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Turkish StudiesPublication details including instructions for authorsand subscription informationhttpwwwtandfonlinecomloiftur20

Empire of Languages EUsMultilingualism Policy and theTurkish LanguageC Akccedila Ataccedil aa Department of Political Science and InternationalRelations Ccedilankaya University Yenimahalle-Ankara TurkeyPublished online 13 Dec 2012

To cite this article C Akccedila Ataccedil (2012) Empire of Languages EUs MultilingualismPolicy and the Turkish Language Turkish Studies 134 581-598 DOI101080146838492012746426

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101080146838492012746426

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Empire of Languages EUrsquosMultilingualism Policy and the TurkishLanguage

C AKCA ATACDepartment of Political Science and International Relations Ccedilankaya University Yenimahalle-AnkaraTurkey

ABSTRACT Despite its crucial role in sustaining better integration multilingualism is not dis-cussed as widely as the other topics of multiculturalism within the context of the EuropeanUnion (EU) enlargement The accession process requires Turkey to take notice of the oppor-tunities and shortcomings as well as the challenges of European multilingualism and tocommunicate the relevance of the Turkish language to the completeness of European multicul-turalism The present article aims to assess the EU language policy in light of the futureimperative of incorporating Turkish into Europersquos linguistic family by referring to the EUrsquoslaws norms and values as well as NGOsrsquo reports and opinion papers

There are reasons why one might think that Turkey should not be admitted tothe European Union but surely the silliest must be that Turkish is not an Indo-European language Following Phersu I can just imagine the consequences oftaking this seriously First the Basque-speaking provinces of France and Spainleave the EU along with Hungary Finland Estonia and Malta But then ofcourse India and Pakistan will submit rival applications to join closelyfollowed no doubt by the Iraqi Kurds Cosma Rohilla Shalizi ldquoThe AwfulTurkish Languagerdquo

Introduction

Several aspects of enlargement and multiculturalism such as immigration ethnicityand religion have overshadowed the possible contributions and challenges that theTurkish language is likely to offer to the European Union (EU) multilingualismA more perfect multilingualism across the EU could be established only throughthe mutual commitment of the member and candidate states to the ecumenical

Correspondence Address C Akca Atac Department of Political Science and International RelationsCcedilankaya University Eskisehir Yolu 29km 06810 Yenimahalle-Ankara Turkey Email caatacgmailcom

Turkish Studies 2012Vol 13 No 4 581ndash598 httpdxdoiorg101080146838492012746426

2012 Taylor amp Francis

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value of all the present and future official languages Within this context EU-fundedprojects trade chambers and other NGOs state officials and chief negotiators foraccession should also encourage expanded discussions on the comparative linguisticbenefits Turkey to achieve full integration needs to be acquainted with the ongoingdiscussions of multilingualism within the EU and the EU needs to fulfill its obli-gations toward the ideal of a multilingual Europe by pursuing an inclusive policytoward the Turkish language

Multilingualism has been added on the European Commission agenda upon Presi-dent Jose Manuel Barrosorsquos special request following the adhesion of Bulgaria andRomania in 2007 during the discussions for creating new portfolios for the newco-mers Before having finalized the titles of the new portfolios Barroso had to over-come the Socialist Members of European Parliaments (MEPs) opposition assertingthat multilingualism ldquois not worthy of a commissionerrdquo1 Having been surprised bythe title of the portfolio in front of them Romanians had apprehensions of theirown about being the keeper of the multilingualism in Europe At the backstage ofthe Commission Romanian journalists tried to find out whether the ldquomultilingualismportfoliordquo was an EU sanction ldquoagainst Bucharest for delays in combating corrup-tionrdquo2 Nevertheless as the EU now has 500 million citizens 27 member states 3candidate states 3 alphabets and 23 official languages multilingualism appears asa real task requiring good management and worthy of a commissioner RomanianCommissioner of Multilingualism Leonard Orban did an exceptional job andproved that multilingualism is not ldquoan ideological hobby horserdquo3 of the EU

Multilingualism presupposes respect for linguistic diversity in particular and cul-tural diversity in general It stands where national identity education policy socialcohesion complex communication good immigration policies and competitivenessintersect According to the Commissionrsquos definition multilingualism should beldquounderstood as the ability of societies institutions groups and individuals toengage on a regular basis with more than one language in their day-to-daylivesrdquo4 Within this context it should encourage language learning promote linguis-tic diversity sustain healthy and competitive economy and facilitate citizensrsquo accessto the EU legislation In doing so multilingualism should govern and manage crucialpolicy areas such as education media research and development competitivenessand social inclusion

Despite its crucial role in sustaining better integration multilingualism is not dis-cussed as widely as the other topics of multiculturalism within the context of EUenlargement In the words of Abram de Swaan the emeritus professor of socialsciences from University of Amsterdam it has remained as the ldquogreat non-dit ofthe European integrationrdquo5 for 50 years and is now a pressing issue embedded inthe attempts at managing multiculturalism The accession process requires Turkeyto take notice of the opportunities and shortcomings as well as the challenges of Euro-pean multilingualism and to communicate the relevance of the Turkish language tothe completeness of European multiculturalism The present article aims to assessthe EU language policy in light of the future imperative of incorporating Turkishinto Europersquos linguistic family by referring to the EUrsquos laws norms and values as

582 C Akca Atac

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well as NGOsrsquo reports and opinion papers Because the EUrsquos official ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage policy does not include the regional and minority languages this researchtoo is concerned only with the official languages

The EUrsquos Test with Multilingualism

On the European Commissionrsquos webpage the EUrsquos language policy is described as apolicy that ldquopromotes multilingualism and aims for a situation in which every EUcitizen can speak at least two foreign languages in addition to their mothertonguerdquo6 Multilingualism of the EU appears to be a unique characteristic amongthe organizations of the international community in terms of scope quality quantityand functionality Its legal incarnation is to be found in Articles 21314 and 290 of theTreaty and Regulation No 158 in which the legal texts published in the officiallanguages of the member states are given the ldquoequally authenticrdquo status7 As theacquis communautaire expands the documents have continued to forcefullyconfirm the authenticity of the legislation issued in the member statesrsquo officiallanguages despite the increasing number of languages and the percentage of thetranslation load This principle will continue to apply at each accession unless theEU Council takes a negative unanimous vote8 The concept of ldquoequal authenticityrdquohas been proven most crucial in granting the translated documents an unchallengedlegal status equal to that of the originals The foremost priority of the EU in its devo-tion to multilingualism lies in its obligation to create ldquolegal certaintyrdquo and guaranteeldquodemocratic accountabilityrdquo9 Before thinking in terms of cultural significance theequal treatment of languages bears importance in the processes of law-makingcourt-hearings and of course decision-making

The European debate over the institutional educational and individual multilingu-alism has been heated with the launch of the Lisbon Strategy In order to be able tocatch up with the global competition the EU adopted the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 inwhich the foreign language formation appears crucial to sustainable developmentinnovative technologies and research and development As a preparation to therelaunch of multilingualism within this context the Commission put an online con-sultation into action at the end of 2007 The relevant organizations and individualswere invited to share their opinions on creating an ideal language policy On May22 2008 at the Ministerial Conference those debates were further elaborated andpublished as the Council Conclusions In the Conclusions multilingualism isdefined as a policy that ldquoencompasses the economic social and cultural aspects oflanguages in a lifelong learningrdquo10 The Conclusions were followed in Septemberby the Commission Communication entitled ldquoMultilingualism An Asset forEurope and a Shared Commitmentrdquo The Communication encouraged the MemberStates and the European institutions to ldquojoin efforts to encourage and assist citizensin acquiring language skills and removing communication barriersrdquo11

More importantly Orban following his appointment as the multilingualism com-missioner saw fit to convene a group of experts who could provide useful insight intomultilingualism and to obtain unofficial recommendatory reports of a High Level

