[Marxism] A good article from my least favorite newspaper

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Militant
Vol. 68/No. 37
October 12, 2004


French premier on Turkey:
Stop ‘river of Islam’ into Europe

BY SAM MANUEL

WASHINGTON, D.C.—“Do we really want the river of Islam to enter the 
riverbed of secularism?” French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin 
asked the European edition of the Wall Street Journal. Raffarin made 
these remarks as Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in 
Brussels September 23 for talks with European Union (EU) officials over 
Ankara’s request to join the EU.

“We are not doubting the good faith of Mr. Erdogan, but to what extent 
can today’s and tomorrow’s governments make Turkish society embrace 
Europe’s human rights values?” Raffarin said.

While Raffarin raised the specter of a majority Islamic country 
infecting the EU’s secularism, other bourgeois politicians and pundits 
in Europe have argued that membership by Ankara in the EU would allow 
Muslims to predominate against “Christendom.” Many capitalist 
politicians in France, Germany, Austria, and other EU member countries 
have expressed similar views. In the European Union, only the British 
government, working together with Washington, has been campaigning 
adamantly for Ankara’s admission. (See also “‘Old Europe’ balks at 
accepting Turkey in European Union; British, U.S. rulers campaign for 
entry” in last week’s Militant.)

The strong opposition campaign against admitting Turkey notwithstanding, 
the European Union’s enlargement commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, said 
it is likely that Turkey will be given the green light to begin talks on 
joining the EU, according to a September 23 Reuters report. Verheugen 
made the announcement following a meeting with the Turkish prime 
minister. Erdogan gave assurances that Ankara would fully meet demands 
by the EU to reform its laws to meet the EU-prescribed guidelines.

On September 25, the Turkish parliament voted to amend its penal code 
along lines demanded by the EU, dropping an earlier amendment proposed 
by a faction of the ruling party to include a law criminalizing adultery.

Following the meeting with Erdogan, Verheugen told a news conference in 
Brussels that “no outstanding obstacles remained on the table.”

Verheugen’s commission is preparing a report due October 6 on Turkey’s 
membership in the EU. If the commission makes a favorable 
recommendation, the EU parliament would vote December 17 on whether to 
accept the proposal.

Even by the best estimates, the negotiations for Turkey to enter the EU 
could take up to 10 to 15 years. Turkey’s rulers have been trying to 
join the EU for 45 years. Their efforts began in 1959, when Ankara first 
applied for membership in what was then the European Economic Community, 
the EU’s forerunner. Its population of 67 million, largely Muslim, 
roughly equals the combined total of the 10 countries admitted to the EU 
in December 2002.

French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, 
who lead the main governments in what U.S. defense secretary Donald 
Rumsfeld has called “Old Europe,” are officially in favor of Turkish 
membership in the EU. But they have been noticeably restrained in the 
face of thinly veiled anti-Muslim agitation by their subordinates 
against Turkey.

Reuters reported, for example, that French European Parliament member 
Jacques Toubon told a news conference that he opposes even beginning 
talks on Turkey’s admittance to the EU because, “to bring Turkey into 
the European Union is not consistent with our concept of the European 
project and it is not good for Europe.” Toubon joined French finance 
minister Nicolas Sarkozy and the leader of the opposition Christian 
Democratic Union in Germany in calling for a “special partnership” with 
Turkey instead of membership in the EU.

Toubon is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which is 
headed by Chirac. Reuters described Toubon as a Chirac ally. Distancing 
himself from the French president on the issue of Turkey’s admittance, 
Toubon said, “That’s him [Chirac] and this is me.”

Sarkozy is also a leader of the UMP and hopes to succeed Chirac as 
French president, said Reuters.

Sarkozy said September 27 that Ankara cannot be allowed to join the EU 
without a referendum in France on the matter. He told La Chaine Info 
television that his views were based on Turkey’s size, rather than the 
fact it is a Muslim country. “Turkey alone represents the equivalent of 
the entry of the 10 new eastern European countries combined—that’s quite 
something,” he said. “Turkey means 71 million inhabitants—looking ahead 
to 2050, it will be 100 million, and given the new voting rules in the 
constitution, it would be the country with the most votes.”

According to a recent poll published by the French daily Le Figaro, some 
56 percent of adults in France oppose admitting Turkey to the European 
Union.

Prominent politicians in Denmark, among them prime minister Anders Fogh 
Rasmussen, also threw cold water on the idea of beginning talks on 
Turkey’s membership in the EU. Rasmussen stressed that the reform 
package must not only be approved by Turkey’s parliament but “must be 
put into practice in Turkish society” before the talks could begin.

“It’s important not to go soft on the criteria right now,” added Gitte 
Seeburg, a leader of the conservative Christian Democrats in 
Netherlands, and a member of the EU parliament. While attending a North 
Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting in June in Ankara, U.S. president 
George Bush pressed for Turkey’s admittance to the EU. Chirac became 
furious in response to this remarks, accusing Bush of meddling in 
European affairs.

Turkey, a NATO member, has an army larger than any of the EU members and 
its military budget is exceeded only by Britain, France, Germany, and 
Italy. Turkey has blocked with Washington to prevent the imperialist 
governments of “Old Europe” from developing an EU military force that 
could be effective independently of U.S.-led and -dominated NATO.

The admittance of the Turkey, still a largely agricultural country, into 
the EU would also exacerbate one of the deepest conflicts within the 
European Union—the so-called Common Agricultural Policy. Under this 
policy, farm products of EU member states are subsidized. The subsidies 
primarily benefit large capitalist farmers. Big agribusiness dumps these 
cheap agricultural goods onto the markets of semicolonial countries, 
destroying the livelihoods of peasants in those countries. The ongoing 
debate over the extent and character of government farm subsidies that 
give a competitive edge to agricultural products from the strongest 
imperialist countries within the EU has led to sharp exchanges between 
London and Paris in particular. In one such clash, Chirac postponed a 
traditional end-of-the-year meeting with British prime minister Anthony 
Blair.

In 2002, the unequal application of the subsidy policy between the 
wealthy imperialist nations in the EU and the others became a stumbling 
block for 10 governments, mainly from eastern Europe, which had applied 
to join the EU but were told they would not receive the same subsidies 
as current members. They held out for a larger share and, in the end, 
accepted a package totaling $42 billion between 2004 and 2006. That 
amount was only 25 percent of what other member states are entitled to. 
Parity is not forthcoming until 2013, at best.


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