Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Europe is turning away from Turkey – and the rest of the world (Orhan Pamuk)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/26/europe-turning-away-turkey-world
 
 
Europe is turning away from Turkey – and the rest of the world
 
Whatever happened to liberté, égalité, fraternité? Fear of Muslims is 
putting Europe's secular tradition at risk
 
Orhan Pamuk
The Guardian, Friday 26 October 2012 21.00 BST
 
I have spent my entire life at the borders of continental Europe. From 
the window of my home or office, I've looked out over the Bosphorus to 
see Asia on the other side; and so, in thinking about Europe and 
modernity, I have always felt, like the rest of the world, just a little 
bit provincial.
 
Like the many millions who live outside the west, I have had to 
understand my own identity while observing Europe from afar, and so, in 
the process of working out my identity, I've often wondered what Europe 
could represent for me and for us all. This is an experience I share 
with the majority of the world's population, but because Istanbul, my 
city, is situated just where Europe begins – or maybe where Europe ends 
– my thoughts and my resentments have been a little more pressing and 
constant.
 
I come from one of the many upper-middle-class Istanbul families who 
wholeheartedly embraced the westernising, secularising reforms 
introduced in the 1920s and 30s by Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish 
republic. For us, Europe was more than somewhere we could go to find a 
job, a place to trade with, or whose investors we could seek to attract: 
it was primarily a beacon of civilisation.
 
At this point I should highlight an important fact: historically, Turkey 
was never colonised by any western power, never oppressed by European 
imperialism. This allowed us later to nurture more freely our dreams of 
European-style westernisation, without dredging up too many bad memories 
or guilty feelings.
 
Seven years ago I used to try to persuade audiences how wonderful it 
would be for us all if Turkey were to join the EU. Back in October 2005, 
relations between Turkey and the EU had reached their peak. Turkish 
public opinion and most of the press seemed happy that talks between the 
EU and Turkey had officially begun. Some Turkish newspapers speculated 
optimistically that things might move very quickly indeed, that Turkey 
might enjoy full membership of the EU by 2014. Other papers wrote 
fairytale accounts of the privileges Turkish citizens would finally gain 
once full membership was secured. Most importantly, investments would be 
made and untold treasures would find their way to Turkey from the EU's 
various funds so that, like the Greeks, we too would collectively take a 
step up the social ladder and be able to live as comfortably as other 
Europeans.
 
At the same time, the European chorus of conservative, nationalist 
protest against Turkey's possible entry into the union was growing 
increasingly vocal, especially in Germany and France. I found myself 
caught in this debate, and began to ask myself (and others too) about 
what Europe really means. If religion marks the boundaries of Europe, I 
thought, then Europe is a Christian civilisation – in which case Turkey, 
whose population is 99% Muslim, may be geographically European, but has 
no place in the EU.
 
But would Europeans be satisfied with such a narrow definition of their 
continent? After all, it is not Christianity that has turned Europe into 
an example for people living in the non-western world, but rather a 
series of social and economic transformations, and the ideas that these 
have generated throughout the years. This intangible force that has made 
Europe such a magnet for the rest of the world over the past two 
centuries is, to put it simply, modernity. As our trusted history books 
have taught us, modernity is the product of such quintessentially 
European developments as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the French 
Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Crucially, the forces behind 
these paradigm shifts were not religious, but secular.
 
A few years ago, whenever the topic of the EU came up for discussion, I 
used to say that Turkey should join the EU provided it could respect the 
principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. "But does Turkey respect 
these principles?" people would rightly ask me – and so the debate would 
resume. When I look back at those days now, I can't help feeling 
nostalgic about how passionately we debated – both in Turkey and in 
Europe – the values that Europe should stand for.
 
Nowadays, as Europe struggles with the euro crisis, and EU expansion has 
slowed down, very few of us still bother to think and talk about these 
issues. And unfortunately, the positive interest surrounding Turkey's 
possible future membership has also waned. This is partly because 
freedom of thought remains regrettably underdeveloped in Turkey. But the 
biggest reason is undoubtedly the large influx of Muslim migrants from 
north Africa and Asia into Europe that, in the eyes of many Europeans, 
has cast a dark shadow of doubt and fear over the idea of a 
predominantly Muslim country joining the union.
 
It is clear that this fear is leading Europe to put up walls at its 
borders, and to gradually turn away from the world. As the slogan of 
liberté, égalité, fraternité is slowly forgotten, Europe will sadly turn 
into an increasingly conservative place dominated by religious and 
ethnic identities.
-- 
Namib
--
I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never 
again found the Rue d'Auseil (HPL)

 ethnic identities.
 
Questo e' vero, ma lo e' appunto anche della Turchia.
 
Pamuk sta facendo una... PROIEZIA!
 
Am.