MORE LIKE EUROPE ? :

If Turkey wants to be part of Europe, it has to adhere to European standards of national behavior (Philip Terzian, April 11, 2002, Jewish World Review)

The European Union has been admirably firm: Turkey is welcome to apply for membership in the EU, but only after withdrawal from Cyprus and basic reforms in its authoritarian style of government, which is unofficially run by the army. Despite Turkey's membership in NATO, and close ties to Israel and the Pentagon, the European Union has stood on principle in the matter, as it should. But it is not for nothing that those European officers cite Turkey's occupation of Cyprus, and treatment of its Kurdish minority at home, as evidence that the Turkish army is not quite ready for prime time in Kabul.

This is one instance where the Bush administration could make a genuine difference. In the midst of the war against terrorism, and the Israeli-Palestinian explosion, Cyprus is not high on the list of priorities in Washington. But if American policymakers are determined to orient Turkey toward the West, substantial progress could be made if Washington put pressure on Ankara to do the right thing in Cyprus. If Turkey wants to be part of Europe, it has to adhere to European standards of national behavior. That applies to keeping the peace in neighboring Afghanistan, ending the tragic division of an independent Cyprus -- and who knows? even facing the truth about the Armenian genocide.

Mr. Terzian, who is capable of writing some insightful columns, here pens a risible one. The idea that it is important to either Turkey's future or ours for it to become a member of the godawful EU is just ridiculous. Like the chicken that races around a barnyard even after its head has been chopped off, Europe still appears to have some life in it, but it's actually in its death throes. Individually the nations of Europe face a series of fatal difficulties ranging from their post-Christian morality to their declining birth rates to their increasing dependence on non-European menial laborers to their unsupportable social welfare systems. The future of Europe seems likely to consist of economic and moral decline and race war. Rather than address these problems they have instead moved towards European Union which will do little more than impose an additional layer of authoritarian bureaucracy on nations that are already on a collision course with collapse.

On the positive side, Europe ceased to matter during the 20th Century as its populations fell prey to the most dangerous aspect of democracy, the ability of a majority of voters to slather ever greater government benefits upon themselves while decreasing their own responsibilities. As predicted by philosophers from de Tocqueville to Ortega y Gasset this tyranny of the majority or revolt of the masses has destroyed the cultures that have succumbed. Thankfully, with their hollow militaries and their diminishing stocks of young people, the Europeans are less and less significant geopolitical players, so we can stand aside as the continent collapses in upon itself.

Turkey, on the other hand, is a vital strategic interest of the United States for several reasons. First, along with several other newly important allies--Israel, Russia, and India--it helps to form a ring of powerfully fortified states surrounding the Arab world. If, as seems ever more likely, Islam and the West (in which it is no longer necessary nor appropriate to include Europe) are headed for full scale conflict, these countries will be far more important and are already far more reliable than the formerly Great Powers of Europe. Second, Turkey represents the most hopeful experiment currently underway in the progress of an Islamofascist state towards liberal capitalist democracy. While it is true that it was a military leader (Attaturk) who imposed Western ideas upon the nation and that the military has had to intervene periodically to depose certain governments that it felt had gone astray, Turkey nonetheless has struggled valiantly to maintain democracy or something resembling it. It serves as both an example of what kind of society the dictatorships of the Middle East could evolve towards and a reminder of how difficult that process will be.

It's actually quite appalling of Mr. Terzian to say that Turkey has failed to meet European standards in the past. Turkey's government is at least as stable as Italy's. Its treatment of the Kurds no worse than Britain's historic treatment of the Irish, Spain's treatment of the Basques, or our own treatment of the Native Americans. Observers more savvy than I (a number which is admittedly legion) have debunked many of the claims about the "Armenian genocide" but even if all of the most extravagant claims are true, has Turkey been less willing to face the truth as regards the Armenians than has France been willing to face the truth of its collaboration with Hitler and its cooperation in the genocide of its Jewish population? Turkey deserves our friendship and assistance, perhaps even membership in NAFTA would be appropriate, not diktats about how it should be more like Germany or France or even us.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 12, 2002 9:48 AM