Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Rome , January 19 2005 20:22
According to Greek legend, “Europa” was King Agenore's daughter.
Jupiter fell in love with this beautiful queen and in order to spend some “human” time with her, he transformed himself into a white bull and brought her to the island of Crete, across the sea.
The God of Thunder (Jupiter) wasn't so gentle when playing with the queen and her virginity was soon lost.
After the rape, The goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, announced that Europa's name was going to be used to represent an entire land.
Europa was described in the myth as the essence of joy, enthusiasm and courage in extraordinary situations.
The rape in this myth also represents the vast knowledge given by the Greeks to the rest of Europe: Democracy, taste for beauty, philosophy, arts, science and literature-- a cultural inheritance long credited to the Hellenistic tradition.
But the majority and the most ancient of urban centers and written documents that we know come from the area of the world known as the Middle East. As a result, we must keep in mind that the ancient Greeks were influenced by the culture of these more ancient area, as testified by the Ancient Egyptians, for example.
The Ottoman Empire ruled over an immense territory for centuries, becoming an formidable vehicle for culture, business and art throughout the countries of its reign.
As result the European countries always had a defensive attitude where not totally aggressive toward the Turkey.
Since the Congress of Vienna untill the First World War and later, the Ottoman Empire was deprived of many territories to please influential western countries or Russia in their desire for Coke or Iron.
The Turkish Mosul region (rich in oil) was assigned to England by the Aja, Court of Permanent Justice, in 1925, after a decision taken by the “Society of the Nations” (sort of an old United Nations).
Despite the fact that Turkey has always been a geographically important and a politically influential country, linking the Arab World with Europe, certain fears and resentiments are still part of the common European attitude. “Gray Wolf”, is a biographical work by British author H.C. Armstrong that claims Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Salonika 1881) to be a brutal dictator.
But “The Father of all Turks” (his most common nickname) has shown his military talent and natural attitude for leading by fighting in the army during World War I. He gained a big popular following, and eventually founded The Republic of Turkey in 1923, inspired by Western political ideas. He banned the “fez” (Muslim hat), instituted human rights for women, replaced the Arabic script with a Latin alphabet and adopted the metric system. When he died in 1938, his body was inumated and a mausoleum was built that still receives daily visits from all over the world.
Currently, talks about Turkey's entrance into the E.U. are being widely discussed and commented on by politicians and opinion leaders.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Libya's leader) said that Turkey would be a “Trojan Horse” inside Europe and that Islamic terrorist groups would be extremely happy at the prospect of a predominantly Muslim country joining the E.U., implying a deadly danger.
Roberto Calderoli, an Italian Lega Nord (Union for the North) politician, later repeated this concept of the Trojan Hourse in a press interview.
This does not look enthusiastic, joyful or particulary courageous as in Europa's mythical attitude.
If this view of Turkey's Islamic presence still exists, politicians should be better informed about Turkey's history, namely the country's laicization imposed by Mustafa Kemal.
One can still argue that it was a military revolution, but getting rid of the Muslim religion, the coranic laws and the institution of the caliphate required a safe and strong lead, if necessarily armed.
Since 2002, Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been leading the nation and is responsible for providing Turkey an entrance to the European bloc as well.
Turkey might be not as rich and developed as other countries in the G-7, but its sincere inclination towards the EU's philosophy should not be under question.That is part of Turkey's history and cannot be ignored or misunderstood.
Germany's and France's Turkish communities are the largest in Europe and in other contries such Italy (especially in the south) and Spain, Islamic culture is still relevant, not to mention the Balcanic region in which the same cultural presence is very well integrated in the population.
Modern Turkey can also count on valuable mineral resources, factories ( production level of grain is now higher than in Italy), and a sincere will and enthusiasm for joining the coalition. Turkey's cultural and political message should be used to create a bridge beetween the EU and the Middle East.
Comunicating instead of hiding from each other might provide an opportunity for these two political entities to resolve the ideological and religious differences that have always existed and significantly worsened after September eleventh, 2001.
Nowadays there is a strong political connection beetween Turkey, Israel and the United States. Enlarge and coordinate the American and the European market, positively globalizing these two areas, could be another good occasion to spread democracy and increase the level of security.
But in order to achieve this situation, there is a strong nead of good leaders, thinkers, historian and politicians to provide an appropiate communication and to avoid diplomatic mistakes.
The proportion of Muslims in a country cannot still be used to legitimize discrimination, as it was during the Middle Ages and modern history.
The European parliament was recently busy trying to obtain an official admission from Turkey on the Armenian population's genocide of the 1915, claiming the issue to be a crucial point in order to celebrate this inclusion.
But Mustafa Kemal, the legendary leader, already recognized that the massacre of the Armenian population was a terrible mistake, taking a sincere distance from that event in the name of the Turkish population.
Every attempt to justify or apologize in any way what was a horrible massacre involving a number of about 800,000/1,500,000 armenians is bound to fail but no one seems to remember, for instance, that in 1916, Russian and Armenian troops raided the Turkish city of Erzurum, indiscriminately killing many innocents and civillians.
This event is hardly ever dicussed, not to mention, the fact that all the richest European countries have been gradually overtaking pieces of the Ottoman Empire to please their own desire for power and oil during the last two centuries.
Short memory, anyone? Or Hypocrisy?
Either way, there is no need to panic because even if the Trojan Horse is arriving... we know is not carrying any soldiers this time.

Il Romanaccio at 8:19 PM