5 years ago, Turkey must have seemed like a godsend to Western politicians and generals. Here was a strong, secular, tolerant state that accepted democracy, free speech and all religions. The economy was great; prosperity, unlike in Britain, was being shared with the poor, access to healthcare and education had risen and all the while, poverty was falling. There was even an end in sight to the perpetual wars against the Kurdish forces. Best of all, Turkey was willing to trade with the EU, to the point where it became the EU’s biggest trading partner due to its advantageous location as a bridge between the Middle East (which was yet to be plummeted into a hellfire of civil wars, bombs and proxy wars) and Europe (which was more preoccupied with fixing its staggering economy than the first signs of rot in the Middle East).
Fast forward 5 years, and Turkey seems more like the joker of the pack, cruelly taunting the West. The secularism and the tolerant democracy seem to be a world away as President Erdogan crushes his opposition, blocks certain internet sites that may contain opinions unfavourable to the government, and censors the country’s biggest newspaper when it dares to speak out on his abuse of power. The economy remains good – the 17th largest in the world – despite the rise of IS and Turkey’s very confused position on who it actually supports in the war against it. GDP per purchasing power is above Portugal and Greece and just slightly below Spain, plus Turkey’s deficit and central government debt is nowhere near the economic mess that these countries are in. This is the problem for the EU. Cut off the increasingly totalitarian Turkey, or accept it into the European community with all its lovely money? However, this problem is not restricted to just Turkey and the EU, it appears that Western governments need to take a far harder line in terms of the countries they choose to trade with and fund.
To take a further look at Turkey, the picture would horrify any liberal thinker. Turkey has become the meat grinder of the refugee crisis, throwing out hundreds every day, knowing they will wash up on European shores. Turkey has refused to help stem the flow unless it is granted E.U membership – outright political bribery being the order of the day here. EU membership for Turkey could potentially destroy the little credibility the EU has left. Imagine an organisation trying to save lives linking up with a nation state that has begun actively pursuing genocide against Kurdish civilians, killing unarmed women and children. Even babies have not been spared Erdogan’s bloody bullets.
Kurdish retaliation has been swift. Car bombs in cities around Turkey have already killed innocent civilians. Kurdish fighters and Peshmerga returning from the front against the battered Islamic State (from whom Turkey bought oil and indirectly supported), will not lay down their weapons after decades of warfare. The EU should compromise. We will accept Turkey, when Turkey halts the genocide against the Kurds and grants them some land for their own Kurdish state, and when President Erdogan accepts freedom of speech and freedom of the press, enshrined in the declaration of Human Rights – which was set up by the UN, which Turkey remains a part of, despite violating numerous treaties.
Let’s move on from Turkey, to China. China has been accused of making people disappear. China props up the mad, bad, and often just sad North Korean regime. The country is ranked 132nd on the Human Freedom Index by the Cato Institute, out of 152 countries, below such cuddly governments as Russia, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uganda. China is a country that George Osborne thinks we should have much closer relations with, because they have more money than us. It may not have occurred to Mr Osborne that the reason they’re much richer than us is because we actually have labour laws that mean employers can’t build unsafe factories for minimal profit; cramming them full of its own starving, sickly citizens who work unsafe hours in unsafe conditions making clothes for companies that pay more money for a pair of jeans than the workers will see in a year. Britain is 9th on the Freedom Index, above Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal. We should not be making deals with states that resemble Britain 300 years ago. In fact, we should be calling for international sanctions and punishments. Western countries should steer clear of cheap Chinese steel, and China should not have any place whatsoever at the UN. We must send a message that Western morals cannot be bought.
Finally, let’s take a look at Saudi Arabia, with whom Britain managed to make an embarrassing £5.6 billion from arms sales last year. Those arms have been used to commit war crimes against the Houthis in Yemen this year, thus making Britain (and the rest of the West) rather complicit in the events which they group together to condemn as ‘troubles in the Middle East’. The fact is that the West openly trades with a state where, if I was to live there and publish this piece, I could possibly be beaten, tortured, whipped, sexually assaulted, deprived of sleep, and executed. And those are only the torture methods we know about; Saudi Arabia is accused of creating IS by promoting its aggressive brand of Sunni Islam. Non-Sunni’s are banned from politics – not that it matters since Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. Where China resembles Industrial Revolution-era Britain, Saudi Arabia gives horrifying insight to Europe in the Dark Ages (if you replace the aggressive Islam with aggressive Christianity). The fact that Britain considers Saudi Arabia an ally and has sent a royal delegation there in the past is nothing short of disgusting. It’s an insult to women, to LGBTQ people, to Shia Muslims and to free speech activists, all of whom would face prison in Saudi Arabia. The West must stop trade with the Saudis. Floundering oil prices have stalled the Saudi economy, but we are part of the machine propping up this awful state.
However, the West has not completely turned a blind eye. The EU has placed embargoes on Zimbabwe, Belarus, Syria, and Egypt in the past 5 years, showing that it will stand up to some countries violating human rights. Yet there is still a double standard with sanctions, that whenever a country could provide a monetary benefit to the E.U the threat of sanctions suddenly disappears. This is not good enough. The West must hold morals above money and stand up for Human Rights all around the world and in all countries, no matter how big and threatening the bully is.
Words by Gabriel Rutherford.
With thanks from the author to: The World Bank, The UN, The Cato Institute, Human Rights Watch, Democracy Now, BBC News, and Private Eye Magazine