Talking Turkey: EU's Eurasian Elusive Eagle

Dec 11, 2011
Rick Stelnick

Turkey & EU - Zinda

The Republic of Turkey may be a Muslim-majority nation, but unlike other Islamic countries, the USA, not the EU, can bank on an old and trusted ally.

While the Russian Federation’s 59-year-old Prime Minster is dealing with yet another identity crisis, the Republic of Turkey’s 57-year-old Prime Minister has a much easier decision to make about the direction his nation should take. Unlike Russia’s Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who is coming to grips with the fact his previous popularity “with the peoples of all Russia” has plummeted, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan suddenly finds himself enviably positioned to make the correct call concerning his country’s accession to and enrollment in the European Union.

Cutting The Donkey’s Tail

A half decade ago, during one of my half dozen trips to Turkey, I had in-depth, detailed discussions, in both Ankara, the official capital, and Istanbul, the traditional capital of the former Ottoman Empire, with Mustafa Tanyeri, Chief Operating Officer of Kobika SME Development Agency about the thorny topic of Turkey’s membership in the EU. My month-long visit included meetings with M. Zeki Sayin, Chairman of Ziraat Bankasi [Turkey’s state bank], Berrin Bingol, Deputy Director General, Under-Secretariat of the Republic of Turkey’s Treasury Department, Tuncer Ogun, Secretary General, Turkish Republic Prime Ministry, Under-Secretariat for Foreign Trade and Usame Yalcin, the Operations Manager of the United Nations Development Programme.

The discussions dealt with Turkish thoughts as regards Erdogan’s Justice and Development [AK] Party’s negotiations for Turkey's accession to the European Union. Even then the sentiments were that the EU needed their country and not that their nation needed the EU. To Europeans and North Americans such a stance might seem self-defeating, but therein lies the rub, because simply put, quite frankly and in short, Turkey is a self-sufficient state, with the exception being oil, that it must buy from a Middle East which cannot be certain where it, as a Muslim-majority land, truly stands due to its relationship with the U.S., as a result, gas prices in Turkey for its 76 million people are higher than those throughout North America.

Whirling Dervish

Turks are fond of saying they honor their heritage by their hospitality. In other words, as hosts they treat every visitor as an honored guest. This is noticeably true in Istanbul [or Constantinople as it was called until the 20th century] that is the only conurbation in the world that is situated on two continents [Asia and Europe]. What else is evident in Istanbul is how much it resembles North American major cities demographically, age-wise, with denizens within the 15–64 years old range constituting exactly the same 67 percent of the populace. This in and of itself is a very important factor for not only the present but the future as well with a vigorous virtual counterculture of citizens calling for the transformation of Turkish traditions [for example, the headscarf controversy]. Yet another excellent example is the reform movement of working-age Turks to Germany where today Turkish workers represent five percent [and rising] of the total German workforce.

Turkey’s relationship with Germany is both interesting and intriguing; and possibly, if not probably, requiring a piece to be penned pertaining to it in particular. However, it will suffice to say that one only has to take a look back to Turkey’s words and actions during World War II to get a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. For example, for the majority of the war, Turkey was neutral, up until February of 1945 which was then when it finally declared war on Nazi Germany. However, it did so only in order to become a charter member of the United Nations. What is less publicized was the economic side of its neutrality, which became its biggest bargaining chip to boot. Turkey boosted its financial fortunes by war profiteering, including war-time trade with Germany, receiving Nazi-looted gold in return, but Turkey’s real claim to fame was that it had held back chromite from Hitler’s rocketry, a precursor to weapons of mass destruction, that turned the tide in favor of the Allies.

Merhaba, Baby!

In April of 2009, during a photo opportunity in Istanbul, an enthusiastic U.S. President Barack Obama exclaimed “hello” to the youthful face of modern Turkey and the excited young Turks reciprocated with a heartfelt Turkish “hi” in kind. At that moment, those in the know, within the admiring audience, could not help but marvel at the warm reception Obama received and visualize what it was like when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, made appearances before adoring crowds over a century earlier. After all, the Father of the Turks, Turkey’s first President, was the one responsible for radically reforming the former Ottoman Empire and revivifying it as a republic.

Obama’s town-hall-like meeting in the ancient armory, Tophane-I-Amire, perched on a hilltop over-looking the Bosphorus, the strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, was a much needed gesture to Turkey’s younger generation, which is representative of the fact that in most of the Muslim world the majority of the population is less than 30 years old. He, of course, mentioned his own link to Islam through his Muslim family members. He took the time for their questions and answered them in detail, appearing well aware that his audience was not only those present but also many more listening and watching via television. When asked about world peace, Obama smiled and said:

“It will require young people like you never to stereotype; assume the worse about other people. Learning to stand in someone else's shoes to see through their eyes, that's how peace begins, and it's up to you to make that happen”.

Turkish Delight

With the Arab Awakening or Arab Spring shaking things up in the twenty two Arabic-speaking states and Europe shaken by a spiraling credit crisis, Turkey is staring intently eastward as many new opportunities for success now exist in the east instead of the west. Erol Yarar, a well-liked leader of approximately 20,000 conservative businessmen that have aligned themselves with the prime minister’s administration in Ankara, states:

“Prime Minister Erdogan wanted to be the first conservative Muslim leader who would bring Turkey to the West, but after Europe betrayed him, he abandoned those ambitions…today, the EU has absolutely no influence over Turkey, and most Turks are asking themselves, ‘Why should we be part of such a mess?’…It may take 10 years, but the Arab Spring will make [Middle Eastern] markets even more attractive”.

Turks remember when Turkey was relegated to being referred to as “the sick man of Europe”. Today, they are ecstatic that their economy is expected to expand at a 7.5 percent rate per year while it is Europe which is extremely ill now, causing Turkey’s Economic Minister, Zafer Caglayan, to remark:

“Those who called us ‘sick’ in the past are now ‘sick’ themselves…May God grant them recovery”.

Even western analysts admit Europe needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Europe, an observation that is more obvious each day as public opinion surveys by the German Marshall Fund seem to show. For example, in 2006, 70 percent of Turks saw EU membership as a good thing then, but now five years later, only 30 percent still feel that way. Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s European Union Minister, simply says:

“Hold on, Europe…Turkey is coming to the rescue”.

A Lira For Your Thoughts

Observers and officials in both Turkey and the United States claim Erdogan and Obama are very close and cite their cooperation, without European envelopment, in the sanctions against Syria as evidence of the certainty and concreteness of their connection.

This is good news for Americans and Turks in general, however, for those like Ferit Orhan Pamuk, the first Turkish recipient of the Nobel Prize [Literature 2006] and Turkey’s all-time, best-selling author, who experienced enough harassment in his homeland for “insulting Turkishness” that he now teaches in the United States at Columbia University, it’s a matter of wait and see if human rights in Turkey are ever held in the same high regard that Turkish heritage and hospitality are so honored.

An Ace In The Hole [In The Ground]

Russia, Turkey and the United States together have the largest percentage of boron mines on the planet. In terms of total world reserves estimated to be 853 million tons on the basis of B2O3 content, Turkey’s share is 63 percent, or 537 million tons. Taking boron’s inestimable value within the nanotech industry into account, Turkey’s economic future is seemingly secure and self-sustaining.

Products such as Bor Brick ® building materials, Bor Power ® oil additives and Elemental Boron ® for electronics, energy, environment, fuel locum, metallurgy, microchips, silicon surrogate, solar cells, etc. have the potential to propel Turkey to the top tier of tomorrow’s technology-driven global economies.