Empire of Languages 583

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4

Expert Group Wolfgang Mackiewicz Honorary Professor of English Philology atthe Freie Universitat Berlin was designated as the rapporteur of the Group Thefirst report was published by ldquothe Group of Intellectualsrdquo chaired by the renownedFranco-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf in January 2008 The second report empha-sizing the competitiveness and labor mobility aspects of multilingualism was pub-lished by the ldquoBusiness Forumrdquo presided by Viscount Etienne Davignon in July2008 Among the data to be taken into consideration are two Eurobarometersurveys carried out in 2001 and 2006 on the language skills in the member and can-didate states

Despite the discursive respect for multilingualism and equal treatment of the offi-cial languages managing the necessarily expanding linguistic diversity within the EUremains problematic Only recently the particular interest of Jose Manuel BarrosoPresident of the European Commission in multilingualism resulted in the creationof a portfolio at the Commission specifically designed to manage the ldquomultilingual-ism in education culture interpretation translation and publicationsrdquo as well as tomonitor ldquothe revival of the regions the advent of the knowledge society migrationinto the EU and globalisationrdquo12 Even though with the appointment of the secondBarroso Commission the individual portfolio of multilingualism has been incorpor-ated into a larger portfolio of ldquoEducation Culture Multilingualism and Youthrdquo underthe supervision of the Greek Cypriot Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou the linguis-tic challenge of the increasing number of official languages does not seem to becomea non-issue ever again for the EU

EU multilingualism is in the first place defined as the ldquodemocratic rightrdquo of themember states and citizens to ldquotheir own languagerdquo13 This definition is usefulespecially in understanding the institutional multilingualism The recognition ofone statersquos official language as an authentic EU language provides that statersquos citizenswith an unalienable right to involve in the EUrsquos decision-making process communi-cate in the bureaucratic line in their own language sit in the European Parliament asMEPs and deliver speeches in any of the EU official languages14 The sustainabilityof this democratic right however depends on extremely costly swift accurate trans-lations and excellent language skills In other words multilingualism as a democraticright requires high maintenance and a very generous budget Above all the concernsregarding the future of multilingualism financial burden stands out as the most over-whelming The institutional cost of governing a fair language regime accounts forapproximately E11 billion per year ldquorepresenting one percent of the EU budget orE25 per citizenrdquo15 In 2008 around 2500 people translated some 2 million pagesand this figure tends to rise by 5 percent each year16 If each of the 23 authenticlanguages were to be translated into the 22 other authentic languages it would beabout ldquo506 possible linguistic combinationsrdquo17

Equally significant despite the impressive amount earmarked for the multilingual-ism budget the outcomes of the linguistic-diversity policy do not necessarily suggestan ecumenical use of the EU languages The hegemony of the English language isevident an in-house battle of languages is in action 725 percent of the Commissiondocuments are originally issued in English 118 percent in French 27 percent in

584 C Akca Atac

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4

German and 13 percent in the other EU official languages18 To much annoyance ofthe French officials the widespread popularity of the English language within the EUis impressive By virtue of being ldquothe internetrsquos lingua francardquo19 or being thelanguage on which many member states spent their ldquolanguage learning provisionin primary and secondary education between 1999 and 2005rdquo20 or on account ofother obvious reasons English has gained an upper hand over the rest of the EUlanguages Furthermore mostly of convenience and practicality there has emergeda strong tendency ldquoto tolerate a de facto situation in which a single languageEnglish would be dominant in the work of the European Institutionsrdquo21 Ironicallythe lingua franca quality of English does not only challenge Europersquos linguisticdiversity but also enables the countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland toadopt inexpensive monolingual policies at the expense of other European languagesparticularly of French

Lorenzo Consoli President of the International Press Association (API) raises thisserious question that ldquoafter the enlargement of 2004rdquo in their selection of spokesper-sons the commissioners have tended ldquoto privilege English mother tongue officials inthe press roomrdquo and to prefer the ldquolanguage criteriardquo over ldquocompetence or communi-cation skillsrdquo22 What is striking Consoli adds as if no concerns were expressedregarding in-house language diversity the new High Representative for ForeignAffairs Catherine Ashton issues press releases ldquoalmost exclusively in Englishrdquo23

The hegemony of English has thus resulted in monolingual practices in the Europeaninstitutions to the extent that it has worsened the current democratic deficit troublingthe EU today on so many levels and inevitably restrains the use of other languages inthe European linguistic environment Consoli urges the EU executives to impera-tively attend to the ldquocultural pluralism at riskrdquo24 To some linguists the risk hasreached such a threatening point that the time has come to take the discussions of con-structing an artificial language European Babel seriously Since the undemocraticpredominance of English is to challenge the European linguistic diversity continu-ously the option of a neutral lingua franca may need to be considered morepersistently

It is true that with every new acquisition of the EUrsquos linguistic family the budgetand translation load will increase It is also true that the EU language policy is com-plicated enough as it is Nevertheless irreversible commitment to multilingualismshould be understood as central to successful and democratic integration Multilingu-alism proudly partakes of the essential elements that create ldquoa Community based ondiversityrdquo25 Therefore it is too valuable a cause to be conceded over budget andtranslation load Besides as will be discussed below the value of future businessto be gained as a result of perfect multilingualism would pay off the annual translationbudget of the EU multiple times Also the increase in the number of ldquoauthenticrdquolanguages does not necessarily increase the translation work at hand The Commis-sion officials believe that the linguistic diversity will lead to ldquoless but betterrdquo trans-lation since the Commission now produces documents of 15 pages while theywere 37 pages before the 2004 enlargement26

Empire of Languages 585

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ober

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4

Incomplete multilingualism evidently intensifies the democratic deficit of theEU27 Nevertheless the linguists also admit that a perfect equality among languagesis not a realistic ideal to pursue Languages ldquoin contactrdquo eventually fall into hierarch-ical order What comes to the fore as imperative therefore is not to aim at perfectmultilingualism but to manage well the dominance of powerful languages over theothers28 The more plausible way appears both to accept and control the ldquoperceivedusefulness and pertinence of one language in relation to othersrdquo To preserve thisdiverse linguistic environment the citizens of the EU must excel in language skillsand knowledge This requisite however should not exclude the necessity of master-ing English French or even German In the long run however the global compe-tition new demands of the global markets and the pressing need to better mediateimmigration disputes will prove that monolingualism or the knowledge of theEnglish language alone does not suffice The multilingualist camp assures us thatthe EU ldquo[i]nherently pluralist and multicultural in its outlookrdquo will always standas ldquoa heterogeneous entity comprised of a myriad of multilingual societiesrdquo29

Multilingualism is not a natural process that can be left on its own to take its courseIt could only live on a high-maintenance strategy of ldquoa modern and effective teachingsystemrdquo30 As proposed in the Commission Framework Strategy for Multilingualismof 2005 ldquothe learning of the mother tongue plus two languagesrdquo ldquonational plans togive coherence and direction to actions to promote multilingualismrdquo ldquobetter teachertrainingrdquo and ldquoearly language trainingrdquo31 together would interplay to support thebackbone of European multilingualism The LINGUA scheme of teaching and learn-ing European languages has in fact been designed to serve this purpose It aims tocreate multilingualism awareness through encouragement for life-long learning toadopt innovative techniques in language teachings and to render all sorts of learningtools accessible to every single language learner32 Nevertheless the LINGUA inforce since the 1990s has not so far lived up to the expectations and projectionsNeither has the 2004ndash2006 Plan of Promoting Language Learning and LinguisticDiversity Surveys demonstrate that ldquo[i]n nearly half of the Member States studentsstill do not have the opportunity to study two languages during compulsoryschoolingrdquo33

The Maalouf Report for that reason suggests a new measure that will boost up theprevious efforts of linguistic diversity the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo Groundedin the idea the Europeans should be advised ldquoto freely choose a distinctive languagedifferent from his or her language of identity and also different from his or herlanguage of international communicationrdquo This language of personal pick whichis expected to be ldquolearned intensively spoken and written fluentlyrdquo is called the ldquoper-sonal adoptive languagerdquo It will be added to the school and university curriculum andthe knowledge of that language will be accompanied by the knowledge of the countryin which the language is spoken For the success of ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo thelanguage learners should be willing to take ldquotwo separate decisionsrdquo one ldquodictated bythe needs of the broadest possible communicationrdquo the other ldquoguided by a whole hostof personal reasonsrdquo be they be emotional professional or cultural Also pairs ofmember and candidate states should establish a ldquobilateral and bilingual organizationrdquo

