (İng.)

THE SPEECH OF ONUR ÖYMEN
VICE-PRESIDENT OF CHP AT
MARMARA GROUP, BRUSSELS
APRIL 8, 2004

Thank you very much. Indeed, after so many eminent speakers, it will be extremely difficult to find something original, something new to say. Rudolf Scharping, former German Minister of Defence, had said once “ Everything has been said but unfortunately not by everybody yet”!
So, I will be forced to repeat one or two views that are already expressed by other speakers.

First, I will try to draw a general picture of Turkish-EU Relations, while focusing on the subject-matter of this conference. In the European political circles, political parties and in the press, while talking on Turkish-EU relations and Turkish membership, we often see that people talk mostly on the problems Turkish membership may create and Turkey has been presented as a problematic country which will bring a lot of burden to the EU in case of membership. The religious and cultural differences that I will come back in a moment, have often been mentioned and the free-circulation of labor, the integration problems of the Turkish people living in Europe, Turkish agriculture, competitiveness of Turkish industry are always raised to prove that Turkish membership will not be easy and will create serious difficulties for the entire European Union. I believe that while discussing such problems it would be also appropriate to focus on the positive side of the Turkish membership. What will be Turkey’s contribution to Europe? What do have in our luggage, while coming to your family? So, this is the question and I believe that we have to say one or two words on this issue.

First of all, we believe that Turkey will contribute to major problems that Europe is going to face very soon. It is a fact that European population is decreasing and aging. If we look at the Unites Nations statistics, or statistics of U.S. Bureau of Census, we will see that European population will be 30 million people less than the actual population by the year 2050. To sustain the economic progress, economic welfare and the social security balance EU will need fresh workforce. The population of Turkey, which is very often presented as a burden for Europe, may be, in the coming years, an asset. And even today, some European companies have started to hire from Turkey a number of experts, particularly in the area of computer science, to be used in German and in other European companies. Therefore, young and dynamic population of Turkey will be a concrete contribution to Europe.

Another contribution will be in the field of economy. We have a population of 70 million, which means 70 million large market for European industries. You may argue that you have already been profiting by the customs union, but the experts will tell you that in case of membership, what Turkey may offer to European companies will be much substantial than what they enjoy today. If you put together the markets of the countries in our neighborhood and of Turkey’s 70 million population reach to a total market close to 800 million people. So, what we can offer to Europe in the field of economy is beyond the imagination of some people living in Europe today.

Third contribution would be in the field of security and defense, as what we call it ESDP; because at this moment, we are following the developments in the EU very closely. We understand that you have decided to gain a security and defense dimension, besides the economic and political dimension, which will make the EU an international player. Without having a security and defence dimension, EU may not become a world-wide power .So for that matter, we have the capabilities. If you talk with experts in Europe, the main problem that European army faces is not lack of capability. No government is willing to pay extra money to increase the capabilities of European defense. Nobody is willing to provide fresh foods. It’s exactly what we have in Turkey. Because Turkey has the second largest army of NATO, and already today we have contributed to European army with one brigade size force together with air and sea component, which means our contribution is equal to ten actual EU members. So, it is an area, where we can do a lot.

Now, we believe that all these are less important than what I am going to tell now. What we can contribute to Europe in general, is really, in the field of European … security. We are living in an area adjacent to trouble spots. According to major estimations, 13 or 15 possible conflicts will take place in our neignborhood. So, Turkey is an element of stability. We can play the role of stabilizer in our troubled region, in case we join the EU. And it would be extremely beneficial for Europe.
I am not talking only in the sense of military or defense dimension. I am also talking in the sense of political dimension. So, to bring political stability to our region will be our biggest contribution. How can we do it? And now, I am coming to our main subject.

