TURKEY’S POSITION AT EUROPEAN UNION
AND
TURKISH IMPRESSION IN GERMANY

Introduction
Countries tried to show their power and sovereignty with hard power. But now we are living in a century that soft power can be more powerful than hard power. Cultural diplomacy is one of the strongest soft power items of last century. With right strategy of cultural diplomacy, a new image of a country can be created at other countries. This can affect so many statistics of a country in a positive way, such as tourism and trade.
There are still many countries which are not aware of the strength of soft power and cultural diplomacy. In the other hand there are countries which are aware of this strength and it is easy to see how they are successful to create an impressive image. United Kingdom, Germany and United States can be three examples to see success and power of cultural diplomacy.
Turkey has been trying to attempt to European Union since so many years. All of attempts were not successful. What can be the reason for that? , Culture? , Impression of Turkey? , Politics? , Population? , Economics? , Religion? Or another question can be asked is, what is Turkey’s image at European Countries?

What is Culture?
The origin of the word “culture” in Latin “cultura” is a modern concept based on a term first used in classical antiquity by the Roman orator, Cicero: “cultura animi.” The term “culture” appeared first in its current sense in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, to connote a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the 19th century, the term developed to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-19th century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. (1)
There are plenty definitions of culture but all of them refers to common history, common likes, common traditions and values. Example of definitions can be seen at coming lines, * Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. * Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people. * A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. * Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action. (2)

What is Diplomacy?
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or nations. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, culture, economics, trade, and war. International treaties are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians.
The word stems from the Greek word diploma, which literally means two fold as in folded in two. In ancient Greece, a diploma was a certificate certifying completion of a course of study, typically folded in two. In the days of the Roman Empire, the word diploma was used to describe official travel documents, such as passports and passes for imperial roads, that were stamped on double metal plates. Later, the meaning was extended to cover other official documents such as treaties with foreign tribes. In the 1700s the French called their body of officials attached to foreign legations the corps “diplomatique”. The word diplomacy was first introduced into the English language by Edmund Burke in 1796, based on the French word “diplomatie.” (3)

Turkey’s possible membership at European Union

Human rights in Europe

“Because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person,” said American author Madeleine L'Engle. The idea of human rights in general is basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, language, or other status.

Every country has human rights and those rights are a kind of a fundament for all the existing laws. But the problem of human rights is that people and countries have a different understanding of the term and its protection. In some counties political and civil rights are not given or guaranteed to all its citizens. In some other countries, economic and social rights are not enforced. Therefore, the basic idea behind stressing human rights is that all governments should try to maintain these fundamental rights and see that all types of discrimination in this respect are rooted out.

Examples Germany and Turkey
Human rights in Germany are protected extensively by the Grundgesetz. The country has ratified most international human rights treaties. Reports from independent organizations such as Amnesty International certify a high level of compliance with human rights, while still pointing out several issues, in particular - though very rarely occurring and mostly severely punished - police brutality and mistreatment of refugees. The 2008 Freedom in the World report by US-funded Freedom House gives Germany a score of "1" (the best possible) for both political rights and civil liberties.

Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution.
The issue of human rights is of high importance for the negotiations with the European Union (EU). Acute human rights issues include in particular the status of Kurds in Turkey. The Kurdish–Turkish conflict has caused numerous human rights violations over the years. There is an ongoing debate in the country on the right to life, torture, freedom of expression as well as freedoms of religion, assembly and association.

Especially this example between Germany and Turkey makes it obviously how far away Turkey is from Europe and how much will be to do so that Turkey can become an equivalent member of the European Union.

Religion

In Turkey religion has a dominant role and wherever one will go to Turkey the religion will be around. More than 80.000 Mosques all around the country characterize the shape of every town or village. Five times a day ‘Imam’ (singer of the mosque) is calling the people to come to the mosque to pray. There is no real difference between the large cities and the villages, religion has strong effectiveness every part of the country.

As a country with no official state religion; the Turkish Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience. In fact the Islam religion is the dominant religion of Turkey, it exceeds around 98% people of Muslim. So the majority of the present-day Turkish people are Muslim and the most popular sect is the Hanafiyyah School of Sunni Islam, which was officially espoused by the Ottoman Empire.

The role of religion in Turkey has been a controversial debate over the years since the formation of Islamist parties. The wearing of the Hijab is banned in public as some view it as a symbol of Islam – though there have been efforts to lift the ban. The prevalence of hair covering among Turkish women has been estimated at 60% and according to a 2006 survey year by year less women covering their hair like they did before.

A statistic shows that not only in country side, but also in large cities more than %50 of the people defining themselves as “a religious person.” This result makes clear that religion and religious rules are different from European countries.

Population and Economy
According to last research Turkey has 73 million citizens in 2013. This result is 8 million more than the research made in 2000. Turkey’s population grows 1.7% per year. This is another point which makes Turkey different from European States.

There are topics which Turkey has important characteristics, as economy and society. Turkey is a country which has big differences in economy and social developments between regions in the East and the West. For such a long time, western part of Turkey was the focus for investment and development. For 10 years with the Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi (Southeastern Anatolia Project), government aims to balance investment to eastern regions. As a developing country, Turkey has experienced significant instability in the recent past. Finally Turkey finds a strategy to become a strong state in Middle-East.

