EU made up of Christian values, Turkey has no place in it, says far right EU politician
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Turkish Daily News
CANSU ÇAMLIBEL
BRUSSELS
Far right political group “Identity Tradition Sovereignty” was formed in January at the European Parliament, bringing together 20 MPs from seven EU member states. Italian Fascist leader Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini's participation in the group attracted much of the international attention. However, chairman of the group Bruno Gollnisch remains the most controversial figure. Gollnisch, who is also the deputy leader of France's National Front, was condemned and fined by a Lyon tribunal for questioning the legitimacy of the Holocaust, just a day after officially founding his far right group at the European Parliament.
It has been widely discussed by the opposition of Identity Tradition Sovereignty that Mr. Gollnisch exploited fears of Islamic terror and anti-Turkey sentiment rising in Europe to persuade the MPs to join his group. Gollnisch responded to allegations, at an interview in Brussels. “It is absolutely not true that we are anti-Turkish. However it is true that some of our political parties, such as mine, are not in favor of Turkey's EU membership,” Gollnisch explained.
He referred to their understanding of the geographical definition of Europe to justify why Turkey should not be in. “We consider Turkey as a bridge between Europe and Asia, but not as a European country. Just a little part of Turkish territory is in Europe. Turkish is not a European language at all. But on the other hand Turkey has a very strong, ancient identity we all admire. But Turkish identity does not belong to European identity. Turkey is a country of the near east. We want the EU to remain purely European. But this has nothing to do with being enemies with Turkey. As we do not have anything against Morocco, Argentina or Canada, which are not EU members,” Gollnisch said.
The reasons why the far right MPs oppose Turkey's EU membership does not only arise from simple geographical definitions of the old continent. Identity Tradition Sovereignty members consider themselves as the guardians of Christian values. Chairman Bruno Gollnisch picked his words carefully when he was asked whether the European Union should be kept as a Christian club.
“Mostly, Western European civilizations derive from Christianity. This is not the case for Turkey. Our values are very different from Islamic values. It is not only Muslim countries that we do not want in the EU. Buddhist countries and others also do not comply with our identity. Although my wife is a Buddhist from Japan, I would never ever want Japan or China joining our union,” he replied. Gollnisch continued with a metaphor, “If you set up a football association, you do not let the rugby clubs in. This is the logic that lies behind our position.”
As far as the immigration policies are concerned, Identity Tradition Sovereignty offers nothing more than France's controversial Le Pen. Gollnisch, known as the right arm of Le Pen, argued that immigration has become a threat to EU member states' national unity. “If there were 10 million French people living in Turkey. Wouldn't this be a cultural and social problem for Turkey?” he asked. While saying, “We welcome visitors from Turkey,” he implies that we should only be allowed as tourists on French soil.
History belongs to historians:
Recently, Gollnisch has been shuttling between Brussels and Paris more often as he is the master mind behind Le Pen's presidential campaign in France although he is much frustrated about the counter campaigns to kick Le Pen out of the game. Gollnisch complained, “My party leader Mr. Le Pen is being tried to push out of the presidential campaign. We are not even sure that he will be allowed to run for the elections.”
Bruno Gollnisch ends our interview by saying “When I see these restrictions in my own country, I think we have absolutely no lessons to give to your country. Today France is not in a position to give lessons to anyone in the world.” Gollnisch clearly refers to the law concerning the denial of Armenian genocide in his country. As a controversial name who suffered from the denial of Jewish genocide, he rather supports a self-seeking view on Armenian genocide. “I know there had been massacres in Armenia at the time of World War I. And I respect these. But I think Turkish people can not be considered guilty or responsible for that. I respect all the Armenians and Jews who suffered in the past. But I think history belongs to historians,” he said.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Turkish Daily News
CANSU ÇAMLIBEL
BRUSSELS
Far right political group “Identity Tradition Sovereignty” was formed in January at the European Parliament, bringing together 20 MPs from seven EU member states. Italian Fascist leader Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini's participation in the group attracted much of the international attention. However, chairman of the group Bruno Gollnisch remains the most controversial figure. Gollnisch, who is also the deputy leader of France's National Front, was condemned and fined by a Lyon tribunal for questioning the legitimacy of the Holocaust, just a day after officially founding his far right group at the European Parliament.
It has been widely discussed by the opposition of Identity Tradition Sovereignty that Mr. Gollnisch exploited fears of Islamic terror and anti-Turkey sentiment rising in Europe to persuade the MPs to join his group. Gollnisch responded to allegations, at an interview in Brussels. “It is absolutely not true that we are anti-Turkish. However it is true that some of our political parties, such as mine, are not in favor of Turkey's EU membership,” Gollnisch explained.
He referred to their understanding of the geographical definition of Europe to justify why Turkey should not be in. “We consider Turkey as a bridge between Europe and Asia, but not as a European country. Just a little part of Turkish territory is in Europe. Turkish is not a European language at all. But on the other hand Turkey has a very strong, ancient identity we all admire. But Turkish identity does not belong to European identity. Turkey is a country of the near east. We want the EU to remain purely European. But this has nothing to do with being enemies with Turkey. As we do not have anything against Morocco, Argentina or Canada, which are not EU members,” Gollnisch said.
The reasons why the far right MPs oppose Turkey's EU membership does not only arise from simple geographical definitions of the old continent. Identity Tradition Sovereignty members consider themselves as the guardians of Christian values. Chairman Bruno Gollnisch picked his words carefully when he was asked whether the European Union should be kept as a Christian club.
“Mostly, Western European civilizations derive from Christianity. This is not the case for Turkey. Our values are very different from Islamic values. It is not only Muslim countries that we do not want in the EU. Buddhist countries and others also do not comply with our identity. Although my wife is a Buddhist from Japan, I would never ever want Japan or China joining our union,” he replied. Gollnisch continued with a metaphor, “If you set up a football association, you do not let the rugby clubs in. This is the logic that lies behind our position.”
As far as the immigration policies are concerned, Identity Tradition Sovereignty offers nothing more than France's controversial Le Pen. Gollnisch, known as the right arm of Le Pen, argued that immigration has become a threat to EU member states' national unity. “If there were 10 million French people living in Turkey. Wouldn't this be a cultural and social problem for Turkey?” he asked. While saying, “We welcome visitors from Turkey,” he implies that we should only be allowed as tourists on French soil.
History belongs to historians:
Recently, Gollnisch has been shuttling between Brussels and Paris more often as he is the master mind behind Le Pen's presidential campaign in France although he is much frustrated about the counter campaigns to kick Le Pen out of the game. Gollnisch complained, “My party leader Mr. Le Pen is being tried to push out of the presidential campaign. We are not even sure that he will be allowed to run for the elections.”
Bruno Gollnisch ends our interview by saying “When I see these restrictions in my own country, I think we have absolutely no lessons to give to your country. Today France is not in a position to give lessons to anyone in the world.” Gollnisch clearly refers to the law concerning the denial of Armenian genocide in his country. As a controversial name who suffered from the denial of Jewish genocide, he rather supports a self-seeking view on Armenian genocide. “I know there had been massacres in Armenia at the time of World War I. And I respect these. But I think Turkish people can not be considered guilty or responsible for that. I respect all the Armenians and Jews who suffered in the past. But I think history belongs to historians,” he said.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Labels: Turkey and EU
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 11:30 AM
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