Turkey’s AK Party vision of Europe is very different from Europe’s own
Gamon McLellan
By Gamon McLellan
Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies
Friday 13 March 2015
“We are part of Europe. Europe is us, we are Europe.” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s words in January this year echoed those of his predecessor Turgut Özal who had first submitted Turkey’s application to join the EEC in 1987. He was speaking to his fellow Justice and Development Party (AK Party) MPs after a hurried visit to Paris, where he marched alongside President Hollande and other world leaders to commemorate the victims of the Paris murders. What he said may have chimed with the discussion of reconciliation between faiths. But instead of echoing a strong defence of free speech across Europe in reaction to the killings, he emphasised the dangers of Islamophobia. Turkey, he declared, would never permit racism towards Muslims in Europe. Later, he argued that freedom of expression starts where mutual respect begins. He had been in Paris “in the name of Turkey, in the name of the Islamic world, essentially to proclaim the reality that no link can be made between terrorist activities and Islam... We have never remained silent and never will remain silent in the face of any insult to our blessed Prophet.”
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