The 'Sick Man' of the Lost Continent of Europe: EU

As you know, the phrase "Sick Man", which was frequently used in the XIXth century, the "Longest Century", was first uttered and used for the Ottoman Empire. In other words, the word 'Sick Man' is not a phrase uttered in public, it is an insulting phrase used in reference to the Ottoman Empire. Undoubtedly, the term 'Sick Man' is not used for every patient, but for a patient who has an unrelenting disease, who is in a vegetative state, who is tried to be kept alive with palliative measures, but who must be killed to relieve his pain. The most optimistic is death by euthanasia.

The concept of euthanasia, which is formed by combining the words good and death, evokes a sweet and painless death, an easy death, but the death of the Ottomans was painful and genocidal, based on extermination. That is why Prof. Stanford Shaw, the great historian of Jewish origin from the USA, a fellow historian from Bilkent University, Prof. Dr. Stanford Shaw used the term "Ottoman Holocaust" to describe the genocide that the Muslim and Jewish peoples of the Ottoman Empire were subjected to together. Although the term "Holocaust" is not shared by any nation to describe the Jewish genocide, Prof. Shaw preferred to use this term for the Muslim-Jewish citizens of the Ottoman Empire. Was it an accurate description? Undoubtedly yes. At the beginning of the twentieth century, 15 Jewish neighbourhoods in Thessaloniki, consisting of 45 neighbourhoods, suffered genocide during the Balkan War, and this was reported first hand to the US President Woodrow Wilson.

The story of the term 'Sick Man', which was first used for the Ottoman Empire, is well known. Russian Emperor Nicholas I had organised a ball in St.-Petersburg on 9 January 1853, at which the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire had expressed his opinion about the Ottoman Empire as follows:

"We have a "sick man" in our arms. He is very sick. I must tell you frankly that it would be a great disaster if we lose him one day before we take all the necessary measures. The Ottoman Empire may suddenly die. In that case, it will remain with us, we cannot resurrect the dead. When the Ottoman Empire dies, it will die never to be revived. That is why I ask you: In the face of such an event, would it not be wiser to take precautions in advance than to face confusion, anarchy and even a European war?" (1)

Tsar Nicholas I adopted the term "sick man" after this speech, and the expression "Sick man of Europe" was used for the first time in the issue of 'The New York Times' dated 12 May 1860. Indeed, the Ottoman Empire continued to lose territory due to successive wars, and its falling under the financial control of Europe led to the widespread use of this term.  Later on, the term "Sick Man of Europe" was used for European states with poor economies and entered the political science literature.

Apart from the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, which is among the G7 countries, which are the leaders of the 7 largest economies of the Western world today, was known as the "sick man of Europe" throughout the 1970s due to its poor economy compared to other European states and industrial conflicts. This course of events forced it to first enter the EEC in 1973 and then to leave the EU with BREXIT, and the United Kingdom officially left the European Union on 31 January 2020 with the recycling treaty. In the 1990s, Germany was labelled "the real sick man of Europe" by The Economist in the 1990s due to its economic problems, and in May 2005, Italy was labelled "the real sick man of Europe" by The Economist. In 2007, Morgan Stanley described France as "Europe's new sick man". In April 2007, The Economist called Portugal "Europe's new sick man", and again in 2008, The Daily Telegraph used this term for Italy. On 17 April 2020, the British newspaper Daily Mail once again carried the headline "Europe's sick man" for the country on its columns, as the coronavirus epidemic rate and mortality rate slowed down in other countries in Europe, while the epidemic rate in the UK increased day by day.

Today, the "European Union", which should have evolved into the "United States of Europe", has evolved towards the "Sick Man" mode, regrettably, because it has not been able to get rid of the guidance of the USA. And by sliding towards fascism. The reason for the slide towards fascism is the intensification of extreme right-wing movements that are pro-impoverishment, anti-immigration and pro-armament. For example, the fact that the far-right AfD came first among about one million young people voting for the first time in Germany indicates that this trend may continue to increase. Rather than an ideological stance, this situation should be perceived as a revival of nation-state reflexes as a response to current threats and the military and political costs that the US refuses to bear on Europe's behalf. Moreover, crises that could have been ignored and managed under the comfort of the US security umbrella are now much more salient. (2)

In addition, the imposing and defiant policies of the USA have once again brought the 'Ugly American' image to the centre rather than the centre of Europe. The US has not given the green light to the further transformation of the European Economic Community into the European Union. In fact, the European Union project is based on US leadership above all normative values and principled narratives. In this respect, the European Union is accurately described by the famous statement of NATO's first Secretary General: "NATO exists to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down". The post-BREXIT Pax Anglo-Americano (US-United Kingdom (UK) Peace) alliance with the US has accelerated after the UK's exit from the EU.  It is probably unnecessary to remind that the UK has maintained its continental European weakness even while in the EU and has remained close to the US, which can be characterised as the opposing camp. The way in which other European states were sacrificed when the UK, France and Germany were engaged in a war of interests, especially in the two world wars, is well remembered.

