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European Union and Turkey after the War on Iraq I will always remember the first time we arrived at the American Embassy in Athens. It was like visiting a high security portion of the well-known prison in Attica, New York. We were searched at three successive iron-bar gates, terminating at the memorial hall where the names of Americans fallen in defense of their country were listed in bronze, standing high in the land of Aristotle and Socrates. I was more in shock a week later when I read the headlines in the newspapers that reported the murder of British military attaché by two men on a motorcycle that pulled up alongside the attaché’s car during rush hour in Athens. Papers were claiming the killing was by the "November 17" terrorist group. It was also reported that this method of execution by two motorcycles was originally used on Christmas Eve of 1975 for the assassination of Richard Welch, an American stationed in Greece as CIA station chief. During the U.S. Embassy reception in Athens, I asked ambassador Burns, if Greece were to submit a membership application to European Union (EU) in year 2000, what would have been the outcome. His answer was, "they would have faced many difficulties." The emergence of the "November 17" group in Greece as a terrorist organization started immediately after the arrests of student protesting at Athens’s Polytechnic University on November 17, 1973. The use of tanks against the student uprising was ordered by the military Junta governing the country at that time (1967-1974). The ongoing American support and aid to the Junta from the Nixon administration was resented deeply by younger groups and created long lasting anti-Americanism in Greece. Andreas Papandreou’s arrival as prime minister in 1981 paved the way to establish a national populist front publicly showing the resentment against the west and the United States. He threatened America by embracing Qaddafi and other terrorists of the time. In the male-oriented society, he became a national hero while having an affair with an Olympic airline hostess less than half his age, publicly disgracing his wife of thirty-seven years. In November 1983, a U.S. naval officer in Athens was murdered, which coincided with the tenth anniversary of the November 17 uprising. Four months later in March 1984, a gunman murdered British Embassy officer Kenneth Whitney on a busy street in Athens in broad daylight. Two months later, a string of assassinations of anti-Qaddafi Libyan dissidents continued, followed by PLO activities and their killings. Greece became a center for setting up front organizations for terrorist’s weapon movements throughout the Mediterranean Sea. In June 1985, two Arab terrorists hijacked a TWA jetliner from Athens airport to Beirut, and four months later an Arab gunman hijacked an Egypt-Air jet from Athens to Malta. In 1986 alone, more than twenty bombings occurred in Athens. In June 1988, the U.S. Military Attaché William Nordeen was assassinated by a car bomb parked in front of his home. Thirteen days later Arab terrorists killed nine tourists on a Greek ferryboat City of Poros and Americans were blamed. In 1999, the world-renowned terrorist Abdullah Ocalan was found to be living in Kenya under the clandestine protection of the Greek government in the guesthouse of the Greek Embassy, which created an immediate international scandal. Earlier, when Ocalan was discharged by the Syrian government, about one hundred members of the militant group of the Greek Parliament signed a petition asking their government to grant Ocalan asylum. During the term of Andreas Papandreou as prime minister (1981-1989 and 1993-1996), highly aggressive clandestine government operations were undertaken in the form of national militancy under the blessing of the Prime Minister and the support of the Orthodox Church, his political ally, to maintain anti-Americanism alive in the Middle East and in Greece and to maintain his solidarity at home. When Papandreou came to office, he disbanded a police unit investigating the "November 17" terrorist group. Only last year, twenty years later, Greek government finally went after the group just to make the 2004 — Olympic Committee stay in Athens. This year Greece takes the presidency of the EU, and Bulgaria and Romania are candidates for 2006 membership. Interestingly, Prime Minister Karamanlis with his clever positioning placed Greece among the elite members of the European Union during its early years. He worked very hard for Greece to abolish the monarchy in 1974. Born in Turkish part of the Thrace, he had to change his citizenship when he started studying law in Athens in 1920’s. He also brought in Andreas Papandreous to Greek politics from U.C. Berkeley in 1960. In the last twenty-five years Turkey’s admission to the European Union have been repeatedly denied by the European Parliaments because of the centuries old mistrust created by the European power brokers of the last two centuries. Today the poisoned teachings of Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister of the 1920s, still lingers: The return of Greek "Megali" against the presence of Muslim Turks in Europe. This misconception can only be changed by the credible work of a grass root organization like the ATAA. There are 12 million Muslims in the European Union, including nearly 3 million Turks. So far Euro-pean Parlia-ments use double standards in dealing with their ethnic realities and the Turkish presence in Europe. Europeans do not understand the power of ethnic diversity. Although born in France, the concept of democracy in an open and civil society took roots in America hundred years earlier than its adaptation in Europe. Surprisingly Ottomans discovered the power of ethnic diversity early on, but in the long turn, they failed to survive because they ignored the practice of nation building. Total Turkish minority in European Union, when compared to the population of Scandinavian and Balkan states is significant. I urge that ATAA should plan to visit nations that have influence in EU matters and also retain Turkish minority; such as Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and maybe France. After the Iraqi War, I believe, the double standards and the hypocrisy of EU’s past, will be transparent enough to talk about openly and I am sure Washington will help us through US Embassies. Education of the minority children in Balkans are a major unresolved problem, depending how the educational rights are covered in their constitution. Romanians, during the mid 1990’s spent 3 years to write a Constitution that provide a balanced civil rights option for the minorities. Turkish minority in Romania, although less than 100,000 have two representatives in the parliament and every Turkish high school graduate is a candidate for college or university. In Bulgaria, only one out of 100 Turkish students goes to University. In Greece, Turkish high school graduates are unqualified to go to university or to take civil service jobs in the government because of their poor performance in learning the Greek language. In 1999, high court of Greece terminated the activities of the Turkish Teachers Association of the Western Thrace, claiming that constitution identified ethnic Thracians as Muslims not as Turks. Education of minorities in Greece is an outstanding human rights issue. For Turks, only option in higher education is in Turkey, and seldom have they returned home. As Turkish Americans, we can accomplish what Jewish Americans have been doing for the State of Israel globally for years: Perform soft lobbying and learn their short comings to help Turkey to enter the Union. We have a better hand to promote Turkey for EU membership than any one in the new Turkish government. The author can be reached at gursoy@pbworld.com |