Abant Excitement in the Egyptian Capital

The Abant Platform conference, which took place in Paris last year, left French intellectuals bowled over by the Turkish participants' mannered style for debate, as well as by the general format of the meeting. This year's conference in Cairo left the same sort of impressions on Egyptian participants. "Tolerant and moderate debate" would define the spirit of the Abant format. What occurs at Abant conferences is true brain-storming: people express their views without clashing, and respect is accorded to the positions of all participants.

After the Abant meetings, people leave to sail off to new horizons. The chorus of voices we heard from Arab participants in Cairo over the course of two days was: "This conference has been a turning point for us. We have gained a new perspective. The most important thing we need in Egypt these days is an Abant-like Foundation." Personally, I also saw after the Cairo conference that these days it is the Islamic world which has the most need for the spirit of the Abant Platform. We could feel, down to the very marrow of our bones, the need for intellectuals from the Islamic world to come together, after a century of distance from one another. And indeed, the leaders and hosts of this year's Abant, the El-Ahram Political and Strategic Research Center, were both excited and impressed by the fact that the meeting never lost its atmosphere of tolerance, despite the open expression of very differing opinions and thoughts by participants. They were insistent about the importance of translating the speeches by the Turkish participants into Arabic as soon as possible, and about printing up a booklet on the conference right away so as to reach the widest audience possible. The of the first panel on the second day of the Abant conference was "Turkey's EU Membership Process." The of a report from the retired Ambassador Ibrahim al-Bayumi Ghanim, who is also a member of the Egyptian National Social Research Center, was "The importance of Turkey's EU membership from the perspective of the Islamic world." This was one of the most interesting talks for me. Ghanim tackled one of the most speculated-over questions: "How would a Turkish EU membership reflect on the Arab-Israeli situation?" Turkey became a NATO member in 1946, and was the first Muslim country to officially recognize Israel. During one period, it had turned its back on the Islamic world. But, as Ghanim pointed out, a new situation was at hand. Al-Ghanim expressed the belief that a Turkish EU membership would give the Islamic world a voice within the EU.

He asserted that only Turkey could balance out the affect of Israel over the EU countries. A second factor hailed as important by Ghanim is that as an EU member, Turkey would become a model for Islamic countries. Turkey would become an example in the face of the totalitarian regimes in the Middle East and Central Asia. Ghanim noted that, "there is no secularism in Arab countries, but there is heavy pressure against Islamists." He added, "The crises between religion and the state in Arab countries would be provided an historical turning-point example by a Turkey that had gained EU membership."

These views expressed by Ghanim are important in terms of the anti-EU views present in Turkey. The anti-EU factions in Turkey claim that Turkey will be forced to turn to other alternatives if not taken into the EU, but the Arab intellectuals have already named a bridge between the Islamic world and the West, and that bridge is Turkish membership in the EU. And these same Arab intellectuals have tied almost all the critical factors in the Islamic world, starting from economic development and going on to include prosperity, freedom, and advancement in the area of security, to this bridge. The 12th Abant Platform in Cairo also excited me for another reason. We seem to have for the first time reached a point where we can overcome the walls which were built up between Turkey and the Arab world since the end of the Ottoman Empire, and the mutual looks of distrust we have been flinging at each other for years. It finally appears that we can walk together into the future without scratching at the wounds from the past, taking strength instead from our shared values - and this, of course, excites me.