Ryan Moore

March 8th 2011

Day One: UETD
Our first meeting was with the European Union Turkish Democrats. During this meeting
the group spoke to us about their mission, their goals, and some of their recent activities. The
mission of this group is “statute optimization of European Turks „Euro Turks‟ on a political and
socio-economical level.” To complete this mission they have five goals.
The first goal is the promotion of a sociological identity. These Euro Turks hold on to
their Turkish origin and culture for a positive contribution and social enrichment of the European
Union. Part of this goal is to show other Europeans that that this is a positive consequence of
globalization and it should not be looked at with suspicion. The second goal is to promote
political participation. UETD wants to do away with the term “integration” and focus on
“participation” of Euro Turks in European life, particularly in politics. Part of this goal is to
convince governments and people to use this new term. The third goal of the UETD is to
promote intercultural dialogue and combat discrimination, racism, and extreme nationalism.
This is done by political participation and through lobbying for initiatives at the community and
trans-community level. The final goal is to make a decision on the EU membership of Turkey.
This goal is different from the first objective and it seems that the UETD is for membership,
though it is not on the top of their priorities.
To reach these goals UETD has hosted and participated in many events. Some of these
events include a forum on Belgian Turk‟s political integration in 2006, participation in an
Ottoman historical symposium, intercultural discussions, concerts, and press conferences on
issues such as the flotilla raid, Turkey‟s constitutional reforms, and human rights.
We also had the opportunity to ask questions. I asked if there had been any significant
accomplishments of these goals that they are particularly proud of. I was told that before 2004
the concept of Euro Turk did not exist. They have achieved this goal and it is seen as an
important accomplishment because it serves as the foundation to the rest of their program. I also
asked if there are any barriers in achieving these goals and it turns out that on many levels there
are barriers. From the citizen level there is ignorance about Euro Turks from both Europeans
and even Turkish citizens. On the Belgian level there are invisible barriers in the political
framework that hurt their goals. The EU‟s fault is that it promotes a lack of participation which
prevents them from gaining additional supporters.
Before attending this meeting I never even thought of the idea of a Euro Turk. This was
an enlightening meeting and it helped me understand the separation between the Turks in Turkey
and the Turks in Europe. I also learned that whether fair or not the Turks in Europe are what
most of the Europeans think of as Turks. If they do not assimilate or participate in Belgian or
European life it makes Turkey look bad which in turn hurts the accession process. The UETD
actually has a positive effect on the accession process by developing an identity of Euro Turks
and helping fight the negative identification of Europeans that happen to be of Turkish descent.