586 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

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The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

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Oct

ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

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ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

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4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

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4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

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ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

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ober

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4

value of all the present and future official languages Within this context EU-fundedprojects trade chambers and other NGOs state officials and chief negotiators foraccession should also encourage expanded discussions on the comparative linguisticbenefits Turkey to achieve full integration needs to be acquainted with the ongoingdiscussions of multilingualism within the EU and the EU needs to fulfill its obli-gations toward the ideal of a multilingual Europe by pursuing an inclusive policytoward the Turkish language

Multilingualism has been added on the European Commission agenda upon Presi-dent Jose Manuel Barrosorsquos special request following the adhesion of Bulgaria andRomania in 2007 during the discussions for creating new portfolios for the newco-mers Before having finalized the titles of the new portfolios Barroso had to over-come the Socialist Members of European Parliaments (MEPs) opposition assertingthat multilingualism ldquois not worthy of a commissionerrdquo1 Having been surprised bythe title of the portfolio in front of them Romanians had apprehensions of theirown about being the keeper of the multilingualism in Europe At the backstage ofthe Commission Romanian journalists tried to find out whether the ldquomultilingualismportfoliordquo was an EU sanction ldquoagainst Bucharest for delays in combating corrup-tionrdquo2 Nevertheless as the EU now has 500 million citizens 27 member states 3candidate states 3 alphabets and 23 official languages multilingualism appears asa real task requiring good management and worthy of a commissioner RomanianCommissioner of Multilingualism Leonard Orban did an exceptional job andproved that multilingualism is not ldquoan ideological hobby horserdquo3 of the EU

Multilingualism presupposes respect for linguistic diversity in particular and cul-tural diversity in general It stands where national identity education policy socialcohesion complex communication good immigration policies and competitivenessintersect According to the Commissionrsquos definition multilingualism should beldquounderstood as the ability of societies institutions groups and individuals toengage on a regular basis with more than one language in their day-to-daylivesrdquo4 Within this context it should encourage language learning promote linguis-tic diversity sustain healthy and competitive economy and facilitate citizensrsquo accessto the EU legislation In doing so multilingualism should govern and manage crucialpolicy areas such as education media research and development competitivenessand social inclusion

Despite its crucial role in sustaining better integration multilingualism is not dis-cussed as widely as the other topics of multiculturalism within the context of EUenlargement In the words of Abram de Swaan the emeritus professor of socialsciences from University of Amsterdam it has remained as the ldquogreat non-dit ofthe European integrationrdquo5 for 50 years and is now a pressing issue embedded inthe attempts at managing multiculturalism The accession process requires Turkeyto take notice of the opportunities and shortcomings as well as the challenges of Euro-pean multilingualism and to communicate the relevance of the Turkish language tothe completeness of European multiculturalism The present article aims to assessthe EU language policy in light of the future imperative of incorporating Turkishinto Europersquos linguistic family by referring to the EUrsquos laws norms and values as

582 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

well as NGOsrsquo reports and opinion papers Because the EUrsquos official ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage policy does not include the regional and minority languages this researchtoo is concerned only with the official languages

The EUrsquos Test with Multilingualism

On the European Commissionrsquos webpage the EUrsquos language policy is described as apolicy that ldquopromotes multilingualism and aims for a situation in which every EUcitizen can speak at least two foreign languages in addition to their mothertonguerdquo6 Multilingualism of the EU appears to be a unique characteristic amongthe organizations of the international community in terms of scope quality quantityand functionality Its legal incarnation is to be found in Articles 21314 and 290 of theTreaty and Regulation No 158 in which the legal texts published in the officiallanguages of the member states are given the ldquoequally authenticrdquo status7 As theacquis communautaire expands the documents have continued to forcefullyconfirm the authenticity of the legislation issued in the member statesrsquo officiallanguages despite the increasing number of languages and the percentage of thetranslation load This principle will continue to apply at each accession unless theEU Council takes a negative unanimous vote8 The concept of ldquoequal authenticityrdquohas been proven most crucial in granting the translated documents an unchallengedlegal status equal to that of the originals The foremost priority of the EU in its devo-tion to multilingualism lies in its obligation to create ldquolegal certaintyrdquo and guaranteeldquodemocratic accountabilityrdquo9 Before thinking in terms of cultural significance theequal treatment of languages bears importance in the processes of law-makingcourt-hearings and of course decision-making

The European debate over the institutional educational and individual multilingu-alism has been heated with the launch of the Lisbon Strategy In order to be able tocatch up with the global competition the EU adopted the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 inwhich the foreign language formation appears crucial to sustainable developmentinnovative technologies and research and development As a preparation to therelaunch of multilingualism within this context the Commission put an online con-sultation into action at the end of 2007 The relevant organizations and individualswere invited to share their opinions on creating an ideal language policy On May22 2008 at the Ministerial Conference those debates were further elaborated andpublished as the Council Conclusions In the Conclusions multilingualism isdefined as a policy that ldquoencompasses the economic social and cultural aspects oflanguages in a lifelong learningrdquo10 The Conclusions were followed in Septemberby the Commission Communication entitled ldquoMultilingualism An Asset forEurope and a Shared Commitmentrdquo The Communication encouraged the MemberStates and the European institutions to ldquojoin efforts to encourage and assist citizensin acquiring language skills and removing communication barriersrdquo11

More importantly Orban following his appointment as the multilingualism com-missioner saw fit to convene a group of experts who could provide useful insight intomultilingualism and to obtain unofficial recommendatory reports of a High Level

Empire of Languages 583

Dow

nloa

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939

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ober

201

4

Expert Group Wolfgang Mackiewicz Honorary Professor of English Philology atthe Freie Universitat Berlin was designated as the rapporteur of the Group Thefirst report was published by ldquothe Group of Intellectualsrdquo chaired by the renownedFranco-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf in January 2008 The second report empha-sizing the competitiveness and labor mobility aspects of multilingualism was pub-lished by the ldquoBusiness Forumrdquo presided by Viscount Etienne Davignon in July2008 Among the data to be taken into consideration are two Eurobarometersurveys carried out in 2001 and 2006 on the language skills in the member and can-didate states

Despite the discursive respect for multilingualism and equal treatment of the offi-cial languages managing the necessarily expanding linguistic diversity within the EUremains problematic Only recently the particular interest of Jose Manuel BarrosoPresident of the European Commission in multilingualism resulted in the creationof a portfolio at the Commission specifically designed to manage the ldquomultilingual-ism in education culture interpretation translation and publicationsrdquo as well as tomonitor ldquothe revival of the regions the advent of the knowledge society migrationinto the EU and globalisationrdquo12 Even though with the appointment of the secondBarroso Commission the individual portfolio of multilingualism has been incorpor-ated into a larger portfolio of ldquoEducation Culture Multilingualism and Youthrdquo underthe supervision of the Greek Cypriot Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou the linguis-tic challenge of the increasing number of official languages does not seem to becomea non-issue ever again for the EU

EU multilingualism is in the first place defined as the ldquodemocratic rightrdquo of themember states and citizens to ldquotheir own languagerdquo13 This definition is usefulespecially in understanding the institutional multilingualism The recognition ofone statersquos official language as an authentic EU language provides that statersquos citizenswith an unalienable right to involve in the EUrsquos decision-making process communi-cate in the bureaucratic line in their own language sit in the European Parliament asMEPs and deliver speeches in any of the EU official languages14 The sustainabilityof this democratic right however depends on extremely costly swift accurate trans-lations and excellent language skills In other words multilingualism as a democraticright requires high maintenance and a very generous budget Above all the concernsregarding the future of multilingualism financial burden stands out as the most over-whelming The institutional cost of governing a fair language regime accounts forapproximately E11 billion per year ldquorepresenting one percent of the EU budget orE25 per citizenrdquo15 In 2008 around 2500 people translated some 2 million pagesand this figure tends to rise by 5 percent each year16 If each of the 23 authenticlanguages were to be translated into the 22 other authentic languages it would beabout ldquo506 possible linguistic combinationsrdquo17

