Turkey’s ambition to be a part of the Occident

Accession of Turkey to European Union

“I was born in Turkey and I’m fluent in Turkish.” That’s all I could say about the Turkish part of myself six months ago. Accept my family, I had nothing Turkish in my life. On February I decided to spend my year abroad in Istanbul. Many people have asked me why I didn’t choose Great Britain, US or even Australia. I could have. With all these international programs offered and the financial support of my generous parents it was possible. But can one call other places great or pretty, when one does not even know how it is at “home”?

Within those six months I couldn’t have become more Turkish. It seemed like all these missing parts of my puzzle life were found. When I hopped into the plane on my way back to Austria, I had this clear picture of Turkey with its culture, language, religion, social classes etc.

When Hendrik told us, that we had to write an academic paper for SUK3 this idea popped up in my head. I did some research about Turkey’s history in Istanbul. I went to Gallipoli (Gelibolu), where the Turks fought against the Brits in WWI. I was in Ankara at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of Turkish War of Independence and founder of the Republic of Turkey. During all my visits and after I let all these information sink in, I realized that Turkey always  had an ambition to be a part of the western World, even before the establishment of the Republic. A clear example of it is the accession of Turkey to European Union. Since 1995 it’s a “fight” (I’m not calling it a negotiation or even a discussion anymore) between Turkey and the European Union for its membership in the EU.