The fall of the Berlinn Wall
While the rest of Europe was absorbed with the celebrations on the 20 year anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall, Turkey was hosting heads of state of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. In the other states that ring the “new Europe, ” they were trying to still figure out whether they fit inside or outside the new walls. Several states well within the confines nonetheless were being treated as the hole in a plump donut.
The fall of the Wall was truly transformational. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Euro-Atlantic democracies since the defeat of the Nazis and Axis. Some may argue even greater, in terms of altering long standing historical tides. However, the fall of the wall was neither a purely Western European or American deed nor does it erase other walls. In an odd twist of fate, it may be defining new walls by exclusion. The most obstructive, certainly dangerous walls that are being constructed now are those in the minds of citizens, particularly the leadership of a Europe that appears more intent in defining itself through exclusion rather than the broad mindedness one might expect of a continent still celebrating the tearing down of an authoritarian fence through its heart.
Paradise Gained
President Francoise Mitterrand was among more than a few who preferred to keep the divisions in place. Mitterrand perhaps feared a reunified Germany. Some feared the flow of people and even more capital in search of economic opportunity. Others could have felt better about their own status if they knew that there were less well off on the other side of the European Curtain. Nothing like misery of another to lift your sense of self importance! Western Europe had experienced a growing complex toward America, one defined by the US led liberation from the Nazis and institutionalized in some eyes by the omnipresence of NATO. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Iron Curtain was not so much torn down by ambivalent Western Europeans but by “East Germans,” a Polish Pope and Afghani freedom fighters preoccupied with their own battle against the Soviets.
Despite the psychosis and dubious agendas at work, nonetheless the fall of the Berlin Wall still unleashed opportunity almost as much in the “old” as the newly freed Europe. Markets were opened, and research and economic initiative was liberated from old bounds by fresh minds and enthusiasm. Europe has shown economic growth once only believed available in the US among developed economies. Of course, not all is uniformly well. Nonetheless, the recent surge in the desirability of the Euro as a currency and the adoption of the new “Lisbon Constitution,” are evidence of a new gained confidence with the increasing means to back it up.
The Fringes
It is convenient to forget about Georgia’s dismemberment. Ukraine is mostly recalled only when there is a hint of a natural gas pipeline shut off between Russia and shivering markets westward. The Caucuses are easy to confuse as being part of the Asian continent. Moldova most do not even recognize. Belarus is surrounded by a wall built from within.
The Donut Whole in the Middle
The Balkans are not on the fringe, at least not geographically. Nonetheless, some of these SE European states are dealt with as if they do not belong, at worst, and ambivalently, at best. Shared history has generally little to do with defining the perspective. Slovenia, a Republic of the former Yugoslavia which fought a brief war of independence is one of the most successful new EU partners, already exceeding economic and political credentials of some longer standing partners. Croatia, which also was engaged in a brutal war of independence, (some refer to it as a civil war), is well on its way to integration into EU and NATO, blessed with enormous resources. On the other hand, Bosnia & Herzegovina, (BiH), still recovering from brutality, genocide and abandonment is now punished with indefinite “timeouts,” as an unwanted child (despite that the EU and US have the defining capacity to steer BiH toward integration into the EU and NATO from within through the Office of the High Representative).
Legality or good behaviour is not necessarily the differentiating factor. Serbia is purportedly pressed to deliver indicted war criminals, but this conditionality appears to be conveniently ignored by much of the Western European political establishment, (with the Dutch as the only state still insistent). By comparison there is little enthusiasm for bringing Albania and Kosovo into the club. Is it Serbia’s lack of eagerness to meet conditionality and presumably be invited into the club that perhaps makes it a more attractive inductee into the fraternity of Euro-Atlantic states? Seems almost sophomoric! Is it Serbia’s flirtations, intimacy with Russia? But then, why not the same consideration for Montenegro or Macedonia?
By coincidence or otherwise, what seems to determine ostracization versus inclusion as Euro-Atlantic partners is religion. Albania and Bosnia & Herzegovina have substantively different cultural, social and recent historical considerations, from each other, but along with Kosovo are the most likely to remain a hole in the donut, and it is more than fair, necessary to ask is it religion? And, regardless of how big or small, this hole will remain with all of its potential dangers to the whole if not included as part of the whole.
