Turkey and French Secularism

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Turkish secularists do not conceal their reproach of their French secular "teachers." It is true that the entrance of their country to the European club is not a popular decision throughout the continent. Yet, in addition to this, France adds to this popular position its culture, if I may say so, as well as giving the scattered public in all countries a political leadership and the guidance of the grand nation.

France's left and right, despite the discrepancy between them, favor keeping Turkey outside. On the other hand, when the two parties, in government and in the opposition, in a country like Greece support its entry, it becomes clear that all the caution is not due to history and its remorse and not to regional competitiveness or tense neighborly relations. However, it could be said, according to the Greek position, that the religious difference, taken in its simple meaning, is not the crucial factor in the negative position from Turkey. For when we talk about religions, it is the Greek Orthodox Church, and not the Catholic Church, that has experienced the struggle with Islam and the rich memory of grudges. On the other hand, the fact that France has the largest Muslim minority in Europe does not overshadow Germany, which has the biggest Turkish minority; and Germans are more divided on that issue than the French.

Nonetheless, French secularism, with its radical past that is full of struggle, is the one, which does not tolerate Turkey's European identity. What exacerbates this is that Turkish secularism that was initiated by Ataturk did not take the same ascending route that was taken by France. In contrast, it was full of failures and setbacks, which climaxed when an Islamic party came to power. What this means is that the French commodity, which was ready for universal export and which was assumed to be more readily adopted, faced a lot more caution.

In such an ideoligization of the principle of secularization, religious discrepancies occupy a big position. It is true that when politicians address this issue they are targeting a French and a European milieu that has a limited level of culture and skills and that is also racist or semi-racist and wary of globalization. More importantly, the ideoligization of secularism has taken over its history until this history became only a single entity. In other words, because the ideological system makes its own past and its own interpretation of it, Christianity has became more like a necessary condition of "correct" secularism exactly the way that "capitalism" became a necessary precondition for "socialism" for those who wanted to spread the Soviet-Communist model.

Turkey and French Secularism....