Equally significant despite the impressive amount earmarked for the multilingual-ism budget the outcomes of the linguistic-diversity policy do not necessarily suggestan ecumenical use of the EU languages The hegemony of the English language isevident an in-house battle of languages is in action 725 percent of the Commissiondocuments are originally issued in English 118 percent in French 27 percent in

584 C Akca Atac

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Oct

ober

201

4

German and 13 percent in the other EU official languages18 To much annoyance ofthe French officials the widespread popularity of the English language within the EUis impressive By virtue of being ldquothe internetrsquos lingua francardquo19 or being thelanguage on which many member states spent their ldquolanguage learning provisionin primary and secondary education between 1999 and 2005rdquo20 or on account ofother obvious reasons English has gained an upper hand over the rest of the EUlanguages Furthermore mostly of convenience and practicality there has emergeda strong tendency ldquoto tolerate a de facto situation in which a single languageEnglish would be dominant in the work of the European Institutionsrdquo21 Ironicallythe lingua franca quality of English does not only challenge Europersquos linguisticdiversity but also enables the countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland toadopt inexpensive monolingual policies at the expense of other European languagesparticularly of French

Lorenzo Consoli President of the International Press Association (API) raises thisserious question that ldquoafter the enlargement of 2004rdquo in their selection of spokesper-sons the commissioners have tended ldquoto privilege English mother tongue officials inthe press roomrdquo and to prefer the ldquolanguage criteriardquo over ldquocompetence or communi-cation skillsrdquo22 What is striking Consoli adds as if no concerns were expressedregarding in-house language diversity the new High Representative for ForeignAffairs Catherine Ashton issues press releases ldquoalmost exclusively in Englishrdquo23

The hegemony of English has thus resulted in monolingual practices in the Europeaninstitutions to the extent that it has worsened the current democratic deficit troublingthe EU today on so many levels and inevitably restrains the use of other languages inthe European linguistic environment Consoli urges the EU executives to impera-tively attend to the ldquocultural pluralism at riskrdquo24 To some linguists the risk hasreached such a threatening point that the time has come to take the discussions of con-structing an artificial language European Babel seriously Since the undemocraticpredominance of English is to challenge the European linguistic diversity continu-ously the option of a neutral lingua franca may need to be considered morepersistently

It is true that with every new acquisition of the EUrsquos linguistic family the budgetand translation load will increase It is also true that the EU language policy is com-plicated enough as it is Nevertheless irreversible commitment to multilingualismshould be understood as central to successful and democratic integration Multilingu-alism proudly partakes of the essential elements that create ldquoa Community based ondiversityrdquo25 Therefore it is too valuable a cause to be conceded over budget andtranslation load Besides as will be discussed below the value of future businessto be gained as a result of perfect multilingualism would pay off the annual translationbudget of the EU multiple times Also the increase in the number of ldquoauthenticrdquolanguages does not necessarily increase the translation work at hand The Commis-sion officials believe that the linguistic diversity will lead to ldquoless but betterrdquo trans-lation since the Commission now produces documents of 15 pages while theywere 37 pages before the 2004 enlargement26

Empire of Languages 585

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

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ibra

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939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Incomplete multilingualism evidently intensifies the democratic deficit of theEU27 Nevertheless the linguists also admit that a perfect equality among languagesis not a realistic ideal to pursue Languages ldquoin contactrdquo eventually fall into hierarch-ical order What comes to the fore as imperative therefore is not to aim at perfectmultilingualism but to manage well the dominance of powerful languages over theothers28 The more plausible way appears both to accept and control the ldquoperceivedusefulness and pertinence of one language in relation to othersrdquo To preserve thisdiverse linguistic environment the citizens of the EU must excel in language skillsand knowledge This requisite however should not exclude the necessity of master-ing English French or even German In the long run however the global compe-tition new demands of the global markets and the pressing need to better mediateimmigration disputes will prove that monolingualism or the knowledge of theEnglish language alone does not suffice The multilingualist camp assures us thatthe EU ldquo[i]nherently pluralist and multicultural in its outlookrdquo will always standas ldquoa heterogeneous entity comprised of a myriad of multilingual societiesrdquo29

Multilingualism is not a natural process that can be left on its own to take its courseIt could only live on a high-maintenance strategy of ldquoa modern and effective teachingsystemrdquo30 As proposed in the Commission Framework Strategy for Multilingualismof 2005 ldquothe learning of the mother tongue plus two languagesrdquo ldquonational plans togive coherence and direction to actions to promote multilingualismrdquo ldquobetter teachertrainingrdquo and ldquoearly language trainingrdquo31 together would interplay to support thebackbone of European multilingualism The LINGUA scheme of teaching and learn-ing European languages has in fact been designed to serve this purpose It aims tocreate multilingualism awareness through encouragement for life-long learning toadopt innovative techniques in language teachings and to render all sorts of learningtools accessible to every single language learner32 Nevertheless the LINGUA inforce since the 1990s has not so far lived up to the expectations and projectionsNeither has the 2004ndash2006 Plan of Promoting Language Learning and LinguisticDiversity Surveys demonstrate that ldquo[i]n nearly half of the Member States studentsstill do not have the opportunity to study two languages during compulsoryschoolingrdquo33

The Maalouf Report for that reason suggests a new measure that will boost up theprevious efforts of linguistic diversity the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo Groundedin the idea the Europeans should be advised ldquoto freely choose a distinctive languagedifferent from his or her language of identity and also different from his or herlanguage of international communicationrdquo This language of personal pick whichis expected to be ldquolearned intensively spoken and written fluentlyrdquo is called the ldquoper-sonal adoptive languagerdquo It will be added to the school and university curriculum andthe knowledge of that language will be accompanied by the knowledge of the countryin which the language is spoken For the success of ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo thelanguage learners should be willing to take ldquotwo separate decisionsrdquo one ldquodictated bythe needs of the broadest possible communicationrdquo the other ldquoguided by a whole hostof personal reasonsrdquo be they be emotional professional or cultural Also pairs ofmember and candidate states should establish a ldquobilateral and bilingual organizationrdquo

586 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

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at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

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The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

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Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

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ober

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4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

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11

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ober

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4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

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ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

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Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

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ibra

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Oct

ober

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4

well as NGOsrsquo reports and opinion papers Because the EUrsquos official ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage policy does not include the regional and minority languages this researchtoo is concerned only with the official languages

The EUrsquos Test with Multilingualism

On the European Commissionrsquos webpage the EUrsquos language policy is described as apolicy that ldquopromotes multilingualism and aims for a situation in which every EUcitizen can speak at least two foreign languages in addition to their mothertonguerdquo6 Multilingualism of the EU appears to be a unique characteristic amongthe organizations of the international community in terms of scope quality quantityand functionality Its legal incarnation is to be found in Articles 21314 and 290 of theTreaty and Regulation No 158 in which the legal texts published in the officiallanguages of the member states are given the ldquoequally authenticrdquo status7 As theacquis communautaire expands the documents have continued to forcefullyconfirm the authenticity of the legislation issued in the member statesrsquo officiallanguages despite the increasing number of languages and the percentage of thetranslation load This principle will continue to apply at each accession unless theEU Council takes a negative unanimous vote8 The concept of ldquoequal authenticityrdquohas been proven most crucial in granting the translated documents an unchallengedlegal status equal to that of the originals The foremost priority of the EU in its devo-tion to multilingualism lies in its obligation to create ldquolegal certaintyrdquo and guaranteeldquodemocratic accountabilityrdquo9 Before thinking in terms of cultural significance theequal treatment of languages bears importance in the processes of law-makingcourt-hearings and of course decision-making

