This was one of my favourite educational days so far.
Our first speaker was Amanda Paul. She's a journalist that currently works for Today's Zaman, a Turkish Newspaper and The European Policy Centre--the think tank that was presenting to us.
Along with Amanda Paul, who was our main speaker, Shada Islam (who I think I recognized from CTV who sometimes uses BBC news clips) also gave her two cents every once in a while.
Our topic for this meeting was Turkey and the EU. This is an interesting topic for me as I wrote my paper for my History of the EU class on whether Turkey will be able to enter the EU. My thesis essentially claimed that because of rising right wing, anti-Islam, and racist sentiment, Turkey will never be welcomed into the EU, especially when countries like France, the Netherlands, and Austria are fervently against its accession.
In order to acceed to the EU, there are certain criteria that need to be met along the lines of democracy, rule of law, human rights, and economy. Turkey doesn't yet meet all of the criteria along those lines and still has a way to go with constitutional reform in order to have a freer deomcracy that comes with less military intervention and free press. They also have some human rights violations that need to be dealt with regarding minority rights of Kurds and Alevi people living within the country.
One of the main blockers that we talked about was Cyprus. Cyprus, which is divided into the Turkish North and Greek South. Turkey and Greece are so passionate about their own people and their right to self-determination that they will not budge on the issue of support. Because The Republic of Cyprus (Greek) is a member of the EU, Turkey cannot become a member until it resolves its dispute with the state because of the "Good Neighbour" clause in EU treaties.
Because of this dispute, Greece has actually blocked the commencement of certain negotiations (every decision at the higher levels of the EU need be made by consensus).
The three main arguements that people make against the accession of Turkey (aside from the Cyprus dispute) are as follows:
- Turkey is too populous and would overwhelm the Union. (Turkey's population measures 90 million people)
- Turkey is too Muslim (but apparently Albania and Bosnia which have Islam as the national religion are allowed to be considered for candidacy even though Turkey's constitution is vehemently secular)
- Turkey is too Poor (even though its the 15th largest economy and came out of the last recession in a stronger position that the EU)
These excuses (except maybe the first one, but why is that such a big deal?) are all bogus according to Amanda Paul and the EPC.
Politically, Turkey's admission to the EU has its plusses and minuses. It's good relations with many Middle Eastern countries is a plus, but its poor relations with the Caucasus countries (Armenia in particular) is detrimental, especially given the European dependance on Russian natural gas pipelines that run through those countries.
This talk took a lot of turns and we more than expired our time with them, exploring facets of Turkish-EU relations, EU-Asia relations, Turkish-Canadian relations and international relations in general. Shada Islam was very insightful with regards to the Canadian perspective of Turkish-EU relations and was one of the most entertaining speakers we've seen so far.
I'm also reading a book right now called The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman. This book explores the possibility of Turkey becoming a major regional player in the future, which I agree with given its economic, geographical and geopolitical position on the world stage. Turkey has poor relations with very few countries, is the EU's largest trading partner (if I recall correctly), and has a booming economy, even after the financial crisis. Turkey will be a country to watch.
Personally, I don't think it will become a member of the EU because it already has trade agreements with the EU. And if it does become a member, the design of its membership will look very similar to Britain's membership--with opt out clauses to maintain a certain degree of autonomy.
I could go on about Turkey forever. To continue more Turkish debate, post a comment below and I'll try to reply :)
Our last presenters of the day were Romani People from the Open Society Institute. Martin Domarowski (A Macedonian-Romani) and Violeta Naydenova (A Romanian-Romani) were great at letting us catch a glimpse of the institutional and societal framework that systematically persecutes the Roma across Europe.
They shared with us a history of the Roma, who were a people who left the Punjab area of northern India and settled between there and Spain, and eventually travelling to the Americas. Because of this great migration (of which there is no discerable timeline) the Romani (commonly and rudely known as Gypsies) are often depicted as wandering caravans. To a certain extent, the Romani maintain that migratory status because of the persecution they face in all countries.
Violeta shared a story with us about going to a regular school (many Romani are put in schools that are either separate or are for the mentally-disabled--this happens today across the European Union) and telling her friends that she was a Roma. After this, her "friends" excommunicated her from many school functions. She was teased, threatened and discriminated against in as many ways as you could possibly fathom. When she reached university (not a common occurance for the Roma because of the poor education they are given in seperate schools), Violeta concealed her identity for 3 years.
I found this story very interesting. As a homosexual, I can relate to the fear of revealing your identity. Even now, when I meet a new group of people, I have to put out feelers to see whether or not my sexual orientation will be shrugged off as a non-issue or whether I'll recieve sketched-out sideways glances. This presentation hit home for a number of reasons.
While I've come to terms with my sexuality and I am comfortable and proud of it, I have many friends who are much more conservative about that aspect of their life. For me, talking about my boyfriend is just making good conversation. For them, it's viewed as social suicide or the gateway to potential physical harm.
Being gay is something that can (sometimes) be easily concealed. Being Roma is also very similar. Violeta's skin and facial structure looked very similar to my Romanian Don that I had when I first transfered to Huron College. But Martin was darker skinned and, to me, looked ethnically Roma.
The Roma within the EU is an interesting subject because not much has been done about it. There is no education about the Roma, no recognition of them as a stateless people or a minority within the EU.
But there are some success stories out there: some universities have introduced quotas that send them looking for Roma students, encouraging higher education among the isolated Roma communities. Violeta is a member of one such success story.
Another aspect that we explored involved the similarities between the First Nations of Canada and the Roma. My classmate, Adam Fearnall, worked with Natives this past year and has an interesting take on this matter. You can check out his blog post on this talk here.\
There was something important that I pulled from this talk: the Roma are no different that you or I. The only difference is opportunity. They rarely have any.
All in all, this day was very politically stimulating and provided great insight into two of the issues with the EU: Turkey and the Roma.
I hope to continue following both of these issues after I get home.
There--another post done! Woohoo! only 5 days behind now!
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