Anti-Turkey sentiment in Europe during the referendum process.

• Author: Inat, Kemal
• Position: COMMENTARY - Essay

ABSTRACT In each era, relations with Europe have constituted one of the most significant areas of Turkish foreign policy. The commentary addresses the interventions into Turkish politics, and the manipulations of different factions in Europe during the process of constitutional referendum held in Turkey on April 16, 2017. The commentary presents the lack of respect for reciprocal sovereignty by examining the policies of ultra left, ultra right and center politicians relating to Turkey during the referendum process.

Introduction

Recently, the relationships between Turkey and the European Union (EU), and Turkey and some of the European countries have been affected by a number of serious problems. Some developments before and immediately after the April 16, 2017 referendum in Turkey amplified these problems even more. While some European countries' attitudes, which implied direct interference in Turkish internal affairs, caused major dismay in Ankara, Turkey's harsh reactions extended the adversity in Europe against the AK Party and Erdogan. Some circles in Europe that oppose the constitutional change in Turkey took a stance to prevent this change from taking place, and interfered with the ruling party politicians' propaganda activities for Turkish constituents living in European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.

In terms of the general principles of international law and intergovernmental relationships, this level of interference in the internal affairs of an independent country, along with explicit objection to the reforms that the independent country aims to realize in its administration, and hindering access to constituents living abroad point to a clear violation. In this case, it is necessary to grasp why some countries of the European Union take this interventionist stance and seek to prevent Turkish politicians from meeting the voters who live abroad for "Yes" campaigns, while openly supporting the "No" campaign themselves. The reasons why Turkey reacted critically to the EU, and the serious damage to the Ankara-Brussels relationships in the aftermath of this reaction are closely related to the negative stance taken by some European circles during the referendum.

This commentary examines Europe's conduct during the referendum and addresses the differences of opinion among the relevant actors and their interactions. In this framework, the commentary refers to the discourse and activities of leading politicians in European countries and the EU. It is apparent that all the actors mentioned in the article take it for granted that they can interfere with Turkish politics, and that they tend to approach the issue of Turkey as one of the fundamental concerns of European politics. Therefore, presenting how the interventionist policies of these European actors toward Turkey are regarded in Ankara will be productive in an accurate analysis of the progress of these policies and their effects on Turkey-EU relations.

Turkey's Reactions against EU Intrusiveness

There are three problems that soured Turkey's relations with Europe. As expressed by the Former European Commissioner for Enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, the first of these problems is related to the fact that the discourse and policies of the center-right parties, led by Merkel and Sarkozy in Germany and France respectively after the second half of the 2000s, that centered on opposing Turkey's EU membership, eroded the prior enthusiasm for EU membership felt by Ankara. (1) Intrusions from Brussels are now regarded as a superfluous burden in Turkey, which lost its membership motivation due to the oppositional positions of Germany and France, the two leader countries of the EU. Put another way, the right given to the EU in the framework of the Copenhagen Criteria to decide when a candidate country has met the required reform processes has become increasingly problematic in Turkey, where membership enthusiasm has been eroded. The AK Party administration, which had succeeded in the realization of highly important reforms on the way to EU membership between 2002 and 2005 with the encouragement of the Schroder government in Germany, and had responded positively to the criticisms and suggestions of EU during that period, started to take a dim view of these criticisms during the Merkel administration which categorically objected to Turkey's EU membership.

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Another reason why Turkey felt increasingly negative toward the criticisms and suggestions of the EU is related to the biases in the policies of European countries in terms of promoting democracy. The policies followed by the EU, which continuously purport to indoctrinate Ankara in developing democracy, have created serious questions in Ankara as to whether Brussels and other European capitals really want democracy for Turkey, especially after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt and the April 16, 2017 referendum. The fact that most of European countries, which already had a bad track record concerning their non-democratic attitudes during the coups in Algeria 1992, Turkey in 1997, and Egypt in 2013, stayed silent about the military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 undertaken by military officers affiliated with FETO, and even made statements which created the impression that they desired the putschists to be successful, has ruled out the existence of any moral legitimacy behind the suggestions and criticisms made by the EU regarding Turkey. The criticisms made by European leaders regarding the post-coup judiciary and governmental investigations held in Turkey were not found to be in good faith due to the delayed support they provided to Ankara against the coup.

The third reason why the criticisms from Brussels and other European capitals were not perceived positively is related to serious differences of opinion regarding the terror issue, and the dismay Turkey feels about the impassive attitudes of the EU towards its struggles against terrorism. Turkey has been subjected to intense attacks of terrorist organizations such as the PKK, FETO and ISIS over the last two years and has lost many citizens during these attacks; as such, it expects cooperation and support from the European countries, many of which are NATO allies. The fact that the EU, which has been unwilling to support Turkey's fight against terrorism, laid down the condition that Turkey makes changes to its counter-terrorism legislation in return for the stipulated visa exemption accepted in an agreement in March generated major discomfort in Ankara. In the meantime, Turkey, striving to fend off the coup attempt by FETO on one hand and extensive attacks from the PKK and ISIS on the other, regarded these demands from Brussels as malevolent. Ankara has always complained about the fact that although the PKK is defined as a terrorist organization by the EU, the organization is able to find grounds for independent activity in Europe and it is even able to engage in politics in the European Parliament and in the parliaments of member countries under the umbrella of marginal left parties. The fact that European countries that have not taken Turkey's complaints and demands about the PKK into consideration are also not willing to provide the expected support in regards to FETO, another terrorist organization which is at least as dangerous as the PKK in terms of Turkish security, has increased the disquiet in Ankara. The criticisms among European circles about the state of emergency declared in Turkey following the coup attempt are regarded as a form of interference intended to weaken Turkey's fight against FETO, PKK and ISIS terror. Reproaches against Turkey in this matter are not regarded to be in good faith since France, which is facing a much smaller terror threat in scope in comparison to Turkey, has declared a state of emergency for a longer period.

Briefly, the EU has lost its "right of influence" over Turkey by withholding the support expected by Turkey, which is under a heavy terrorist threat, by refusing to cooperate with Ankara in the face of the harshest attack against democracy in Turkey as experienced in the July 15 coup attempt, and holding out on Turkey's EU membership. While the support of the Turkish public for the EU has decreased to a mere 20 percent as a result of Brussels' policies, criticisms among EU circles regarding democracy and human rights issues in Turkey are now considered as "interfering with the internal affairs of a country whose membership wants to be put on hold forever" instead of "remarks and suggestions for a candidate country."

Referendum Policies of European Politicians

This section analyzes the attitudes of European politicians regarding the referendum held in Turkey for constitutional change, through their discourse and the statements made by them to influence domestic and foreign public opinion. In this framework, the European politicians are categorized as ultra left, ultra right, and centrist, and the article concentrates on the politicians with these tendencies in Germany, the Netherland and Austria because these countries were most local in discussions during the referendum. First, politicians with affiliations with ultra left parties will be addressed, since they were the individuals that took the most interest in issues in Turkey both prior to and during the referendum, and affected Europe's policies toward Turkey the most.

Ultra left

The leading political movement with anti-Turkish sentiments in Germany is Die Linke (leftist party), whose member Gabi Zimmer is the leader of the ultra left fraction GUE/NGL (European United Left - Nordic Green Left) of the European Parliament. Die Linke leaders and congress members who started an attrition campaign against the government in Turkey in general, and President Erdogan in particular, long before the referendum, explicitly organized a "No" campaign during the referendum as well. When it comes to Turkey, it is seen that Die Linke is...