A TURKISH PRESIDENT FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION!

BY DOGAN ÖZGÜDEN 

OPEN FORUMS 

Varoujan Sirapian (Tchobanian.org) translated this article from Turkish to French. An online translatorconverted it to English. 

The fact that Orban, a member of the Organization of Turkic States and a Turanist, assumes the presidency of the European Union for the next six months opens a new door of hope for the AKP-MHP dictatorship. 

The European Parliament elections held from 6th to 9th June in 27 EU Member States resulted in an increase in the number of parliamentary seats for far-right parties as planned. In France, the National Union (RN) came out on top with 31.5% of the vote, forcing President Macron to call early elections, while far-right parties in Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands significantly increased the number of their parliamentary seats. 

In contrast, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, which lost 8% of the vote in Hungary compared to the 2019 elections, saw its number of MEPs in the European Parliament fall from 13 to 11. 

Despite this defeat Hungary will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months from 1st July next according to a previously established timetable. 

Hungary had already held the presidency of the EU in 2011, after Orban came to power. At the time, there were no problems within the EU, because Hungary was in harmony with the other member states. 

This time around, however, many EU countries are very worried that Hungary will take over the rotating presidency due to its opposition to EU sanctions against Russia and the supply of weapons to Ukraine. 

For example, at the EU leaders’ summit held in Brussels on 14 December 2023, when the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine required the unanimous vote of all member states participating in the vote, Orban’s announcement that he would vote against from the start sparked fear among other EU members hours before the summit. 

However, aware that such an obstruction would then cost Hungary dearly, Orban had to cheat at the last moment and disappear at the time of the vote under the pretext of going to the toilet, and the vote in his absence led to a unanimous acceptance of the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine… 

Despite mistrusts and tensions, under the current partnership legislation, Hungary will be able to set the European Union’s weekly agenda for the next six months, chair the meetings of the Council of Ministers in Brussels and decide on the issues to be addressed as a priority. 

In order to downplay the reaction of other EU member states and overshadow the failure of his own party, Fidesz, in the recent elections, the Orban administration held an ambitious press conference last Tuesday and announced the policy it will pursue across the EU over the next six months with an ambitious slogan such as “Make Europe Great Again”. 

Orban, who emulated the “Make America Great Again” slogan used by his favorite, former U.S. President Donald Trump, in the 2016 election, seems hopeful that Trump will be re-elected to the presidency in the U.S. presidential elections over the next six months, despite the fact that his name has been implicated in numerous scandals. 

TURANISM IN HUNGARY, WHICH WILL ASSUME THE EU PRESIDENCY 

While Orban pins his hopes on Trump, some in the southeast of the European Union are pinning their hopes on him becoming the president of the European Union within the next six months…. At the forefront of these, undoubtedly, his old friend Recep Tayyip Erdoğan…. Yes, Hungary has been a member of the European Union for years, but it has also been an observer member of the Turkish-led Organization of Turkic States since 2018, and Orban is present at all meetings of this organization and supports all decisions imposed by Erdoğan. 

Of course, the support is mutual… Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan immediately flew to Budapest to compensate for Orban’s loss of prestige at the summit of European leaders in Brussels on December 14, 2023, and as the natural leader of the Community of Turkish States, he was quick to reassure Viktor Orban, who, like him, is a fervent Turanist. During this visit, during which Erdoğan gave Orban a TOGG car and Orban gave Erdoğan a black horse, 17 new agreements were signed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in all fields, trade volume was increased to $6 billion and Orban promised to support Turkey’s membership in the European Union. 

At the joint press conference, Orban said: “Today we have elevated our relations to the level of comprehensive strategic cooperation. I don’t know if there is something more, higher.” He then congratulated Mr. Erdoğan, saying: “You have put forward a very big project for the next century. The next century will be yours.” According to the good news given by Erdoğan during the same meeting, many joint cultural events would be organized between Turkey and Hungary in 2024, and 2025 would be celebrated as the Turkish-Hungarian Year of Science and Innovation…. Returning from Hungary, Erdoğan announced the following good news to swaying journalists gathered around a table on the plane: “Orban’s position on Turkey’s rights in the European Union has always been positive . In the second half of 2024, Turkey will take over the presidency of the EU and this process could see very different developments. We also discussed this issue with him today. Mr. Orban is a leader with whom we have positive relations. I hope that the meetings and agreements of our ministers with their counterparts will greatly facilitate our work in the following process. 

