Köprü Anasayfa

Avrupa Birliği

"Kış 2004" 85. Sayı

  • European Union

    Editor

    We encountered the development of European countries as a phenomenon while the ottoman system had remained underdeveloped. Ottoman intelligentsia had put many discussions on it and forward some thoughts about the objections against the European dominance. The history of the Ottoman modernization consists of those kinds of discussions. During the era of republic, The European continent had represented the ‘level of modern civilization’ and been referred as the renovations.

    Along the line lasted from Ottomans to the Turkish Republic, there has been observed three attitudes towards ‘Europe’: first, to own everything from Europe, second, to oppose against everything from Europe, third, to own beauties by analyzing Europe into two parts and to oppose uglies. We can observe those three attitudes in our time.

    The subject of European Union (EU) must be handled in this general framework.

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    Bediüzzaman Said Nursi declared that it is necessary to own goodness of Europe and to refuse apathies by analyzing it. Therefore, he can be placed in the third way of attitudes towards Europe.

    Although EU was an economic unification of the European States, aimed at their common benefits at the beginning, it has showed itself as a structure working for collaborating on the universal values at the behave of human being. Today, the important criteria underlining the EU identity can be observed as the democracy based upon instutional level, the sovereignty of the law, human rights and basic freedoms and liberal economy with competition. The important step maintained to establish an EU identity as emphasized by Maastricht (07/02/1992) and Amsterdam (02/10/1997) Treaties is based upon the liberty, democracy, human rights, basic freedoms and the law state.

    Considering those properties of EU, a coincidence with the concepts of ‘the beneficial arts of human society inspired by the real religion of Jesus’, ‘Justice’ and ‘sciences serving to the right’ which had been described as ‘the first Europe’ by Bediüzzaman Said Nursi is observed. From this point of view, it can be seen as a positive improvement for the sake of Turkey to collaborate with Europe in the framework of Liberty, Justice, Human Rights, economy, science and technology.

    It will be an important phase of ‘Universal Peace’ emphasized by Bediüzzaman Said Nursi to collaborate with the EU.

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    An important question is how Moslems will protect the Islamic identity if Turkey takes its place in EU.

    Bediüzzaman who mentions about the essence of freedom of coinscience at the establishment of modern states emphasizes upon the end of the religious suppression era. According to him, Cihad, the religious war, will be performed spiritually along the way of ‘proven belief. The religious conceptions of ‘perfect enlightenment’, ‘right’ and ‘truth’ will be shown by ‘the proven belief’.

    When the Turkey takes place in the EU, it will be easy to carry ‘religious enlightenment, right and truth’ to the mass. As the increasing of believers during the peace period maintained by the Hudeybiye treatise made by Mohammad, the replacement of an Islamic society in the European community causes the increasing in the number of believers at western population. It will be possible to gather members of other religions with human values by explaining values of Islamic religion which is the ‘great humanity’.

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    The different aspect of this subject is the truth of Turkey’s attempts to open itself trying to collaborate common benefits carry away the Turkish community from a closed structure to an open society.

    Turkey had been prisoned by authoritarian practices; the human rights and freedoms had been restricted for long years. When it replaces in the EU, meeting with a knowledge society at the common basis of universal values will cause the beginning of a period of freedom widely. It will also causes important steps on rationalization and therefore, development.

    The membership of Turkey to the EU by overwhelming the closed structure will facilitate a healthy condition for relations to the Islamic World. First of all, the practices of Turkish democracy will cause an available ground for the Islam World to develop their governmental organs. That kind of available ground will facilitate the rewitalization of Islamic Unification Ideal because of the rational relations to the Islamic States.

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    The basic subject of this issue is the EU. After explaining the structure and construction period of EU, Ömer Faruk Uysal discusses the arguments opposing and supporting the EU. According to Ömer Faruk Uysal, the main arguments of those supported the EU are 1) maintenance of more liberation, the Law State and democratic government 2) demands on economic and social welfare. The opposite arguments are 1) the threat towards the national sovereignty and independence, 2) the threat against the formal Kemalist ideology, 3) the weakness of a Moslem country among the Christian community. After an analysis of two sides’ thesis, Ömer Faruk Uysal declares that the EU is not an even on the earth but it is a hope and attempt of democratization and development.

    Hüseyin Hatemi analyses the EU from the aspects of the divine love, Justice and ethic, and, he answers the question of we should be a member of EU as that we shall take our place if we can collaborate with them without giving up the principles of ethics, Justice and the divine love.

    Ali Murat Yel emphasizing upon the cultural integration of EU ‘the Europization of the people is very different from the support and opposition against the EU. Today, people describe themselves as approximately forty different nations and speak around seventy different languages. He puts the difficulty of that integration by writing that it won’t be easy to convince all those different groups to leave their nationalities by accepting an over identity.

    Feyzullah Cihangir referring to the thesis of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi who said ‘it will improve from the clearance of the present civilization and will be put forward the positive essences instead of its negative principles’ claims that the Europe united with the Copenhagen criteria which are the results of the search for solutions to the economic, social and political problems faces with its own bloody side before two world wars in a meaning and the hegemonial western civilization enters to a transformation period together with all EU communitaire in his article on the concept of Europe, the development process and the history of EU, Westernization Adventure of Turkey and relations between Turkey and EU.

    Although he does not mention about EU, Thomas Michel’s article named ‘Dialogue and Sincerity in the thought of Said Nursi’ takes place in the file because it presents any explanations on the dialogue of two different religions on which is the base axis of discussions on relations of EU and Turkey. Abdulhalim Yener examines the meaning of the Europe concept in Risale-i Nur.

    Out of these, we put the article named ‘Centennial Renewer: Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and the Tradition of Tajdid’ by Hamid Algar and the index of articles in 2003 as the appendix of 1994-2002 index.

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    As you see, we have already made some changes at the appearance of the periodical. First, we use the standart size of ‘a periodical devoted to throught’ and accordingly, we placed articles in one column. Second, we have changed the cover design. From now on, we will use an illustration or a grafic-look on the cover. Third, we have begun to publish titles of articles and editorial in English. Next, we will put the abstract of each article at the beginning.

    We hope that we will meet again at the spring issue of the periodical whose subject is Bediüzzaman Said Nursi.