Daily Times

In the 1970s there was a cult film, Midnight Express, directed by a young Oliver Stone. It was based on the story of an American who was sentenced to 30 years in a Turkish prison for smuggling drugs. It showed in stark reality an abysmal lack of respect for human rights by the Turkish authorities. It was that impression of Turkey that many of us carried forward, even as Turkey, in fact, was profoundly changing.

Even today some hold on to what is now a discredited viewpoint, particularly in France, a country that has long made it clear it will obstruct any move to bring Turkey into the European Union (EU). An anti-Turkey feeling exists elsewhere, particularly in Germany, which has far more Turkish immigrant workers than any other nation. However, the truth is the Turkey of today is unrecognisable from that of the 1970s. Not least that it has become a democracy, albeit not a perfect one.

And yet there are alarming signs that Turkey is winding the clock back. Having been rebuffed in 2010 by Europe in its attempt to enter the EU, despite all the previous promises made to it that entry would be welcomed (the US has long supported this), it has started to go backwards to its more authoritarian and less humanistic ways. This is grist for the mill for those who have long held a Midnight Express view of Turkey.

The true picture of Turkey has to be a subtle one. On the one hand there are signs of growing authoritarianism — the arrest and incarceration of over 14 journalists; the savage treatment of street protestors; the re-starting of the war against the Kurdish Workers’ Party; the attempt to undermine the legitimate Kurdish party in parliament (Peoples’ Democratic Party) and the violence waged against ordinary Kurds in cities like Diyarbakir. On the other hand, it is not very long ago that the government carried out similar repression. So what is so different today? Isn’t it more of the same with a brief break for negotiations to get into the EU, (and even then in the first three years repression continued)? In 2005, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Orhan Puck, was prosecuted for expressing a critical opinion on the Kurdish and Armenian policies of the government. Only because of EU pressure were the charges dropped.

There were two similar cases a year later. The journalist, Perihan Magden, was arrested for defending in print a conscientious dissenter who had been sentenced to four years in a military prison for refusing to wear his military uniform. However, she was finally acquitted on grounds of free speech. Hrant Dink was sentenced to six months in jail for allegedly insulting ‘Turkishness’ and thus violating the notorious Article 301 of the then new Turkish penal code.

Nevertheless, in those negotiating years there were tremendous improvements in the law and its application, and also in government’s dealings with the Kurds. In Turkey, 15 years ago, government would not allow Kurdish to be taught in schools, and there were no Kurdish-language newspapers or TV. Partly to satisfy the EU these policies were dropped.

What changed the picture and put Turkey into reverse was the EU decision six years ago that made it clear that there was no likelihood of the Turkish entry into the EU any time soon. Repression and anti-Kurd actions returned.

It was the on and off stance by the EU that dictated first a slow but significant improvement of Turkey’s human rights behaviour and then an equally significant regression to where we are today. Except… the totally unexpected has happened: the migrant crisis. This has brought war-torn refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to seek refuge in Europe, and hundreds of thousands are using the Turkish coastline to travel in boats to Greece. In a matter of weeks, EU policy towards Turkey, pushed by German chancellor, Angela Merkel, somersaulted. Turkish people will shortly be given visa-free travel within the Shengen part of the EU (which is most of it). Turkey is being given vast sums to settle more refugees on its own soil. Most important, the EU is returning to serious negotiations about Turkish entry.

The interesting question is does this mean Turkey will once again start to improve its human rights practices? Right now there is not much sign of that happening. The Kurds of Diyarbakir are still being battled. The editor-in-chief of a major newspaper, Cumhuriyet, was sent for trial last week. In truth it is too early to say. Why should President Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu deliver until the EU has actually lowered the drawbridge? It has promised to but implementation is still to come. Hopefully by the early summer the EU machinery will be in place and working. Then we should expect Turkey to loosen up and become once again a country on the road to liberalism and enlightenment. Let’s see.

The writer has been a foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 20 years and author of the much acclaimed new book, Conundrums of Humanity — the Big Foreign Policy Questions of Our Age. He may be contacted at jonathanpower95@gmail.com