The European debate over the institutional educational and individual multilingu-alism has been heated with the launch of the Lisbon Strategy In order to be able tocatch up with the global competition the EU adopted the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 inwhich the foreign language formation appears crucial to sustainable developmentinnovative technologies and research and development As a preparation to therelaunch of multilingualism within this context the Commission put an online con-sultation into action at the end of 2007 The relevant organizations and individualswere invited to share their opinions on creating an ideal language policy On May22 2008 at the Ministerial Conference those debates were further elaborated andpublished as the Council Conclusions In the Conclusions multilingualism isdefined as a policy that ldquoencompasses the economic social and cultural aspects oflanguages in a lifelong learningrdquo10 The Conclusions were followed in Septemberby the Commission Communication entitled ldquoMultilingualism An Asset forEurope and a Shared Commitmentrdquo The Communication encouraged the MemberStates and the European institutions to ldquojoin efforts to encourage and assist citizensin acquiring language skills and removing communication barriersrdquo11

More importantly Orban following his appointment as the multilingualism com-missioner saw fit to convene a group of experts who could provide useful insight intomultilingualism and to obtain unofficial recommendatory reports of a High Level

Empire of Languages 583

Dow

nloa

ded

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Oct

ober

201

4

Expert Group Wolfgang Mackiewicz Honorary Professor of English Philology atthe Freie Universitat Berlin was designated as the rapporteur of the Group Thefirst report was published by ldquothe Group of Intellectualsrdquo chaired by the renownedFranco-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf in January 2008 The second report empha-sizing the competitiveness and labor mobility aspects of multilingualism was pub-lished by the ldquoBusiness Forumrdquo presided by Viscount Etienne Davignon in July2008 Among the data to be taken into consideration are two Eurobarometersurveys carried out in 2001 and 2006 on the language skills in the member and can-didate states

Despite the discursive respect for multilingualism and equal treatment of the offi-cial languages managing the necessarily expanding linguistic diversity within the EUremains problematic Only recently the particular interest of Jose Manuel BarrosoPresident of the European Commission in multilingualism resulted in the creationof a portfolio at the Commission specifically designed to manage the ldquomultilingual-ism in education culture interpretation translation and publicationsrdquo as well as tomonitor ldquothe revival of the regions the advent of the knowledge society migrationinto the EU and globalisationrdquo12 Even though with the appointment of the secondBarroso Commission the individual portfolio of multilingualism has been incorpor-ated into a larger portfolio of ldquoEducation Culture Multilingualism and Youthrdquo underthe supervision of the Greek Cypriot Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou the linguis-tic challenge of the increasing number of official languages does not seem to becomea non-issue ever again for the EU

EU multilingualism is in the first place defined as the ldquodemocratic rightrdquo of themember states and citizens to ldquotheir own languagerdquo13 This definition is usefulespecially in understanding the institutional multilingualism The recognition ofone statersquos official language as an authentic EU language provides that statersquos citizenswith an unalienable right to involve in the EUrsquos decision-making process communi-cate in the bureaucratic line in their own language sit in the European Parliament asMEPs and deliver speeches in any of the EU official languages14 The sustainabilityof this democratic right however depends on extremely costly swift accurate trans-lations and excellent language skills In other words multilingualism as a democraticright requires high maintenance and a very generous budget Above all the concernsregarding the future of multilingualism financial burden stands out as the most over-whelming The institutional cost of governing a fair language regime accounts forapproximately E11 billion per year ldquorepresenting one percent of the EU budget orE25 per citizenrdquo15 In 2008 around 2500 people translated some 2 million pagesand this figure tends to rise by 5 percent each year16 If each of the 23 authenticlanguages were to be translated into the 22 other authentic languages it would beabout ldquo506 possible linguistic combinationsrdquo17

Equally significant despite the impressive amount earmarked for the multilingual-ism budget the outcomes of the linguistic-diversity policy do not necessarily suggestan ecumenical use of the EU languages The hegemony of the English language isevident an in-house battle of languages is in action 725 percent of the Commissiondocuments are originally issued in English 118 percent in French 27 percent in

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German and 13 percent in the other EU official languages18 To much annoyance ofthe French officials the widespread popularity of the English language within the EUis impressive By virtue of being ldquothe internetrsquos lingua francardquo19 or being thelanguage on which many member states spent their ldquolanguage learning provisionin primary and secondary education between 1999 and 2005rdquo20 or on account ofother obvious reasons English has gained an upper hand over the rest of the EUlanguages Furthermore mostly of convenience and practicality there has emergeda strong tendency ldquoto tolerate a de facto situation in which a single languageEnglish would be dominant in the work of the European Institutionsrdquo21 Ironicallythe lingua franca quality of English does not only challenge Europersquos linguisticdiversity but also enables the countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland toadopt inexpensive monolingual policies at the expense of other European languagesparticularly of French

Lorenzo Consoli President of the International Press Association (API) raises thisserious question that ldquoafter the enlargement of 2004rdquo in their selection of spokesper-sons the commissioners have tended ldquoto privilege English mother tongue officials inthe press roomrdquo and to prefer the ldquolanguage criteriardquo over ldquocompetence or communi-cation skillsrdquo22 What is striking Consoli adds as if no concerns were expressedregarding in-house language diversity the new High Representative for ForeignAffairs Catherine Ashton issues press releases ldquoalmost exclusively in Englishrdquo23

The hegemony of English has thus resulted in monolingual practices in the Europeaninstitutions to the extent that it has worsened the current democratic deficit troublingthe EU today on so many levels and inevitably restrains the use of other languages inthe European linguistic environment Consoli urges the EU executives to impera-tively attend to the ldquocultural pluralism at riskrdquo24 To some linguists the risk hasreached such a threatening point that the time has come to take the discussions of con-structing an artificial language European Babel seriously Since the undemocraticpredominance of English is to challenge the European linguistic diversity continu-ously the option of a neutral lingua franca may need to be considered morepersistently

It is true that with every new acquisition of the EUrsquos linguistic family the budgetand translation load will increase It is also true that the EU language policy is com-plicated enough as it is Nevertheless irreversible commitment to multilingualismshould be understood as central to successful and democratic integration Multilingu-alism proudly partakes of the essential elements that create ldquoa Community based ondiversityrdquo25 Therefore it is too valuable a cause to be conceded over budget andtranslation load Besides as will be discussed below the value of future businessto be gained as a result of perfect multilingualism would pay off the annual translationbudget of the EU multiple times Also the increase in the number of ldquoauthenticrdquolanguages does not necessarily increase the translation work at hand The Commis-sion officials believe that the linguistic diversity will lead to ldquoless but betterrdquo trans-lation since the Commission now produces documents of 15 pages while theywere 37 pages before the 2004 enlargement26

Empire of Languages 585

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Incomplete multilingualism evidently intensifies the democratic deficit of theEU27 Nevertheless the linguists also admit that a perfect equality among languagesis not a realistic ideal to pursue Languages ldquoin contactrdquo eventually fall into hierarch-ical order What comes to the fore as imperative therefore is not to aim at perfectmultilingualism but to manage well the dominance of powerful languages over theothers28 The more plausible way appears both to accept and control the ldquoperceivedusefulness and pertinence of one language in relation to othersrdquo To preserve thisdiverse linguistic environment the citizens of the EU must excel in language skillsand knowledge This requisite however should not exclude the necessity of master-ing English French or even German In the long run however the global compe-tition new demands of the global markets and the pressing need to better mediateimmigration disputes will prove that monolingualism or the knowledge of theEnglish language alone does not suffice The multilingualist camp assures us thatthe EU ldquo[i]nherently pluralist and multicultural in its outlookrdquo will always standas ldquoa heterogeneous entity comprised of a myriad of multilingual societiesrdquo29

