The migration issue in the Mediterranean is gradually turning into a chronic humanitarian problem that can be called a massacre. What lies behind this problem is certainly the economic and social problems that Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor are facing, while the crux of the problem is the West's colonial policies that started before the Industrial Revolution. African and Asian people are forced to leave their territories by risking death in and environment of increasingly adverse living conditions and escalating conflict. Desperate migrations to the West, which result in the deaths of thousands of people, have become a humanitarian plight, which is fuelled by the EU's migration policies and its failure to produce a solution.
During a recent joint press conference with Iraqi President Fuad Masum at the presidential palace, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan challenged this problem and tragedy of hundreds of people who die locked inside ships. Erdoğan is right in his objection in that Turkey has thus far accepted two million Middle Eastern refugees into the country by taking all kinds of security, social and economic risks. Today, refugee camps in Turkey's southeastern province of Kilis cannot be regarded as camps, as they have grown into modern residential areas with schools, hospitals and shopping malls. Unfortunately, however, the EU does not display the same humanitarian sensitivity to African and Middle Eastern migrants and, on top of this, it makes statements instigating such massacres. In a recent interview published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, European Parliament President Martin Schulz made a self-criticism, saying that there is no decline in death tolls and in the number of migrants. "As Europe, we have done very little to prevent such tragedies. Now, it is time to change our strategy," he added.
"As if nothing had happened, Europe should not only offer condolences, because, with this approach, the next tragedy is only a matter of time. We have open agreements. We have to have a common migration policy. Human traffickers and crime syndicates are responsible for the deaths in the Mediterranean. However, we must ask ourselves whether we have made enough effort to prevent these deaths." Following the disaster, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said they cannot acknowledge that the Mediterranean witnesses mass deaths day in and day out, calling on European leaders to act jointly against human trafficking. Renzi pointed out that this is their primary policy as required by national security. Describing human trafficking as the "plague" of the European continent, he accused Europe of its failure to form solidarity.
From my point of view, Renzi's remarks are unsatisfactory because the rationale that lies behind them is that human traffickers are guilty and they will be a deterrent to the extent that their boats sink. This is an unacceptable approach which is responsible for the deaths. Here, the problem is not human traffickers, but rather, social and economic problems and the EU's wrong migration policies.
Well, what does Turkey argue and what does the EU do in this case? Turkey desires the elimination of states which dominated the previous century in its nearby regions from Europe to the Caucasus. Thus, Turkey proposes a new order where public will is prioritized, where they can freely live with their religions and cultures, and where oppressed countries can embrace their own resources and wealth. This is why the Tsipras government's resistance to the troika of IMF, ECB and EU in Greece receives significant support from Turkey, while Germany's wrong and outdated austerity policies do not have credibility in the eyes of the Turkish state and people.
Turkey is doing what the West has thus far failed to do in northern Iraq to enable Kurdish people to make use of their natural resources. It has almost become a national policy of Turkey to form solidarity with the Palestinian people and to uncover Israeli terror on all platforms. Turkey's new refugee policy, which is particularly applied to Syrian refugees, informs us about Turkey's new regional policy. Turkey's attempts at humanitarian assistance that has outdone that of developed countries has been the most significant and concrete indicator of this policy.
What lies behind this policy is a new development approach. This new understanding shows us a path that essentially differs from the West's colonial development paradigm dating back to the early 16th century. Unlike the West's development paradigm where homogenous markets are limited by borders under the protection of nation-states, this approach is based on an understanding which foregrounds rapid integration, prioritizes a common development and living, eliminates borders in economic sense and develops technology by sharing it. It also protects religions and cultures and accepts them as they are.
Because the EU fails to understand this understanding and concomitant paradigm shift, it objects to it and tries to prevent it. The fact that Turkey faces obstacles in its EU membership is a consequence of this approach. The EU cannot continue as a nation-states' hell that pursues cruel and inhuman policies. In the 1930s, this nation-states' hell introduced humanity with Nazi fascism which Erdoğan damned during the aforementioned press conference.
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