Why is Religion Defining Future?
Plausible deniability may be stretched in BiH and other states of the “Balkans” where Muslims are an absolute or relative majority, but with respect to Turkey, religion is openly cited by opponents to its inclusion into the EU, (Turkey has been a charter member of NATO). Ironically, it has been Turkey’s pivotal role in challenging Soviet expansion along the southern flank that has defended the alliance of free states and ultimately spurred the collapse of what Ronald Reagan called the “Evil Empire” and its “Wall.” So, Turkey is too Muslim!
Maybe I’m just not agile enough with my intellectual integrity, but it seems rather odd that many in Europe should want to define the future of the continent on exactly the rationale by which they accuse Muslims stereotypically, an over dependency on religious identity. Oh yes, the case is made by some that Europe is a Christian continent, but that is also a highly flawed augment. Moorish Spain helped keep the lights on while most of the rest of Europe was in the Dark Ages. Sicily, southern Italy, much of SE Europe and Caucuses was defined by Islamic political rule even as religious pluralism persevered due to relative tolerance when religious wars pervaded the rest of the continent. If indirectly, Islamic culture helped shaped the Renaissance of the continent, from science and math to architecture and the weapons of war. Columbus did not have to convince the Islamic world that the earth was not flat.
If history has taught anything about the nature of Europe, or at least much of its leaders is that Muslims and Jews, as non-Christians have been regularly targeted for conversion or expulsion. Undoubtedly examples of excess abound when religion is cited from any perspective, but the institutionalization of intolerance from the Crusades to pogroms is something that today’s Europe should not quickly blurr away into historical rationalizations.
Barriers of the Mind
While the Berlin Wall was a physical manifestation of the divide that cut through Europe two decades earlier, it was the mental, perhaps psychological barrier that was most daunting. MTV held its European Awards show in Berlin to also mark the 20 year anniversary. While reporting on the music and glitz of the celebratory moment, CNN focused on U2 and other showmen, (some barely old enough to recall the tearing down of the Wall), but Bill Roedy, MTV and VIACOM International Chair, the man behind the show, was the most profound interview. CNN noted that Bill, a West Point graduate had served in the US military along the old Wall, but that his greater contribution to victory came as MTV head in breaking down the communications and mental barriers. Never underestimate the power of the mind, either in breaking down or erecting seemingly impassable barriers.
That Europe overcame again to emphasize is an achievement of proportions that mark centuries. Even after the Wall fell, the US again took the lead as compared to many ambivalent and reluctant Western Europeans, (through such bipartisan forums as the New Atlantic Initiative and bi-partisan leadership that included Senator Joe Biden and Richard Perle), in promoting NATO expansion both as a means of institutionalizing the new security situation and encouraging EU inclusion. Overcoming the current divide that is entrenched in the divisive thinking and stereotypes of the last century is as yet unclaimed achievement that would help define the new Millennium, either in a progressive or regressive trends.
Russia has been conveniently ignored in my analysis. It is not that I do not believe that Russia is not Europe, (or if you prefer, to extract the triple “nots:” I do believe that Russia is part of Europe). While as Turkey, most of Russia’s territory is in Asia, it is also historically and otherwise linked to the European continent. However, Russia is able to define its own terms for interaction with the rest of Europe, due to size, political and military capacity. The door will always remain unlocked, even if it may seem shut and the timing for evolution of this relationship will be mutually established on basis of respect for each others’ strengths.
Excluding Turkey, (and other Muslim majority areas as BiH or Albania), risks becoming a barrier that will transcend ages and mindsets. A fence that blocks out states on the basis of religion will become a reciprocal arrangement establishing a bipolar or “tri-polar” world with potentially exclusive agendas with not only ideologies and weapons but such factors as disease and hunger that can traverse the globe in hours. In this way, Turkey playing host to Islamic leaders can be perceived by its European neighbors as an example of mutual exclusivity, or, in the alternative, as Europe also as host when democratic and open political methodologies may be our best strategic response to a world that can longer be defended by physical walls. Look what happened to the last wall dividing Europe and what happened to those who erected it.
