‘It is an extremely clumsy historical analogy… everybody perceived it as inappropriate’
By Stefanos Evripidou
COMPARING NAZI Germany to anything is a “huge insult” which raises five eyebrows in Europe, said one analyst yesterday after the European Commission responded to President Demetris Christofias’ comments on Hitler last week.
Christofias was quoted in The Guardian last Friday comparing the EU’s concessions to Turkey to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, after comments made during a press briefing in Brussels.
“I don’t compare Turkey with Nazi Germany,” he said. “But it is not reasonable to say don’t challenge Turkey because it will get angry. There are rules and unfortunately Turkey does not respect those rules … This reminds me of the situation before the second world war, appeasing Hitler so he doesn’t become more aggressive. The substance of fascism was the substance of fascism. Hitler was Hitler,” he told the British newspaper.
A blogger for the Economist who had posed the question which brought on the appeasement analogy said “his aides gulped” when Christofias made the comment.
The president later played down the diplomatic faux pas saying many of his comments to The Guardian had been “distorted” despite they were attributed in quotes.
The comments were read as a slight against the European Commission for appeasing Turkey on the Cyprus issue, drawing a remarkably fast response from Brussels. At a press briefing last Friday, the same day as the publication, the Commission noted that the Cyprus talks have entered “a sensitive and decisive phase”, and appealed to “all sides to exercise restraint in public rhetoric, so as not to put the talks at risk”, in other words, avoid the pre-emptive blame game.
More emphatically, the Commission said: “In our view inappropriate historical comparisons should be avoided.”
The Commission clarified that it has made it clear Turkey’s obligation to implement the Ankara protocol was “now urgent”, noting that eight chapters in Turkey’s accession negotiations are suspended because of non-compliance. It has also made it clear that it expects Turkey to actively support the talks and contribute practically to finding a solution.
A Cypriot diplomat who wished to remain anonymous yesterday acknowledged that there was no need for Christofias to make the Nazi comparison but that the comments had been taken out of context. The president had been talking of appeasement and made it perfectly clear in no way was he relating Turkey to Nazi Germany.
“The Commission went too far in their response. We have heard statements of a worse nature by Turkish generals and officials and seen no response, especially not immediately,” he said.
Hubert Faustmann, an International Relations expert at the University of Nicosia, said the Commission was not alone in perceiving the historical comparison as “inappropriate”.
“It is an extremely clumsy historical analogy. Probably everybody perceived it as inappropriate, even in Cyprus, apart from a few domestic politicians who applauded the statement,” he said.
Even though Christofias made it clear he was not making a comparison, that’s the impression given. “He was trying to put the message across that an aggressive country pursuing aggressive policies should not be appeased. He juxtaposed Turkey not implementing the Ankara protocol with the aggressive pre-World War Two policies of Nazi Germany. You just don’t do that. Implicitly, it’s a huge insult, and in Europe, raises five eyebrows,” said Faustmann.
The analyst likened the gaffe to when the Polish President was seeking more votes in the Council, and said if Nazi Germany hadn’t killed so many Poles, Poland would have a bigger population now and therefore more votes. “The EU reacted with extreme bewilderment”.
Nazi Germany is perceived as the most evil regime in the world and making any comparisons in the EU has extremely negative connotations, he noted.
“The ‘Hitler was Hitler’ statement must have been a slip of the tongue, because it didn’t make sense. What’s worse, Christofias is a historian.”
The comments boiled down to preparations for the key December Summit where Cyprus hopes to push for additional sanctions against Turkey while the EU is keen to let it off the hook, said Faustmann.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou was yesterday unavailable for comment.
