Germany is not really interested in human rights and in the establishment of a real democracy in Turkey. Germany sees Turkey mainly as a trade partner and the citizens of Turkey as consumers of German products and as cheap labor in German factories. This is unfair.
Deniz ZENGİN
Today, our guest is Dr. Nikos Michailidis. We talked about European Union, the relationship between Greece and Turkey and the refugee crisis. Here is our interview.
Enjoy your reading.
What could you tell us about yourself, Mr. Michailidis?
My ancestors came to Greece as refugees from the Pontos (Black Sea) region after 1923. I grew up with the narratives of my great-grandparents about their lives in Pontos. So, naturally, I developed an interest in getting to know modern Turkey and its people better. So I started travelling to Istanbul, Trabzon, Gümüshane, Bafra, Sinop, Samsun and other parts of the Black Sea and Anatolia, making many friends.
After my undergraduate studies in Athens, I decided to do an MA degree in political science at Bogazici University. So I spent about three years in Istanbul.
My experiences in Turkey during those years led me to study cultural anthropology. I did my Phd in this field at Princeton University. In the context of that research, I spent about 2 years doing fieldwork in Turkey, mainly in Trabzon and Istanbul, but also in Ankara and Van. I studied the Pontic-Greek speaking Sunni communities of Trabzon and their musical and ethnic cultures. As a kemence performer myself, I was intrigued by the local performers and by the multiple meanings that kemence was carrying for these communities. It was a very rewarding experience and I got the opportunity to better understand the sociocultural and political dynamics of modern Turkey. I always say that Turkey is a nice ”laboratory” for social scientists.
Deniz Yücel, an employee of the German News Agency Die Welt, completed a 1-year prison sentence. Chancellor Merkel called on Erdogan for Yucel to be quickly returned to Germany. Is Germany working in the democratic interest their own country? If this is acceptable, why do we accept the double standard of the detention of Altan, Demirtaş, Kavala and thousands of other anonymous politicians?
It is tragic to see those people imprisoned by the current regime. Some of them have been released but it is not enough. Ankara is using them as a bargaining tool against western governments, as it does with refugees.
I am afraid that Germany is not really interested in human rights and in the establishment of a real democracy in Turkey. Germany sees Turkey mainly as a trade partner and the citizens of Turkey as consumers of German products and as cheap labor in German factories. This is unfair.
It is totally unacceptable that EU does not take any substantial initiative about democracy and freedoms in Turkey. I think that the only country in the EU that really and sincerely cares about the future of democracy and human rights in Turkey is Greece.
Tens of thousands of people have been expelled by legal decree. Their passports and diplomas have been revoked and some of them have served time in prison. How does the government expect the Turkish people to react to this policy?
I think that we shouldn’t talk about a ”government” in Turkey. We are talking about a violent, brutal regime that is based on persecution. Thus, it is not legitimate. It is based on illegality and pure force. I think that this situtation creates the right and legitimacy to the persecuted citizens of Turkey to resist and respond in every possible means. It is this brutality and state violence that obliged citizens of Kurdish descent to mobilize themselves politically and to create an resistance movement. Uncontrolled, mass state violence is responsible for the tragic condition in which Turkey finds itself and for the social violence that has risen in the last 30 years. Persecuted citizens should also do their best to organize themselves in Europe and create a huge international pressure group on foreign governments to modify their policies against the Turkish regime.
Will the EU will play a role in the democratization of Turkey? If so, how will the process work going forward?
For the time being, I don’t see EU being able to play a role in the democratization of Turkey and this is mainly due to Germany’s pro-Turkish regime policies. The democratic forces of Turkey must put pressure on Germany to change its unethical policy. The EU could contribute a lot, if it was allowed to by Germany. The EU can develop projects to support real opposition forces in Turkey, create media platforms to give voice to all the persecuted groups, impose serious sanctions on the Turkish regime, finance various sociocultural activities for the support of democracy, de-list PKK from its ”terrorism lists” and push for dialogue and a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem, freeze customs union with Turkey, restrict the movement of regime representatives in the EU, put a serious pan-European arms embargo, and more.