The reason for Orban’s great support is undoubtedly the fact that Hungary, along with Northern Cyprus and Turkmenistan, is an observer member of the Organization of Turkic States, which consists of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. 

The fact that the Hungarian nation has blood and linguistic ties with the Turkish nation and that Hungarian, like Turkish, belongs to the Ural-Altaic language group has been discussed in academic circles for decades as a historical thesis. In addition, Emperor Attila the Hun, who terrorized the peoples of Europe in the fifth century, was considered one of the main ancestors of their nation by some Hungarians as well as by all Turks. The adoption of Attila as the common ancestor of the two nations became official for the first time on August 18, 2015 during the “Ancestors’ Day” jointly organized by the Hungarian Turan Foundation and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) in Bugac, Hungary. 

Viktor Orban, who participated for the first time in the 6th Summit of Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States in September 2018 at the invitation of Tayyip Erdoğan, stressed that there was a link between the Hungarian language and the Turkish language, announced that he would intensify research on this issue and launched, on January 1, 2019, the Hungarian Research Institute. 

Since then, Viktor Orban has been the supreme head of the Organisation of Turkic States in the European Union and the guest of honour at all summit meetings. 

ERDOGAN’S EXPECTATIONS OF ORBAN AT THE UPCOMING NATO SUMMIT 

Orban, one of the world’s Turanist leaders, said in his speech at the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Turkish States at the presidential complex in Ankara on March 16, 2023: 

“I first came to Turkey in 2000 as Prime Minister and I have been working with President Erdoğan for more than 10 years. Over the past 23 years, I have observed the development in Turkey, the wonderful progress in Turkey. I have seen with my own eyes this wonderful progress under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. I am sure that this will continue in the future. Mr. President, I assure you that we will be proud to support you in the future, in the reconstruction process.” 

On November 3, 2023, Orban also attended the 10th summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, where he took another step into Turanism and congratulated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in his speech on the victory of the Azerbaijani army against the Armenian people in Nagorno-Karabakh with the support of Turkey. 

In short, Erdogan, who continues his policies of denial and persecution against the Kurdish nation in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and the diasporas, and Aliyev, who continues to commit genocide against the Armenian nation in the Caucasus, have a Turanist friend and supporter right in the heart of Europe, at the head of a member country of the European Union, of the Council of Europe and NATO… 

It is this Turanist friend who will preside over the European Union, of which 27 countries are members, for six months from 1 July next year… 

Having lost prestige and confidence on the international stage following his defeat in the local elections in Turkey, Erdogan, who recently met with the leaders of the Western bloc, including US President Biden, at the G7 meeting in Italy to boost his morale, and who welcomes the lifting by the United States of the embargo on the delivery of F-16 aircraft to Turkey, is no doubt delighted that a Turanist friend is presiding over the European Union from 1 July… 

To express this happiness, he telephoned Budapest for the first time on 31st May last, wishing his friend Viktor Orban a happy 61st birthday and congratulating him a month in advance on his next presidency of the European Union, which begins on 1st July, with the message “Mich nicht vergessen!” (Don’t forget me!) …. 

In addition, it is known that Erdoğan will attend the NATO summit to be held in Washington from 9 to 11 July 2024 and will try to pass the “new action plan for solidarity in the fight against terrorism”, targeting in particular the Kurdish resistance in Syria and Iraq. 

Yaşar Güler, Minister of National Defense, said after the NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels last week: “The relations between Turkey and the United States are based on a long and solid history. As you know, one of the two main threats of NATO’s new Strategic Concept is the fight against terrorism, but the current U.S. cooperation with the terrorist organization in Syria continues to threaten our national security. We expect the United States to stop all support for the PKK/YPG.” 

There is no doubt that Erdoğan is counting on the support of his Turanist friend Orban, who will be in a strong position as President of the European Union, in his efforts to have the “new action plan for solidarity in the fight against terrorism” adopted at the NATO summit he will attend in Washington… 

It seems that Budapest, the capital of Hungary, will be one of the main stops on the Red Apple Route* from July 1, 2024. 

* Red Apple: Turkish ultra-nationalists have defined “Kızıl Elma”, the “red apple”, as the objective of Turkish conquests in the West. The first objective designated by this idea of the “red apple” was Constantinople and the second, Vienna… 

Source: https://artigercek.com/makale/avrupa-birligine-bir-turki-baskan-308859 

Translated from Turkish by Varoujan Sirapian