Welcome the Turks

Wall Street Journal, 19 December 1997

Fresh from rejection by the European Union, Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz is in
Washington, hoping to find more discerning friends. Mr. Yilmaz is slated to meet today with
President Clinton, and will be seeking, as he tells us, “a close relationship” with the U.S.

That’s an offer any civilized country should leap to accept. In welcoming closer ties to
Turkey–which he should–Mr. Clinton might start by recalling that since the days of the pilgrims,
America has profited by providing a more enlightened climate than the shuttered clubs of Europe.

Turkey, a country enlightened enough not to mind fraternizing with Europeans, has for the past
decade been maneuvering for membership in the EU. Last week the EU in its entrenched and
doubtless well-bred wisdom decided that membership talks should be pursued with Cyprus plus
five Eastern European countries that less than a decade back were still Communist states. But the
EU turned away Turkey, saying it wasn’t even ready for the full application process.

Europe–chiefly Germany–has two basic objections. One, apparently, is that the Turks work too
hard, or maybe too well. Turkey has a population of 62 million, some two million of whom are
diligent enough to put up even with living in Germany in exchange for the chance to provide
services that average Germans apparently value enough to pay for. The other problem is that in
what Turkish Prime Minister Yilmaz describes as the EU’s “Christian club,” the Turks are not
welcome because 99.8% of them are Muslims.

But that’s precisely what makes Turkey especially attractive. All it takes is a look at the map
nearby to see that this is the country best placed–in many ways–to act as a badly needed bridge
between the West and the Islamic world. “As an American real estate agent might say, we have
location, location, location,” Mr. Yilmaz pointed out in a speech Thursday to the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce.

Straddling Europe and Asia, Turkey controls shipping out of Russia and Central Asia through the
Bosporus Straits. And in a region where the Caspian Basin oil and gas is estimated to be worth at
least $4 trillion–if only it can be got out–Turkey is not only a prime patch of turf for pipelines
needed to get this oil to market, but also terrain friendly to the West. Turkey has been a member
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 1952.

As a nation of Muslims, bordering on such rogue states as Syria and Iraq, Turkey is also more
profoundly a player in the tumultuous politics of the Middle East than any non-Islamic country
could hope to become. The secular tradition of modern Turkey’s founding father, Kemal Ataturk,
means this is a country where religious excess has taken a back seat to democratic evolution. In a
region that needs some sort of reasonable role model, Turkey is the best hope.

Turkey lately has been developing commercial and military ties to Israel. These suggest the
beginning of a genuine democratic movement in the Middle East. The benefits include a reduced
risk of war. Israel and Turkey happen to sandwich Syria, which may be more cautious in its
misbehavior if it fears retaliation on two fronts.

At a recent global Islamic summit in Tehran, Turkish President Suleyman Demirel walked out on
a resolution condemning Muslim nations’ ties to Israel. Now we see the Turkish Prime Minister
recovering from the EU’s snub by seeking closer ties to Washington. In our book, any country
that responds to intolerance by making common cause with Israel and the U.S. probably has a lot
going for it.

Mr. Yilmaz is going to Washington with relatively modest requests, given the vital part his
country has to play in world affairs. He would like more U.S.-Turkish trade, and will sign a
multibillion-dollar deal for Turkey to buy Boeing airliners. And he tells us he will ask Mr. Clinton
to lift U.S. quotas on the import of Turkish textiles.

None of this is to shrug off Turkey’s continuing problems with violations of human rights–such as
the jailing of journalists. Nor is it to minimize the perils of the fundamentalist Islamic movement
that even in Turkey remains a danger. But clearly this is a country hungry to join the 21st century.
Any nation with a claim to be heading that way itself should welcome the prospect of having
Turkey along for the journey.