What exactly is intended to be done in the Eastern Mediterranean? What Greece wants? What is Turkey’s goal for the future? Which country’s formula be accepted in the end?
This is not a matter of a ”country’s formula”, it is wrong to present it as such. There are international rules. Turkey has invaded and occupies lands in at least 3 neighboring countries. This is unacceptable.
The tension in the eastern mediterranean is not simply an issue between Greece and Turkey. Greece is collaborating with all its Mediterranean neighbors based on international law and the law of the seas, which Turkey does’t recognize, and this is where the problems begin. The war regime of Turkey behaves as the bully of the neighborhood, direspecting international law, and its neighbors’ sovereignity and rights. The Turkish regime is always trying to present its expansionist agenda to the international public as ”bilateral problems”, pretending to be the side that wants dialogue. This is pure propaganda.
Turkey maintains occupation forces on Cyprus, and it is trying to impose it’s arbitrary views on everyone. The Turkish regime is applying expansionist policies against Greece. And of course Greece is resisting and calling for a dialogue on the basis of international law and UNCLOS.
US-Turkish relations, regarding the Brunson crisis which was resolved with the priest’s deportation, has caused much tension in the religious community. Is it Erdogan’s point of view that he wishes to instigate an Islamic & Christian showdown, like opening Hagia Sophia to worship?
It is really hard to say what T.Erdogan has in his mind. I think he is trying to survive politically. But his moves undermine his position and legitimacy. It is as if he is trying to commit political suicide. I also think he has very bad advisors and even worse collaborators (MHP etc). If he was a visionary leader, with democratic aspirations and sincere willingness to coexist peacefully with neighbors, he would have turned Hagia Sophia into a Christian Church and would give it back to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, as all the other Orthox Christian monuments in Anatolia. That would be a great gesture to the Orthodox Christian world that would seriously improve the international image of his country. Instead of all these, he chose to support jihadist terrorists, and to behave like a mafia leader. His reputation is seriously damaged. I am sure that his ”supporters” in the old kemalist establishment are quite happy. The Turkish political elites suffer from a complex of inferiority vis-a-vis the West. They like to think of themselves and their country as a ”world power”, but nobody takes them seriously. But this maddness is going to cost a lot to the people of Anatolia and Mesopotamia.
When Leyen and Michel arrived last week, there was a Sofagate. They faced pressure from Erdogan. European Union authorities on their way to deal with Erdogan, why did the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias show off? Could you please evaluate this issue in terms of the refugee crisis?
Many Europeans have fallen victims to Erdogan’s threats about sending millions of migrants and refugees to Europe. This is a mafia style blackmail. Turkey played a central role in the creation of these refugees by engaging in war in Syria and elsewhere. But among these refugees we also see people from Somalia and Central Asia, countries with which Turkey maintains close ties. These are countries that are not in war. Simply put, Ankara is engaged in human traficking and this is a very serious crime. It is not the first one that the Turkish state has committed though.
I think that the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Nikos Dendias, did a great job in Ankara, and he did not allow the Turkish regime to spread its usual propaganda to internal and international audiences. We should all thank him about his stance, and above all the democratic forces of Turkey. Mr.Dendias spoke the language of truth. Turkey is using the migrant/refugee crisis as a tool to threaten EU in order to gain concessions, and it keeps threatening Greece and Cyprus and of course other neighbors. Turkey has zero relations with most of its neighbors.
I think that Europe should follow Mr.Dendias’ example and take a sincere stance against the Turkish regime. Appeasing the Ankara regime will only lead to more instability and chaos in the region. It is time for the West to seriously deal with what everyone now describes as the new “Turkish problem”.
Source: https://gazetedavul.com/news/dr-nikos-michailidis-i-dont-see-eu-being-able-to-play-a-role-in-the-democratization-of-turkey-18299.html