Multilingualism is not a natural process that can be left on its own to take its courseIt could only live on a high-maintenance strategy of ldquoa modern and effective teachingsystemrdquo30 As proposed in the Commission Framework Strategy for Multilingualismof 2005 ldquothe learning of the mother tongue plus two languagesrdquo ldquonational plans togive coherence and direction to actions to promote multilingualismrdquo ldquobetter teachertrainingrdquo and ldquoearly language trainingrdquo31 together would interplay to support thebackbone of European multilingualism The LINGUA scheme of teaching and learn-ing European languages has in fact been designed to serve this purpose It aims tocreate multilingualism awareness through encouragement for life-long learning toadopt innovative techniques in language teachings and to render all sorts of learningtools accessible to every single language learner32 Nevertheless the LINGUA inforce since the 1990s has not so far lived up to the expectations and projectionsNeither has the 2004ndash2006 Plan of Promoting Language Learning and LinguisticDiversity Surveys demonstrate that ldquo[i]n nearly half of the Member States studentsstill do not have the opportunity to study two languages during compulsoryschoolingrdquo33

The Maalouf Report for that reason suggests a new measure that will boost up theprevious efforts of linguistic diversity the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo Groundedin the idea the Europeans should be advised ldquoto freely choose a distinctive languagedifferent from his or her language of identity and also different from his or herlanguage of international communicationrdquo This language of personal pick whichis expected to be ldquolearned intensively spoken and written fluentlyrdquo is called the ldquoper-sonal adoptive languagerdquo It will be added to the school and university curriculum andthe knowledge of that language will be accompanied by the knowledge of the countryin which the language is spoken For the success of ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo thelanguage learners should be willing to take ldquotwo separate decisionsrdquo one ldquodictated bythe needs of the broadest possible communicationrdquo the other ldquoguided by a whole hostof personal reasonsrdquo be they be emotional professional or cultural Also pairs ofmember and candidate states should establish a ldquobilateral and bilingual organizationrdquo

586 C Akca Atac

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4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

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The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

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ober

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Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

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ober

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4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

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ober

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policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

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ober

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4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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nloa

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ober

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and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

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ober

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4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

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4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

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Expert Group Wolfgang Mackiewicz Honorary Professor of English Philology atthe Freie Universitat Berlin was designated as the rapporteur of the Group Thefirst report was published by ldquothe Group of Intellectualsrdquo chaired by the renownedFranco-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf in January 2008 The second report empha-sizing the competitiveness and labor mobility aspects of multilingualism was pub-lished by the ldquoBusiness Forumrdquo presided by Viscount Etienne Davignon in July2008 Among the data to be taken into consideration are two Eurobarometersurveys carried out in 2001 and 2006 on the language skills in the member and can-didate states

Despite the discursive respect for multilingualism and equal treatment of the offi-cial languages managing the necessarily expanding linguistic diversity within the EUremains problematic Only recently the particular interest of Jose Manuel BarrosoPresident of the European Commission in multilingualism resulted in the creationof a portfolio at the Commission specifically designed to manage the ldquomultilingual-ism in education culture interpretation translation and publicationsrdquo as well as tomonitor ldquothe revival of the regions the advent of the knowledge society migrationinto the EU and globalisationrdquo12 Even though with the appointment of the secondBarroso Commission the individual portfolio of multilingualism has been incorpor-ated into a larger portfolio of ldquoEducation Culture Multilingualism and Youthrdquo underthe supervision of the Greek Cypriot Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou the linguis-tic challenge of the increasing number of official languages does not seem to becomea non-issue ever again for the EU

EU multilingualism is in the first place defined as the ldquodemocratic rightrdquo of themember states and citizens to ldquotheir own languagerdquo13 This definition is usefulespecially in understanding the institutional multilingualism The recognition ofone statersquos official language as an authentic EU language provides that statersquos citizenswith an unalienable right to involve in the EUrsquos decision-making process communi-cate in the bureaucratic line in their own language sit in the European Parliament asMEPs and deliver speeches in any of the EU official languages14 The sustainabilityof this democratic right however depends on extremely costly swift accurate trans-lations and excellent language skills In other words multilingualism as a democraticright requires high maintenance and a very generous budget Above all the concernsregarding the future of multilingualism financial burden stands out as the most over-whelming The institutional cost of governing a fair language regime accounts forapproximately E11 billion per year ldquorepresenting one percent of the EU budget orE25 per citizenrdquo15 In 2008 around 2500 people translated some 2 million pagesand this figure tends to rise by 5 percent each year16 If each of the 23 authenticlanguages were to be translated into the 22 other authentic languages it would beabout ldquo506 possible linguistic combinationsrdquo17

Equally significant despite the impressive amount earmarked for the multilingual-ism budget the outcomes of the linguistic-diversity policy do not necessarily suggestan ecumenical use of the EU languages The hegemony of the English language isevident an in-house battle of languages is in action 725 percent of the Commissiondocuments are originally issued in English 118 percent in French 27 percent in

584 C Akca Atac

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German and 13 percent in the other EU official languages18 To much annoyance ofthe French officials the widespread popularity of the English language within the EUis impressive By virtue of being ldquothe internetrsquos lingua francardquo19 or being thelanguage on which many member states spent their ldquolanguage learning provisionin primary and secondary education between 1999 and 2005rdquo20 or on account ofother obvious reasons English has gained an upper hand over the rest of the EUlanguages Furthermore mostly of convenience and practicality there has emergeda strong tendency ldquoto tolerate a de facto situation in which a single languageEnglish would be dominant in the work of the European Institutionsrdquo21 Ironicallythe lingua franca quality of English does not only challenge Europersquos linguisticdiversity but also enables the countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland toadopt inexpensive monolingual policies at the expense of other European languagesparticularly of French

Lorenzo Consoli President of the International Press Association (API) raises thisserious question that ldquoafter the enlargement of 2004rdquo in their selection of spokesper-sons the commissioners have tended ldquoto privilege English mother tongue officials inthe press roomrdquo and to prefer the ldquolanguage criteriardquo over ldquocompetence or communi-cation skillsrdquo22 What is striking Consoli adds as if no concerns were expressedregarding in-house language diversity the new High Representative for ForeignAffairs Catherine Ashton issues press releases ldquoalmost exclusively in Englishrdquo23

The hegemony of English has thus resulted in monolingual practices in the Europeaninstitutions to the extent that it has worsened the current democratic deficit troublingthe EU today on so many levels and inevitably restrains the use of other languages inthe European linguistic environment Consoli urges the EU executives to impera-tively attend to the ldquocultural pluralism at riskrdquo24 To some linguists the risk hasreached such a threatening point that the time has come to take the discussions of con-structing an artificial language European Babel seriously Since the undemocraticpredominance of English is to challenge the European linguistic diversity continu-ously the option of a neutral lingua franca may need to be considered morepersistently

It is true that with every new acquisition of the EUrsquos linguistic family the budgetand translation load will increase It is also true that the EU language policy is com-plicated enough as it is Nevertheless irreversible commitment to multilingualismshould be understood as central to successful and democratic integration Multilingu-alism proudly partakes of the essential elements that create ldquoa Community based ondiversityrdquo25 Therefore it is too valuable a cause to be conceded over budget andtranslation load Besides as will be discussed below the value of future businessto be gained as a result of perfect multilingualism would pay off the annual translationbudget of the EU multiple times Also the increase in the number of ldquoauthenticrdquolanguages does not necessarily increase the translation work at hand The Commis-sion officials believe that the linguistic diversity will lead to ldquoless but betterrdquo trans-lation since the Commission now produces documents of 15 pages while theywere 37 pages before the 2004 enlargement26

Empire of Languages 585

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ober

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4

Incomplete multilingualism evidently intensifies the democratic deficit of theEU27 Nevertheless the linguists also admit that a perfect equality among languagesis not a realistic ideal to pursue Languages ldquoin contactrdquo eventually fall into hierarch-ical order What comes to the fore as imperative therefore is not to aim at perfectmultilingualism but to manage well the dominance of powerful languages over theothers28 The more plausible way appears both to accept and control the ldquoperceivedusefulness and pertinence of one language in relation to othersrdquo To preserve thisdiverse linguistic environment the citizens of the EU must excel in language skillsand knowledge This requisite however should not exclude the necessity of master-ing English French or even German In the long run however the global compe-tition new demands of the global markets and the pressing need to better mediateimmigration disputes will prove that monolingualism or the knowledge of theEnglish language alone does not suffice The multilingualist camp assures us thatthe EU ldquo[i]nherently pluralist and multicultural in its outlookrdquo will always standas ldquoa heterogeneous entity comprised of a myriad of multilingual societiesrdquo29

