May 16, 1995

COMMENTARY

MR. AKTUNA'S ESCAPADES:AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

by Professor Michael C. Geokas

The calculated attempt for trouble-making in Thrace by Mr. Aktuna, the Turkish Press Secretary and his delegation, amounted to a clumsy effort to stir up discontent, between the Moslem community and the rest of the population. He did not succeed.In fact this was a desperate diversionary ploy, designed to hijack the attention of the international media, away from the bloody war against the Kurds. Furthermore, this incident is probably part of a recent concerted propaganda offensive, with the false hope that deterioration of relations, to the point of crisis,will intimidate Greece, into reducing her objections to Turkey's entry into the EU in the future.

In addition, Mr. Aktuna's inappropriate and inflammatory statements constituted an inexcusable breech of accepted international practice and a flagrant abuse of hospitality of the Greek Nation, despite the fact that the Turkish Government was specifically forewarned on this issue. This was unbecoming of a Minister whose Government is obsessively trying to assuage European concerns and gain acceptance into the EU.

Many years ago, Charles de Gaulle stirred up the French Canadians in Quebec, with resultant pandemonium in Canada as well as severe criticism in the United States and elsewhere. However, the Press Secretary's epitome of double standard is this: despite the fact that according to Turkish law, 14 million Kurds simply do not exist, (existence of indigenous ethnic or religious minorities is not legally recognized), yet Mr. Aktuna have had the nerve to annouce, that the purpose of his visit to Thrace was to meet his ....fellow Turks.

Moreover, despite Mr. Aktuna's bravado and grandiose pronouncements about the Treaty of Lausanne, the 3 per cent requirement of the Greek electoral law and other non-starters, this incident emanates from the profound recent distress and embarrassment within the governing elite of Turkey. Let me explain:

-The intensity of the avalanche of condemnation by members of the EU and others, against the illegal invasion of an area of Northern Iraq, (supposedly under the protection of the UN and the United States) has stunned and astonished Turkey's leadership.

-Adding insult to injury, frantic attempts for damage control in Europe, by Turkish officials and in United States by Mrs. Ciller herself, have failed and have produced instead a painful "scalpel dissection" type, review of Turkey's enormous internal problems,in the American Press.

Specifically, the meticulously orchestrated visit of the Prime Minister, fine-tuned by well paid Public Relations Firms, produced a few obligatory standing ovations and a lengthy and unproductive interview in the Macneil/Lehrer News Hour, where Mrs. Ciller tried to portray Turkey as a victim of PKK and as "the only stable country in the Middle East, which has access to 200 million Turkish-speaking people, that have disintegrated from the former Soviet Union".

On the other hand, as luck would have it, Tansu Ciller's coveted and costly visit to America, proved to be a disappointment, because it coincided with the explosion in Oklahoma City, which completely overshadowed and eclipsed the impact of her visit, due to the total and overwhelming attention of American media and people to this terrorist act.

-Additionally, Turkey's internal problems are mounting, with an economic crisis(150 per cent annual inflation and shrinking of the economy by 8.7 per cent in nine months last year) which has jammed her cities with angry young people and has strongly enhanced the Islamic Fundamentalist Welfare Party.Tevfik Goksu is the President of the Islamic Students Union and boasts 1,200 offices. Students receive scholarships and sleep in Party provided dormitories. No other Party can compare with the Welfare Party's unity. The students espouse the Sudan model of government.

Moreover,the great hopes of partnership with Central Asia Republics have been disappointing, because Turkey has proved to be no match for the great industrial powers and for Russia herself,due to her limited financial and technological resources. On the other hand, the Russian colossus is now coming out of hibernation slowly but surely, and there are even plans for a new Russian army, the 58th, to be stationed in the Caucasus, which will dominate the vast area adjacent to Turkey.

-Mr. Aktuna's inappropriate behavior in Greece would have been unacceptable even in the ultraliberal United States. For instance, it will be unthinkable for President Nelson Mandela or one of his Ministers, to visit the US and criticize the treatment of African-Americans in our country. The credibility of Mr. Aktuna, in his complaining about the rights of Moslems in Thrace, is no better than the credibility of a lady of the evening, giving a lecture about ethics.

The gross violations of human rights in Turkey are well documented, such as the burning of 2,000 villages and the forcible resettlement of 2,000,000 people, the torture, the extrajudicial executions,the jailing of 159 politicians, scholars, writers, journalists and Human Rights Activists, for expressing their opinions, according to Akin Birdal, President of Turkey's Human Rights Commission.

Even Yasar Kemal, Turkey's pre-eminent man of letters, author of 36 books and a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, went on trial on May 5,1995 in Istanbul, because of an article in Del Spiegel about the oppression of Turkish Kurds."Turkey is disappearing in flames along with her forests" he says,"because the government has been burning all forests in eastern Anatolia to find the guerrillas".

-Moreover,what about the Greeks? Mr. Aktuna's propaganda ploy's aside what is Greece's problem in Thrace? Her main problem is both acute and painful, but has nothing to do with Human Rights and the Rule of Law or with the alleged oppression of her Moslem citizens. Her main problem is very European: low fertility rate, low annual increase and constant aging of her population in Thrace and across the land. This contrasts sharply with the higher fertility of her Moslem citizens, 120,000 strong(1991), who cast a long shadow among the total of 340,000 people in Thrace.

And here lies the rub. Greece's problem in Thrace is purely and overwhelmingly Demographic and it is actually very solvable indeed.

-In my view the Greek people and their Government should not rejoice at Turkey's great internal difficulties, but instead, they should be very thankful for Mr.Aktuna's "wake up call" and should start immediately with the implementation of a strong Pronatalist Program, as described in my Proposal to the Prime Minister, back in November of 1993. The task of population development should begin with dispatch, with an imaginative and well funded Program, starting it within Macedonia and Thrace and spreading it eventually to the entire country, with enthusiasm and determination.

This will be the best, most practical and the most deliciously effective answer to the opportunistic complaints, focused on Greece's Moslem citizens. Thus, slowly but surely Macedonia and Thrace should be densely populated within a decade, via increased fertility and migration. Additionally, the brisk economic development of these areas should be maintained as the highest priority in the nation's agenda.

-Finally,I shall repeat my advice, over and over again, like Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcious, 234-149, B.C.): this is the time and this is the hour for action, on the Demographic Problem. A combined and well organized effort should include the Political Leadership of all persuasions, all the country's institutions, plus all people of Greece, who are in fact the shrewdest and most enterprising in Eastern Mediterranean.

Michael C. Geokas,M.D.,M.Sc.,Ph.D.(McGill).

Emeritus Professor of Medicine and

Biological Chemistry, UC,Davis School of Medicine.

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Sources:

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1.Yasar Kemal: Turkey's War of Words.New York Times,May 6,1995;

2.Pomfret J: Turkey's Identity Crisis. The Washington Post,April 17, 1995;

3.PomfretJ:IslamTakes Message to Turkish Television.Fundamentalists Benefit from Eased Controls.The Washington Post,April 19,1995;

4.Rouleau E: The Challenges To Turkey.Foreign Affairs 72(5):110-126,1993.

5. Gellner Ernest: Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals. London,Penguin, 1994.