We can do it by trying to cooperate with you to export democracy in this region. We are the only secular democratic country in the area among all Muslim countries. There is no other Muslim country in the world, which has a secular democratic system. This is Turkey and in case you export our system that serves as a genuine model of secular democracy for the entire region, it will tremendously have to bring stability in the Middle East and as what we call it … So how can we do that? We can do that by cooperating very closely between by joining forces with you and in short by joining our … Some believe that they can export democracy, without exporting secularism to the region. It’s not possible. Whoever has an idea about Muslim religion, we will tell you that a democratic system in a Muslim country without secularism does not work at all. Because a part of Sheria law, a part of Koran will directly link to the affairs daily life. That’s to say, in case you have sheria law, … you have to act in such a way that would not be compatible with modern democratic principles. You cannot cut the hand of a thief in a democratic society; but if you live in fully religious principles, you may face such a dilemma. Therefore, in case you want to export democracy, you should export it together with secularism. There, we can be can be a model. So, this is what we are exactly telling to our American friends. But they have an idea of making Turkey, instead of secular democracy, a sort of moderate Islam with mass emphasis on secularist aspect, and serve as a model for the entire region as a moderate Muslim country. It does not work. Moderate Muslim country, sort of half Muslim country is like half pregnancy. Either you are pregnant or not. To put it straight, if you have a Muslim country, Muslim democracy, it means you do not have a democracy. Therefore, our major contribution to this area and to Europe will be in the field of expansion of democracy to the entire region.

Talking about religion and our relations with Europe, we should be very frank with each other.
We are ready to forget what has been said about Turkey, about our religion in the past.
We are ready to forget what Cardinal Naumann has said 1854.
We are ready to forget some books written by Martin Luther against the Turks.
We are ready to forget why a famous monument is erected in the Graben square of Vienna.
We are ready to forget what Clemenceau has said about the Turks.
We are ready to forget all the books published by the Wellington House, British propaganda bureau against Turkey during the First World War.

But we cannot forget and forgive when today, leading European politicians try to block Turkish membership for religious or cultural reasons. If a leading European politician says that “”the day Turkey enters the EU it would be the final day of EU”. We cannot accept that. In case a leading European politician says that “Turkey should never join the EU, because EU is a civilization project”, we cannot accept that. Because we believe that we are a part and parcel of the European civilization. We may have a different culture but we are a part of the same civilization. This is what we have learnt at school. This is what we have learnt in our family. We were born as Europeans. In Turkey, we have always felt ourselves as Europeans. Our German-European family was a matter of time, not if but when. This was the question.

Therefore, we cannot accept that some European politicians or journalists try to block Turkish membership on religious or cultural grounds. We have worked together with you to lift the ideological iron curtain in the middle of Europe. And, it will be big mistake in case we try to replace it with a cultural or religious iron curtain. It will be too much and it will make Europe a smaller Europe in all senses. Therefore, we believe that we have to eliminate religion and culture as an impediment in our way to Europe. If you have other reasons, let’s talk seriously, and let’s find solutions; but, please let’s remove this religious and cultural dimension.

What Turkey can bring to Europe in the field of culture is matter of question. We can bring our concept of civilization, which means multicultural society. We are living in a multicultural society for centuries. Turkey has been a sort of melting pot for people of different cultures and religions. The year the American continent was discovered was the year we invited Jews from Spain to Turkey to save them from inquisition. We are living with Jews in our country for five hundred years and there is not a serial pogrom, not a serial attact against Jewish community in Turkey. We are all brothers and sisters. This is our civilization. If you want to learn more about Turkish tolerance towards other societies, religions, cultures, read the books of Stanford Shaw or Bernard Lewis or anyway, Professor Kirsch that was among the German scholars that we saved from Hitler Germany among thousands of other Jews of Germany. So, this is our civilization. We can share with you our multicultural society. We can share with you our concept of modern nationality. In Turkey, we accept nationality contrary to some European countries. We can share with you family solidarity, neighborhood solidarity, and a number of …
To end the religious dimension, I’ll tell you one word. We should be all aware that, because we are Muslims, we are not the children of a lesser God.

To conclude, I believe that we are ready ladies and gentlemen, to share with you our most valuable thing, and we are ready to give you our most valuable asset: This is our friendship and we are sure that you will not fail to reciprocate.

Thank you very much.