EUROPEUS

The Fener-Balat Project that we have heard about for some time finally has come to a conclusion. Let's take a look at the process now for an assessment of the project. The Fatih Municipality eagerly became a partner in the Rehabilitation Project for the Fener-Balat Neighborhood, which was supported by the European Commission and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, when it was brought to the agenda. After all, the ruined neighborhood was to be restored. Plus, this was not to be a mere construction process but to have a social component in order to bolster women and youth projects. The project may possibly set precedent for other districts in Istanbul included on the UNESCO World Culture Heritage List.

A visit to Turkey for a Greek prime minister must have been the most troublesome. In fact Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis was barely able to make the visit that had been announced in 2005. Or since 1959, when Greece's legendary politician and uncle of Costas, Constantine Karamanlis visited Turkey officially in the aftermath of the Sept. 6-7, 1955 pogrom, a rather tense period began. Therefore this official visit was a great success by itself, just because it happened. In fact, no other progress was made during the proceedings.

Anything new is of great interest to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as you might have realized. �Little America� dreams of the 1950s are finally taking shape.Everywhere cities are transformed, as structures need renovations or worn out buildings are demolished eventually. This is inevitable. The question is how the transformation is undertaken, its methods and tools. More than that of its predecessors, the AKP's renewal concept is to have endless touch ups here and there, to engage in many unnecessary or wasteful projects, to market the city with no proper consultation, to commission ordinary building companies to restore priceless archaeological works, to see no harm in forcing old inhabitants out of the city and building luxurious slum houses to replace old slum areas without paying proper attention to legal and humanitarian concerns. Examples of this Turkish �kitsch,� of this visual pollution, can be seen not only in Istanbul but also everywhere in the county. Architecture, a profession of creativity, is being reduced to contracts of vested interests.

S’agissant de la Turquie dans l’Union européenne, Nicolas Sarkozy a l’avantage de la clarté lorsqu’il rejette son adhésion, mais pas forcément l’avantage de la lucidité. Rappelons-nous. En 1999, l’Union européenne déclare que la Turquie est un pays candidat, avec vocation à rejoindre l’Union sur la base des critères appliqués aux autres candidats. La France est signataire. La candidature est réaffirmée en décembre 2004 lorsque la Turquie est conviée à la phase des négociations d’adhésion. Quasi immédiatement, une guérilla politico-diplomatique se met en place en France pour parer à une éventuelle adhésion. Sous Jacques Chirac on tempère, mais avec Nicolas Sarkozy le ton se radicalise. La géographie prend une place de choix dans ce dispositif avec des références saugrenues resituant par exemple la Cappadoce, une terre chrétienne précoce, au-dehors de l’aire européenne. Nicolas Sarkozy martèle : la Turquie, c’est l’Asie Mineure, ce n’est pas l’Europe.

The new leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) brought up the model of pro-Turkish Rights and Freedoms Party (RFP) of Bulgaria as a solution to the problems Kurds are facing in Turkey. That has triggered polemics, likely to continue for long. As a matter of fact, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan previously noted the similarities and suggested that the RFP would set a model for Kurds in certain aspects. However, there are opinion makers talking through their hats as always.