There are a number of different statistics and calculations available which all focus the accession of the Turkish economy. In this essay I want to mention one of them (ABM AMRO Karlshoven and Kücikakin 2004) which come to the conclusion that Turkey's economy will grow by 4,9 % per year until 2014 and than 5 to 6,2 % until 2024. Especially the outlook from today until 2024 is extremely impressive and “only’’ from this perspective Turkey could become a very strong and successful partner of the European Union.

Geographically affiliation
Since EU founded, there has been a debate because of geographical affiliation. Only 3% of Turkey belongs to Europe and the rest belongs to Asia. Up to now none of the European states has opened their economy to a non-member state. Turkey opened its economy in 1996 for a custom union. The important point here is that the European Union participates distinctly better than Turkey itself.

Position leading EU countries
Germany: Today there is no clear position which Germany has decided. Some of the parties ‘’say’’ they maybe should become a full member (Gerhard Schröder SPD in 2004) of the union, and other’s not.
France: The French government decided to hold a referendum.
England: Since Turkey was interested to become part of the EU, England has been a strong proponent for Turkey. Gordon Brown, the prime minister actually said, “We believe that there are big gains for Britain, Turkey and Europe from a process of closer and closer collaboration of issues ranging from security, energy to cultural exchange.’’

Conclusion statement
Turkey is a large Muslim country which has crowded population and it is larger than the most of the other EU members. Turkey is not far away from Greece as geographical and cultural way. Geographical affiliation is heavily disputed and the economic situation is smaller than the average of the EU countries. In Turkey human rights are not “enough” respected and as well minorities. But the situation on both issues has intensively changed in the last few years. Turkey has been a “west” oriented country since it was established. Especially the young well educated generation will continue this process. In addition to that Turkey accepts more and more European rules and values like freedom, democracy, rule of law, and human rights.
It is a matter of fact that a membership of Turkey for both sides includes great opportunities but also high risk potential.

German Perception of Turkish

According to a study by the Interior Ministry in 2009, 4.5 million Muslims are living in Germany. About 45 percent of them have German citizenship. The largest groups of Muslims are Turkish people. They are 2.7 million people.

Reason for Migration to Germany among Turks in Germany (TIG)

* 39 percent of the TIG’s feels more home in Turkey. * 15 percent feels home in Germany. * Specific discrimination in the form of verbal abuse has been experienced by up to 29 percent. * 16 percent have experienced physical assault because of their Turkish appearance.

Attitudes toward Germany

* After all, 78 percent are willing to “integrate absolutely and without exception into German society.” * 95 Percent of the Turks in Germany find it important to preserve their Turkish culture in Germany. * 87 Percent think that Germans ought to be more considerate of the particular circumstances of the Turks.

German Point of view
The perception of them has considerably changed from the first generation, which came after 1963 as “guest workers”, today’s fourth generation, namely from ‘guest’ to ‘foreigner’ in the 80sand 90s, and again from “people with Turkish migration background “to ‘Muslim” since the turn of the millennium. The number of people who explicitly define themselves as Muslims in public discourse has also been increasing.
Turkish culture and traditions have strong influence at Turkish people. When those people immigrate to other countries psychologically they hold on to subjects from their countries more than ever. All the time this causes problems to integrate. This circumstance can be seen so clearly in Germany, since Germany has the most Turkish immigrant population.

Solution
German government should focus on integration of Turkish immigrants more. During this process the most important subjects are education and language. Because of first generations of Turkish immigrants were uneducated workers, they were holding on religion and traditions so much with the fear of loose their own identity and because of they were “guest workers” they didn’t learn the language. Also this is one of the most important subject which diverse the nationalities. At this point cultural diplomacy can be the key to solve problems of integration. Like the way USA used hip-hop as diplomacy, music can be used as cultural diplomacy tool, “music diplomacy.” Music has significant place either in German culture or Turkish culture. German government can arrange concerts every year inclusive Turkish and German singers. It can help German and Turkish people to understand each other better or share common pleasure.
Another point which can help is “theater diplomacy.” Freedom Theater can be seen as an influential example. International theaters can be organized and people living in Germany doesn’t matter Turkish, German or from another country can join this theater organization and they can play from all countries.
The last important point is, in a country so many people from so many different countries can live but they should accept that “they are from Germany” even if they are not originated German. Singapore can be seen as an example. In Singapore there is Chinese, Malays and Indies are living. They never give up from their origin nationalities but they are all proud to say “We are Singaporean.” This awareness should created on all the people living in Germany, doesn’t matter where they are coming from.

References

* (1) https://www.boundless.com/sociology/understanding-culture/culture-and-adaptation/the-origins-of-culture/

* (2) http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html

* (3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy

* http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/Europe/christian-rieck-1/A-Turkish-Problem-

* http://books.google.com.tr/books?id=bVYtZDBY52IC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=solution+for+turkish+immigrants+in+germany+and+their+cultural+conflicts&source=bl&ots=0qGLefyI3Y&sig=EOjteuC6HPTJaIF7d1s6yq31FXg&hl=tr&sa=X&ei=NhfLUs2CIeWN4wSN-YGgCQ&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=solution%20for%20turkish%20immigrants%20in%20germany%20and%20their%20cultural%20conflicts&f=false * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issues_in_Germany

* http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30712

* http://www.academia.edu/4254674/The_Religious_Turn_On_the_shifting_perception_of_Turkish_migrants_in_Germany