How Long Will This Farce Go On?

Vlaams Belang on Turkey and the EU

From the Vlaams Belang website, our Flemish correspondent VH has translated two refreshingly clear-eyed views of Turkey and its relations with the European Union.

The first article:

Turkey is sliding down further

At the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos, an unusually sharp incident occurred between the Israeli President Shimon Peres and the Islamist and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who accused Israel of “putting people to death.” On which Peres — who however can not be considered to belong to the more hard line politicians — defended himself by saying: “What would Turkey do if there are ten or a hundred rockets fired on Istanbul?” Erdogan walked away angrily.

In recent years the relationship between Israel and Turkey has deteriorated ever further, although they were loyal allies for a long time. The latter is not that strange as it may seem at first glance. The Turks and Arabs have been regular enemies for centuries. Before the fundamentalist AKP of Erdogan came to power, Turkey was a militant secular state that did not look towards the Middle East, but to the West. Relations with the United States and Israel were very good. In recent years, since the AKP came to power, not only the de facto alliance with Israel has been abandoned, but the entire pro-Western orientation of Turkey.

For more than eighty years the secular and western-minded Turkish elite has managed to maintain its power, thanks to the support of the army. For the last few years they have increasingly been losing their grip on events. The Islamists are becoming stronger year after year, and Islam is gradually, step by step, becoming a sort of state religion. Not officially, but in practice. Parallel to this, Turkey is focusing increasingly on the Middle East, on Iran and the countries in Central Asia where Turkish-related languages are spoken. The recent alliance between Turkey, Iran (!) And Syria is yet another sign on the wall. This is not only a bad sign for Israel. It is also a bad sign for Europe and throughout the Western world. The European Union remains blind and deaf to that dangerous trend and will continue negotiations as if nothing has happened.

The second article:
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Progress Report = Decline Report

Negotiations on Turkey’s accession to the EU should have been stopped a long time ago. A clear condition was declared from the outset that accession negotiations would be suspended if Turkey did not stick to the imposed conditions.

Turkey has trampled these conditions for many years, but the EU just lets it go. The Turks realize only too well that they need not worry. A witness to this is an article on the website of the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, in which the journalist in a satirical manner ridicules the lax attitude of the EU.

The journalist calls a spade a spade: “The term ‘progress report’ is a Brussels’ euphemism for a ‘decline-report’. The text… looks like that of a school report of a difficult student whose parents regularly donate money to the school.”

With the difficult student he obviously meant Turkey and the generous parents symbolize the EU, which in the meantime has already handed out €1.8 billion in grants to Turkey.

On the basis of this comparison, the journalist strikes one blow after the other. “Instead of saying that the boy was a bandit, the report says: ‘He has not yet made enough progress to change to a decent young man’…”

Another euphemism: instead of saying that the boy is obsessed by certain aspects of his religion and is intolerant towards his unbelieving fellow pupils, the report says: “He must learn to respect students from other beliefs.” The first equation relates without any doubt to the human rights in Turkey that are violated too often. The second concerns Islamism in Turkey, which is on the rise again, as shown by the present rule of AKP party of Prime Minister Erdogan.

Conclusion: The Turks are very well aware of their position in the negotiations, and scoff at the lack of decisiveness on the part of the EU. How long will this farce go on?