Submitted by Michael d.H. (GER)(Germany), Jul 1, 2004 at 08:24
Dear Mr. Pipes,
thank you very much for your research and the opportunity to get access to many splendid articles on your website. I was astonished about the profoundness of many of your analysis, but I am irritated you recently called Turkey "the Muslim success story of our time".
Especially after 9/11, realizing that the world has a lack of functioning secular Muslim States, many Westerners have put their hopes behind Turkey. This even goes so far that certain political actors want to invite that country to become a member of the European Union. Even the president of the United States, G. W. Bush, in a speech delivered in Istanbul these days said that "Turkey belongs in the European Union".
I beg you: Please don't get blinded like President Bush. I regret to say that his speech lacked elementary knowledge of European history. When e. g. he praised Turkey for its "150 years of democratic and social reform" which makes it "a model to others" he simply disregarded the fact that the Republic of Turkey exists for less than 85 years up to now. Serious "democratic and social reforms" have only been implemented only during the very last years, due to pressure from outside, from the European Union.
To the new Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan these claims were most welcome in order to limit the influence of the Turkish army. Of course the militaries were everything else but good democrats but they stood for secularism since the 1920ies. Erdoğan's career as a Muslim fundamentalist politician was once stopped by these militaries, too. To me this charming man is (according to a German proverb) "a wolf in a sheep's fur". His daughters he sent to America to study. And why? In American universities they are allowed to wear the Islamic headscarf, in Turkish one's (still) not.
Yes, Turkey is a NATO partner and a big market. Yes, the measures into the direction of democratic reforms need to be supported. And secularism in Muslim States, too. A kind of partnership between the EU and the country at the Bosporus is desirable. But is Turkey a nation actively practicing the Western ideals of openness, democracy, emancipation, fairness and tolerance? I have strong doubts.
1. The demographic factor
Though some well-integrated people of Turkish origin are living here in Germany there is also a dark side of the moon. Districts like Kreuzberg and Wedding in Berlin or Veddel and Wilhelmsburg in Hamburg are slowly turning into Muslim-dominated slums. According to statistics more than two third of the young Turkish people "import" their marriage partners from the country of their origin – often women from highly backward Anatolia. If Turkey joins the EU, the demographic push from Turkey to Central Europe will unequivocally increase. These days I saw statistics telling that from around 2050 – if no measures are taken very soon – there will be more Muslim population in Germany than ethnic Germans.
2. The EU – already overloaded now
The EU recently got ten new members. Until now European politicians have not been able to come to an agreement on how to make decisions within the EU, let alone how to finance the deal. Since Spain joined the European Community in 1981, it received about 100 Billion Euro in order to develop the country. The Eastern Europe Institute in Munich recently published an expertise on the costs of a possible accession of Turkey to the EU. According to "Spanish standards" it would demand 14 Billion Euro (around 19 Billion $) per year to bring the Turkish economy in harmony with the EU! Considering the costs for the economical development of the ten new EU members: Who can pay for that?
3. Human rights
Last week the European Council published a report on Turkey. Although it found positive words on developments in Turkey during the last two years, the country is still far away from Western standards concerning human rights: There still exists a lot of domestic violence against women (many of them can't claim their formal rights because they are illiterate), Turks cannot take part in elections from abroad, the activities of political parties and NGOs are limited, corruption is still a serious problem, torture in Turkish police stations has not ceased and minorities (e. g. the Kurds in the East) are still under pressure.
Sorry, but I do not see ONE Muslim society world-wide that up to now meets with Western democratic standards. If Turkey joins the EU and the experiment of a "Muslim democracy" (sounds as funny as "dry water") fails, the rest of Europe will have to pay dearly for it.
Best regards,
Michael d.H., Hamburg, Germany
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