By Mathilde Bonnassieux Le Nouvel Observateur
Tuesday 04 2005
Interview with Michel Bozdémir, Professor of Turkish language and civilization at Inalco, and author of La marche turque vers l'Europe [The Turkish March toward Europe] (Karthala, 2004).
When the first association agreement between Turkey and the European Economic Community was signed in 1963 - which included the possibility of future adhesion - did Member States view that rapprochement favorably?
First of all, one often forgets that the idea of Turkey's integration into the Community was present from the beginning in the minds of the Founding Fathers, and that well before 1963. At the time, adhesion in the strictest sense of the term, that is to say, political adhesion and not just adhesion within the framework of a liberal market, was envisioned. It was only later that the perspective of its integration into the Common Market came to mind. In 1963, there really wasn't any hesitation about Turkey's adhesion among the Member States. And that policy was not designed purely to please the Turks. For one must remember that that time - the 1960s - was a time under the sign of terror. Then Turkey constituted a strategic bulwark. It was the free world's sentinel.
Since Turkey's first attempts at rapprochement with the European Union, has France's attitude toward the question evolved?
In one sense, no, not until very recently. At the level of Heads of State and Government, there has never been opposition to Turkey's entry into Europe. It's only the perspective of the referendum on the European Constitution and of 2007 elections that has made it an issue in domestic politics. France and Germany have always been fervent supporters of Turkey's adhesion. The Cold War climate had a lot to so with that. At the time, it was, in fact, essential that Turkey take sides with the West. It was a strategic security mission of the first order. One must remember that Turkey was then a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. There, considerations of a geographic order or the idea of some incompatibility of mind - which were, nonetheless, conditions for a state's adhesion to NATO - had been put to the side. For Turkey was a vital, that is to say, a security, issue. Moreover, that argument is perhaps still valid today.
Has the question of Turkey's adhesion to the European Union always been fundamental in Turkish eyes?
Of course. For Turkey, it's been a vital project for a long time to become a member of Europe. And that, even before the advent of the Kemalist government that laid the groundwork with the objective of future adhesion. In that respect, we are at the same time at the apex of that long march and at the beginning of a great ambition that is taking off. The essential thing for Turkey has always been to be considered a nation of Europe, to break free from the oriental world, even though it remains a Muslim country. For the Turks, integration within the European Union is integration into a civilization they consider the best. The issue of the economic benefits Turkey could enjoy as a result comes afterward. But I must emphasize that in the meantime there has been a real revolution of thought. For, in the beginning, it was an elitist project, carried on by a minority of Western-trained Kemalists. Then, the project of the few became everyone's project. Today, everyone is convinced. In spite of the several disappoinments of the last few years, the project still retains the support of a strong majority in Turkey.