Multilingualism is not a natural process that can be left on its own to take its courseIt could only live on a high-maintenance strategy of ldquoa modern and effective teachingsystemrdquo30 As proposed in the Commission Framework Strategy for Multilingualismof 2005 ldquothe learning of the mother tongue plus two languagesrdquo ldquonational plans togive coherence and direction to actions to promote multilingualismrdquo ldquobetter teachertrainingrdquo and ldquoearly language trainingrdquo31 together would interplay to support thebackbone of European multilingualism The LINGUA scheme of teaching and learn-ing European languages has in fact been designed to serve this purpose It aims tocreate multilingualism awareness through encouragement for life-long learning toadopt innovative techniques in language teachings and to render all sorts of learningtools accessible to every single language learner32 Nevertheless the LINGUA inforce since the 1990s has not so far lived up to the expectations and projectionsNeither has the 2004ndash2006 Plan of Promoting Language Learning and LinguisticDiversity Surveys demonstrate that ldquo[i]n nearly half of the Member States studentsstill do not have the opportunity to study two languages during compulsoryschoolingrdquo33

The Maalouf Report for that reason suggests a new measure that will boost up theprevious efforts of linguistic diversity the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo Groundedin the idea the Europeans should be advised ldquoto freely choose a distinctive languagedifferent from his or her language of identity and also different from his or herlanguage of international communicationrdquo This language of personal pick whichis expected to be ldquolearned intensively spoken and written fluentlyrdquo is called the ldquoper-sonal adoptive languagerdquo It will be added to the school and university curriculum andthe knowledge of that language will be accompanied by the knowledge of the countryin which the language is spoken For the success of ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo thelanguage learners should be willing to take ldquotwo separate decisionsrdquo one ldquodictated bythe needs of the broadest possible communicationrdquo the other ldquoguided by a whole hostof personal reasonsrdquo be they be emotional professional or cultural Also pairs ofmember and candidate states should establish a ldquobilateral and bilingual organizationrdquo

586 C Akca Atac

Dow

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Oct

ober

201

4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

Dow

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ober

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4

The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

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Oct

ober

201

4

Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

nloa

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ibra

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Oct

ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

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vers

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Oct

ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

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chew

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ibra

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at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

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4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

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4

German and 13 percent in the other EU official languages18 To much annoyance ofthe French officials the widespread popularity of the English language within the EUis impressive By virtue of being ldquothe internetrsquos lingua francardquo19 or being thelanguage on which many member states spent their ldquolanguage learning provisionin primary and secondary education between 1999 and 2005rdquo20 or on account ofother obvious reasons English has gained an upper hand over the rest of the EUlanguages Furthermore mostly of convenience and practicality there has emergeda strong tendency ldquoto tolerate a de facto situation in which a single languageEnglish would be dominant in the work of the European Institutionsrdquo21 Ironicallythe lingua franca quality of English does not only challenge Europersquos linguisticdiversity but also enables the countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland toadopt inexpensive monolingual policies at the expense of other European languagesparticularly of French

Lorenzo Consoli President of the International Press Association (API) raises thisserious question that ldquoafter the enlargement of 2004rdquo in their selection of spokesper-sons the commissioners have tended ldquoto privilege English mother tongue officials inthe press roomrdquo and to prefer the ldquolanguage criteriardquo over ldquocompetence or communi-cation skillsrdquo22 What is striking Consoli adds as if no concerns were expressedregarding in-house language diversity the new High Representative for ForeignAffairs Catherine Ashton issues press releases ldquoalmost exclusively in Englishrdquo23

The hegemony of English has thus resulted in monolingual practices in the Europeaninstitutions to the extent that it has worsened the current democratic deficit troublingthe EU today on so many levels and inevitably restrains the use of other languages inthe European linguistic environment Consoli urges the EU executives to impera-tively attend to the ldquocultural pluralism at riskrdquo24 To some linguists the risk hasreached such a threatening point that the time has come to take the discussions of con-structing an artificial language European Babel seriously Since the undemocraticpredominance of English is to challenge the European linguistic diversity continu-ously the option of a neutral lingua franca may need to be considered morepersistently

It is true that with every new acquisition of the EUrsquos linguistic family the budgetand translation load will increase It is also true that the EU language policy is com-plicated enough as it is Nevertheless irreversible commitment to multilingualismshould be understood as central to successful and democratic integration Multilingu-alism proudly partakes of the essential elements that create ldquoa Community based ondiversityrdquo25 Therefore it is too valuable a cause to be conceded over budget andtranslation load Besides as will be discussed below the value of future businessto be gained as a result of perfect multilingualism would pay off the annual translationbudget of the EU multiple times Also the increase in the number of ldquoauthenticrdquolanguages does not necessarily increase the translation work at hand The Commis-sion officials believe that the linguistic diversity will lead to ldquoless but betterrdquo trans-lation since the Commission now produces documents of 15 pages while theywere 37 pages before the 2004 enlargement26

Empire of Languages 585

Dow

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ober

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4

Incomplete multilingualism evidently intensifies the democratic deficit of theEU27 Nevertheless the linguists also admit that a perfect equality among languagesis not a realistic ideal to pursue Languages ldquoin contactrdquo eventually fall into hierarch-ical order What comes to the fore as imperative therefore is not to aim at perfectmultilingualism but to manage well the dominance of powerful languages over theothers28 The more plausible way appears both to accept and control the ldquoperceivedusefulness and pertinence of one language in relation to othersrdquo To preserve thisdiverse linguistic environment the citizens of the EU must excel in language skillsand knowledge This requisite however should not exclude the necessity of master-ing English French or even German In the long run however the global compe-tition new demands of the global markets and the pressing need to better mediateimmigration disputes will prove that monolingualism or the knowledge of theEnglish language alone does not suffice The multilingualist camp assures us thatthe EU ldquo[i]nherently pluralist and multicultural in its outlookrdquo will always standas ldquoa heterogeneous entity comprised of a myriad of multilingual societiesrdquo29

Multilingualism is not a natural process that can be left on its own to take its courseIt could only live on a high-maintenance strategy of ldquoa modern and effective teachingsystemrdquo30 As proposed in the Commission Framework Strategy for Multilingualismof 2005 ldquothe learning of the mother tongue plus two languagesrdquo ldquonational plans togive coherence and direction to actions to promote multilingualismrdquo ldquobetter teachertrainingrdquo and ldquoearly language trainingrdquo31 together would interplay to support thebackbone of European multilingualism The LINGUA scheme of teaching and learn-ing European languages has in fact been designed to serve this purpose It aims tocreate multilingualism awareness through encouragement for life-long learning toadopt innovative techniques in language teachings and to render all sorts of learningtools accessible to every single language learner32 Nevertheless the LINGUA inforce since the 1990s has not so far lived up to the expectations and projectionsNeither has the 2004ndash2006 Plan of Promoting Language Learning and LinguisticDiversity Surveys demonstrate that ldquo[i]n nearly half of the Member States studentsstill do not have the opportunity to study two languages during compulsoryschoolingrdquo33

The Maalouf Report for that reason suggests a new measure that will boost up theprevious efforts of linguistic diversity the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo Groundedin the idea the Europeans should be advised ldquoto freely choose a distinctive languagedifferent from his or her language of identity and also different from his or herlanguage of international communicationrdquo This language of personal pick whichis expected to be ldquolearned intensively spoken and written fluentlyrdquo is called the ldquoper-sonal adoptive languagerdquo It will be added to the school and university curriculum andthe knowledge of that language will be accompanied by the knowledge of the countryin which the language is spoken For the success of ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo thelanguage learners should be willing to take ldquotwo separate decisionsrdquo one ldquodictated bythe needs of the broadest possible communicationrdquo the other ldquoguided by a whole hostof personal reasonsrdquo be they be emotional professional or cultural Also pairs ofmember and candidate states should establish a ldquobilateral and bilingual organizationrdquo

