The New Anatolian

OPINION

Sunday 07th of September 2008 01:40:28 AM GMT+2

Is EU sincere in helping Turkish democratization?

In 2008 Turkey will face a major struggle between those who want to transform Turkey into a genuine democratic state and those who want to return to the old authoritarian system of plunder and corruption. Will the EU help out the Turkish government or just watch the struggle?

Ilnur Cevik

14 December 2007

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ilnurcevik@yahoo.com

Turkey is going through a sensitive phase as we prepare for a major showdown in 2008 between those who want to transform the country into a truly democratic state and those who want to return to the old system of a highly centralized state that disregards the rights of the individual and is based on plunder, cronyism, favoritism, corruption and repression in the name of security.

The Justice and Development (AK) Party was brought to power by this nation in 2002 in a silent revolution simply because the people saw that the old system was not working and wanted deep rooted change. So the nation voted out all the mainstream parties and AK Party was brought to power.

Since then AK Party has been accused by those who do not want a genuine democracy to be established in Turkey as an Islamist gathering trying to create a state based on religious values. They have tried to obstruct the sweeping reforms that have been legislated in the past five years. They have failed.

They made one last attempt to stall the AK Party by putting up a fight to prevent Abdullah Gul from becoming president. That attempt was defeated by the votes of the people in the July 22 elections as the nation gave the AK Party and overwhelming majority again and presented it with a mandate to carry on the democratization and reformation process.

Thus the AK Party has started a new transformation process appointing state officials that will do the job and preparing the ground for the drafting of a new constitution.

It is clear that the forces that are against all this and want to go back to the old days will make a stand in 2008. A struggle will be inevitable but we are also certain that democracy and the desire for innovation and transformation will prevail.

What is sad is that while the European Union should rally behind the democratic forces and help them out during this tricky period we see that this is not the case.

The AK Party is left on its own to fight for the cause of democracy while some EU countries like Britain and Sweden are making a stand.

The EU has helped out Greece, Portugal and Spain as they had just emerged from totalitarian rule and faced the threat of sliding back to dictatorship. The EU actually allowed their accession despite certain deficiencies just to bolster their democracy.

Thus democracy flourished in all these three countries and the EU could be proud of its performance.

But in the case of Turkey we see a rather awkward kind of insensitivity. French President Nicholas Sarkozy is doing everything to stall Turkish accession but in the process he is helping the anti-democratic forces in Turkey. Chancellor Angela Merkel is lining up to back Sarkozy which is a great shame.

The democratic struggle for democracy in Turkey in 2008 will not only be a test for the Turkish people but also for the sincerity of the EU to uphold democratic values.

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