CENGIZ AKTAR interviewed by AZZURRA MERINGOLO
Turkish political scientist Cengiz Aktar PHOTO/Wikipedia
He was one the first people to sign a petition protesting the Turkish government’s military operations against Kurdish areas in his country at the beginning of this year. Not even the attempted coup d’état of July 15th, which was neutralized by the government, has softened his criticism of President Racep Tayyp Erdogan. Cengiz Aktar, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, has a hard time describing his country as a democracy.
A writer and political scientist who has worked for over twenty years at the United Nations, and who has also supported the Armenian cause, Aktar has been following his country’s path towards the European Union from the beginning. “An obstacle course that has never been rewarded with membership to the Union that now, because of the authoritarian regression taking place in the country, seems even farther away,” he told Reset, at the Festival Internazionale. “It is absurd to think that just when Turkey is more distant than ever from European democratic parameters, Brussels is more sensitive than ever to its needs. And yet that’s the way it is. Ankara appears to be dictating conditions to you Europeans. It asked for three billion euro to accommodate refugees turned back from Greece, the resumption of negotiations for Turkey’s membership of the European Union, the EU, and the suspension of visa obligations in the Schengen area for 78 million Turks. You Europeans, led by the Commission, relented. For you the refugee crisis is the priority. Everything else, especially the violation of fundamental freedoms in a future state of the Union, is secondary.”
You have been interested in relations between Europe and Turkey for years. Do you fear the gap is widening?
Let’s start from the beginning.
Before the start of the integration process with the EU that never took off, I have always classified specialists on Turkey into two groups. On the one hand there are those who regard Turkey with hostility and on the other there are those who are sympathetic. Until 1999 I observed a lack of empathy. Europe has never been empathetic towards us and our country’s issues were frequently treated superficially. Something changed with the start of the integration process. While observing those who came to visit from European think tanks, from the print media and the universities, I began to seen something new. What was growing was not only curiosity, but a European thirst for a deeper understanding of our country. This scenario was truly stimulating. New Turkey specialists were sprouting up everywhere, with varying degrees of knowledge of the issues. But this at the time was not important. The significant thing was the explosion of this interest, also because this was not an end in and of itself. It was directed towards understanding how Europe should behave with Turkey and, more in general, with the Middle East. This was a really fascinating period, but unfortunately it has run its course. It’s over. I’ll give you an example. At the beginning of the century, when Ankara undertook the path towards the European Union, the major European, North American and Japanese publications were becoming so interested in Turkish affairs that they moved their offices here, opening offices that they are now closing fast and furiously. Over the past few years this dream has been fading. More and more are packing their bags, especially in the last few months. We are progressively distancing ourselves. Our people are doing this more than our governments.
Among the various issues of friction between Brussels and Ankara is the liberalization of Schengen visas for Turkish citizens. Why is this so thorny?
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