Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Lausanne and ultimate peace
by Gunduz Aktan - Turkish Daily News: 12-11-00
Posted: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 02:47 am CST

The Armenian claims and the Kurdish question of today are legacies of the Treaty of Sevres. The Cyprus and Turco-Greek problems emerged long after Lausanne was signed and the West is now siding with our Christian neighbor just like in Ottoman times

Europe has seen many periods of war and peace but the advances in the technology of destruction together with the doctrine of wholesale war made the two world wars particularly destructive. There are many who have likened these two wars to Europe's suicide.

The two world wars showed that treaties and balance-of-power approaches were not enough to ensure a lasting peace. To put it another way, classical diplomacy failed to create peace.

The European unification movement aims to establish lasting peace through economic and political integration. Underlying this supra-diplomatic initiative is a peace process between two large and mutually hostile states, France and Germany, that can never be turned back.

The integration that will never allow a return to hostilities works on two interrelated processes: A process whereby a common market that unifies national markets on a European scale is formed by means of free movement of labor, capital, goods and services within this market. A process of political integration ensuring those countries that are constantly improving human rights and enhancing democracy can be governed by the very democratic EU institutions they have formed.

Democracy and the market economy are two sine qua non components that compliment each other. The European wars of the past were a result of deficiencies in them. In the inter-war period, European fascism showed that wherever democracy was absent, the peoples there could easily be made aggressive and confrontational. The Great Depression and accompanying unemployment of 1929 allowed fascism to come to power. Consequently, at the end of the war sound economic growth based on social justice and advances in human rights and democracy were accepted as the foundations for internal peace within Europe.

When we look at Turkey-EU relations in the light of all this we see the following: Being a part of European geostrategy, the Ottoman Empire witnessed many periods of war and peace with the European states. It made many alliances as part of the balance of power process. Looking at it this way, there is no difference between Franco-German hostility and the Ottoman-Hapsburg (Austro-Hungarian Empire) and Ottoman-Romanov (Russian) hostilities.

However, the wars the Ottoman Emoire in Europe bear out Samuel Huntingdon's "Clash of Civilizations" concept more than anything else. The Ottomans waged war on their opponents using Islam as a political ideology. In accordance with the circumstnces of the time their opponents also used their own religion this way. Geopolitical and strategic interests were veiled by heavy religious/ideological rhetoric.

Ultimately, the Ottomans lost the fight. Turkey became a nation-state like the other Western European states. The Lausanne Treaty legally created Turkey's new national and international status. Peace was achieved. It took its place among the West's defense, economic and human rights institutions such as NATO, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Council. The intense cooperation seen within these institutions ensured that great strides were made in the process of reconciliation.

But it is simply clear that this process of reconciliation still has some way to go. The Armenian claims and the Kurdish question of today are legacies of the Treaty of Sevres. The Cyprus and Turco-Greek problems emerged long after Lausanne was signed and the West is now siding with our Christian neighbor just like in Ottoman times

Generally speaking, EU countries see Turkey as a part of Europe. But those circles within the EU that see this part as essentially different from themselves -- not entirely unjustified -- do not want to accept us into the union because of religious and cultural differences. In other words, a hangover from the "clash of civilizations" in the past.

Turkey's accession into the EU might well be the final stage of a reconciliation process that started with the Lausanne Treaty but obviously did not end with it. Turkey should traverse this stage, which will strengthen its economy and democracy, arm in arm with the EU. Failing this, hostile relations may reemerge between Europe and a Turkey that is excluded from European unification despite all the talks. This is because borders always create "the other" and the "other" is the key ingredient for breeding hostility in international relations.

As for the matter of disputes ... that would be par for the course.

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