In 1990, with the "Two Plus Four Treaty" (German: Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag), the independent Germany formed by the unification of the West and the East realised almost all the goals of the "Third Reich" thanks to the European Union, and the European countries were transformed into small island states around Germany. As is well known, the Third Reich (das dritte reich) under Hitler's leadership between 1933 and 1945 was planned to consist of the corporative 'German National State' and its 'living space' (lebensraum), the colonial states. Has this goal, which could not be realised by wars in the past, been achieved today? In my opinion, yes, it has been realised, and with a smooth transition.

Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine have created a plane that has completely exposed Europe's vulnerabilities. From this point on, the European Union has become a "sick man" as a structure in Continental Europe, which is pulled in one direction by Germany on the one hand and France on the other, but at the end of the day, it cannot get out of the strategic picture of the USA and cannot produce an answer to Russia despite all the fragility and weaknesses of Russia. (2)

In Europe, which has fallen far behind the revisionist axis formed by the USA, the RF and the PRC in the global power struggle and is now geopolitically characterised as the 'lost continent', the European Parliament (EP) elections, which lasted for 4 days in 27 countries with 373 million voters who are members of the union, have also been a sign of the European Union's (EU) future shift towards fascism. With 720 seats, the 'European People's Party' group of centre-right parties, which is the most populous cluster in the EP, increased its numerical strength slightly. The clear losers were the 'Greens', the 'Socialists/Democrats' and the pro-EU liberal 'Renewal' groups. The EU has transformed from a democratic solution-producing union to a problem-producing union.  The pressure of the anti-status quo far-right or far-left parties in Europe, or more precisely extremist parties, has led to a radical political change in the EU, which is mainly based on social democratic and liberal-leaning centre parties. In other words, it is not a surprise that Europe has moved away from the so-called liberal and democratic values and anchored itself to racist, far-right, populist and Islamophobic politics. Indeed, external crises such as the European Gaza and Ukraine and internal problems in the continent have accelerated the emergence of this fascist underbelly. (3)

It seems that with these recent elections, the anti-establishment populist and racist spirit has re-emerged in Europe, further accelerating the EU's march towards the brink of hegemonic collapse. This radical change in Europe will undoubtedly have an impact on the global power map. In today's Europe, where economic and social problems have become more visible, the defence costs imposed by the US and the reaction to the imposed Ukrainian war have brought this fascist inner face to light. Mehmet Akif, who felt these days on his forehead, said beautifully in the verses of the National Anthem: "Civilisation is a one-toothed beast". Europe, which has enslaved and exploited the whole world as the sole purpose of progress and consumed its own resources, has finally understood that the end of the money and wealth flowing from the colonies all over the world is ringing the bells for itself.

Yes, dear readers, a lot of water has flowed under the bridges, the "Sick Man of Europe" of 170 years ago, the Republic of Turkey, the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, which has been kept waiting at the door of the EU for 71 years since the Ankara Treaty signed on 12 September 1963, has become a guide to the Lost Continent Europe. If the "European Union" has enough integrated energy left to evolve into the "United States of Europe", it must act with Turkey, which represents the global conscience against the US-Israeli partnership of horror and savagery. There is no other way and no other remedy.

Footnotes

(1) https://onedio.com/haber/turkiye-nin-avrupa-birligi-ne-uye-olmasini-destekleyen-10-ulke-1222704/ Accessed 15 June 2024/

(2) Ahmet Arda Şensoy, "Europe's sick man: The European Union", Yeni Şafak Gazetesi, 12/06/2024; https://www.yenisafak.com/dusunce-gunlugu/avrupanin-hasta-adami-avrupa-birligi-4626949 /Access Date 15 June 2024/

(3) Bercan Tutar, "The EU's apocalypse. The new populist wave" Sabah Gazetesi, 08 June 2024; https://www.sabah.com.tr/yazarlar/bercan-tutar/2024/06/08/abnin-kiyameti-yeni-populist-dalga/ Access Date 15 June 2024/