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| Europe |
| Turkey and the Problem of History |
| 2004-10-25 |
| Michael J. Totten writing at TCS, EFL:The European Commission recently approved membership talks between the European Union and Turkey. It was a top-down decision. E.U. citizens overwhelmingly oppose the idea of Turkey joining their union. They fear Princeton historian Bernard Lewis may be right when he says that based on demographic trends Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century. But there's something else, too. Something that's left unsaid, perhaps even unformed in thought, but there like a chill up your spine when you think you feel someone's eyes on the back of your neck. Turkey is outside the E.U.'s post-modern End-of-History paradise. Its absorption would push the border of the European Union beyond the continent of Europe itself and deep inside the unofficial "nation" of Kurdistan. Europe wouldn't begin at the former front line of the Cold War. It would begin at the active front line of the Terror War right next to two states, Syria and Iraq, that are not only mired in History but also in Baath Party totalitarianism and Islamist jihad. Robert Kagan's groundbreaking book Of Paradise and Power brilliantly contrasts the different views of power held by Europeans and Americans. The United States and Europe, he says, have sharply diverging ideas about the role of diplomacy and the use of military force due to the stark differences in historical experience accumulated over the past century. Europe has never had it so good. After the meat-grinding horror of World War I and the defeat of the Axis Powers in World War II, the United States provided a protective security umbrella over Western Europe, under NATO auspices, permitting Europeans to build multilateralist institutions and lavish welfare states. And now, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire on the West's eastern border, Europeans feel they have entered a settled post-historic era where nations can settle differences through diplomacy and the merger of formerly separate bureaucracies. War is seen as an anachronism from Europe's monarchical, imperial, and machtpolitik past. We Americans, on the other hand, have never felt more threatened. The attack on September 11, 2001, was the worst ever on our own soil. History is far from over for us. Neither Nazi Germany nor the Soviet Union ever struck such a blow against us at home. And because we are militarily powerful we are far more willing to use force than Europeans. Kagan quotes one European critic of America's policy who says "When you have a hammer, all problems start to look like nails." This is certainly true. Kagan's response: "When you don't have a hammer, you don't want anything to look like a nail." From Europe's perspective, that's the problem with Turkey. It's a nail. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 Turkey became a non-European country in the 16th century and developed thereafter a history of oppressing non-Moslems (e.g. Christians) and trying to invade the Balkans and the rest of Europe. Further, it has strictly no connection to the Enlightenment. Why would they be welcome in the European Union? what is it that makes Europe distinct from Africa and Asia, apart from geographical boundaries? The Turkish problem is that there are millions of Turks in Germany and the European elites don't know how to either get rid of them or make them adopt local, European customs (meaning principally to get them to give up Islam). |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-25 7:39:11 PM |
| #3 Good article. |
| Posted by: RJB in JC MO 2004-10-25 6:04:06 PM |
| #2 Turkey is outside the E.U.'s post-modern End-of-History paradise ROFLMAO! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-10-25 6:03:56 PM |
| #1 If I had a hammer I'd hammer in the morning I'd hammer in the evening ... all over Euristan, I'd hammer out danger I'd hammer out a warning I'd hammer out Islam from all my brothers and my sisters All over this land. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. But I don't. So I'll lead them on like fools... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-10-25 4:38:18 PM |