The Ottoman spirit lives on

On 17th December I have been commenting how historical mistakes cast long shadows. Subject matter of the post was the difficult accession talks the E.U. is currently holding with Turkey. In reaction to the Turkish refusal of opening up its (air)ports to Cyprus carriers, eight chapters of the thirty five membership dossiers have been suspended, just thirteen months after they started. I concluded that the Turks unwittingly were offering proof of their unreadiness to be a part of Europe. I saw evidence of a mind-set, unbefitting a modern European state (power play, diplomatic bullying, driving excessive bargains, disrespecting minorities, not respecting/understanding the basic principles, all coupled with a general arrogance as a result of the Muslim superiority complex).

But now there is good news! EU Observer reports Turkey's foreign minister Abdulah Gul as saying: "If the goal is to reach European standards, then we will do it ourselves without the E.U. asking for it". Turkey is pro-actively "insisting it will implement the changes as outlined in the preliminary screening process in all areas, without waiting for extra instructions from Brussels".

What at the same time is so disappointing is that the report goes on to state that the country finds it "impossible to accept the E.U. acting in a way that is contrary to the core and spirit of our relations by hiding behind various excuses such as the Cyprus issue", the foreign minister is alleged to have said at a gathering of Turkey's main business groups last week, according to AFP agency. This breaths again the earlier reported attitude of the Ottoman empire: minorities are there to be ruled over as dhimmis and small countries can simply be bullied into submission.

While Turkey now understands that E.U. rules and regulations are not negotiable, what it still doesn’t get is that the E.U. is made up of many small countries - was founded in fact by the three miniature BeNeLux countries - each of which have about the same weight in the decision making process as the bigger ones. Otherwise it would just be a matter of lie down and be conquered, not by the sword but by higher politics. At the E.U. they may be relatived to the point of decadence, they're not daft, you know!

Mr Gul went on to stress, Turkey is not going to “abandon the struggle”. Be that as it may, neither is Cyprus. Big doesn’t equal better. There!