586 C Akca Atac

Dow

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vers

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ober

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4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

Dow

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939

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Oct

ober

201

4

The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

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939

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Oct

ober

201

4

Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

nloa

ded

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ibra

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939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

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chew

an L

ibra

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at 1

939

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Oct

ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

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4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

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ober

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4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

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ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

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ober

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4

Incomplete multilingualism evidently intensifies the democratic deficit of theEU27 Nevertheless the linguists also admit that a perfect equality among languagesis not a realistic ideal to pursue Languages ldquoin contactrdquo eventually fall into hierarch-ical order What comes to the fore as imperative therefore is not to aim at perfectmultilingualism but to manage well the dominance of powerful languages over theothers28 The more plausible way appears both to accept and control the ldquoperceivedusefulness and pertinence of one language in relation to othersrdquo To preserve thisdiverse linguistic environment the citizens of the EU must excel in language skillsand knowledge This requisite however should not exclude the necessity of master-ing English French or even German In the long run however the global compe-tition new demands of the global markets and the pressing need to better mediateimmigration disputes will prove that monolingualism or the knowledge of theEnglish language alone does not suffice The multilingualist camp assures us thatthe EU ldquo[i]nherently pluralist and multicultural in its outlookrdquo will always standas ldquoa heterogeneous entity comprised of a myriad of multilingual societiesrdquo29

Multilingualism is not a natural process that can be left on its own to take its courseIt could only live on a high-maintenance strategy of ldquoa modern and effective teachingsystemrdquo30 As proposed in the Commission Framework Strategy for Multilingualismof 2005 ldquothe learning of the mother tongue plus two languagesrdquo ldquonational plans togive coherence and direction to actions to promote multilingualismrdquo ldquobetter teachertrainingrdquo and ldquoearly language trainingrdquo31 together would interplay to support thebackbone of European multilingualism The LINGUA scheme of teaching and learn-ing European languages has in fact been designed to serve this purpose It aims tocreate multilingualism awareness through encouragement for life-long learning toadopt innovative techniques in language teachings and to render all sorts of learningtools accessible to every single language learner32 Nevertheless the LINGUA inforce since the 1990s has not so far lived up to the expectations and projectionsNeither has the 2004ndash2006 Plan of Promoting Language Learning and LinguisticDiversity Surveys demonstrate that ldquo[i]n nearly half of the Member States studentsstill do not have the opportunity to study two languages during compulsoryschoolingrdquo33

The Maalouf Report for that reason suggests a new measure that will boost up theprevious efforts of linguistic diversity the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo Groundedin the idea the Europeans should be advised ldquoto freely choose a distinctive languagedifferent from his or her language of identity and also different from his or herlanguage of international communicationrdquo This language of personal pick whichis expected to be ldquolearned intensively spoken and written fluentlyrdquo is called the ldquoper-sonal adoptive languagerdquo It will be added to the school and university curriculum andthe knowledge of that language will be accompanied by the knowledge of the countryin which the language is spoken For the success of ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo thelanguage learners should be willing to take ldquotwo separate decisionsrdquo one ldquodictated bythe needs of the broadest possible communicationrdquo the other ldquoguided by a whole hostof personal reasonsrdquo be they be emotional professional or cultural Also pairs ofmember and candidate states should establish a ldquobilateral and bilingual organizationrdquo

586 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

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vers

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ober

201

4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

Dow

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ober

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4

The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

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vers

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ibra

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939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

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ity o

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ibra

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at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

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skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

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ober

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4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

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however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

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4

to substantiate this linguistic cooperation and integration A conscious and meticu-lous implementation of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagerdquo promises to bring alongdesirable results in terms of youth empowerment social justice and individualsrsquoemployability34

Multilingualism as it appears is equally essential in achieving the full employabil-ity and mobility of the individuals to promote ldquoeconomic growth and social cohesionrdquothroughout the EU The ldquoproduction transfer and application of knowledgerdquo thegoals of the Lisbon Strategy necessitate a linguistically diverse environment35

Orban asserts that people who dismiss the multilingual target of ldquo1 + 2rdquo as ldquounrea-listicrdquo make a fatal error because in his own words ldquoanyone who does not speakseveral languages will increasingly find themselves in difficulty on the labormarketrdquo36 In addition to the cognitive intellectual educational and cultural advan-tages of multilingualism its positive impact on employment and business volume hasincreasingly become more visible If not for other reasons therefore the Europeanshave come to believe in the virtue of developing multilingualism strategies to surviveand thrive in the global markets as well as to manage successful companies and com-petitive business A Commission survey estimates that ldquoeleven percent of exportingEU SMEs may be losing business because of language barriersrdquo37

Multicultural workforces in possession of linguistic and intercultural skills createbusiness and increase the global competitiveness of the local companies that theywork for Multilingual environment removes labor rigidities and market fragmenta-tions Nevertheless the Business Forum Report ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquowhich is also known as the Davignon Report and prepared upon the request ofOrban reveals that despite the business loss and 40 percent of the SMEs assesseddo not have plurilingual websites only 48 percent of the SMEs assessed have devel-oped ldquoformal languages strategiesrdquo Multilingualism still remains a goal to beachieved and it depends not only on the individual strategies of the companies butalso on a concerted effort of national trade promotion organizations Chambers ofCommerce and trade organizations Through this effort awareness should becreated to communicate the fact that ldquothe optimal level of investments for overcominglanguage barriers raises the export sale ratio by 445 percent for European SMEsrdquo38

Although in the eyes of many the EU represents an area of free movement in thefirst place the worker mobility has not reached the intended level The DavignonReport informs that ldquo[o]nly two percent of working age citizens live and work inanother Member State than their ownrdquo39 Among the factors hindering theworkersrsquo free movement and decreasing the value of European human capital thelack of linguistic skills is one of the most decisive In this regard as the Report con-cludes it is imperative to have ldquoa diversified workforce that considers all of Europetheir homebaserdquo For companies and workers willing to invest and work in multilin-gual environments the European Commission encourages their participation in theLifelong Learning Program and Leonardo da Vincirsquos vocational training Also agree-ing that the current schemes are not enough to boost up the mobility to its fullcapacity the Commission seeks to enhance the European Job Mobility Actionwithin the framework of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs40

Empire of Languages 587

Dow

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ober

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The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

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ober

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4

Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

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ibra

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ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

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ibra

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ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

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Uni

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ibra

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and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

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ober

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4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

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ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

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The Lisbon Strategy also highlights the need to attract new highly skilled immi-grant workers as a means to underpin Brusselsrsquo new initiatives in research and devel-opment informatics technology and other technological innovations The DavignonReport argues that the highly skilled immigrant workers will not only bring theirskills but also their languages that Europe needs ldquoto trade with the markets wheregrowth will still be measured in double digits in the years to comerdquo41 Therefore mul-tilingualism is essential to regulating reconciling and solving the immigration pro-blems as well as to attracting high-quality immigration which will add value to theEuropean human capital

The Impact of Turkish Language

Hurdles of budget management and monolingual tendencies stall EU multilingual-ism Yet the accession of every new member state complicates the Europeanlanguage regime even further Nevertheless multilingualism is an ideal irreversiblyembedded in the normativeness of the EU and Europersquos linguistic family is requiredto make room for the official languages of the EUrsquos newcomers This principleapplies to Turkey and the Turkish language as well It will certainly increase thetranslation costs earmarked in the language budget Given the picture depictedabove it may seem that one more language in the linguistic family of Europe willseriously jeopardize the EUrsquos ideal of arriving at an optimal language policy42 Ormost simply because Turkish is not a European language the European Commissionshould give in to the politicians such as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy whoseperception of multilingualism has been proven on numerous occasions not to be veryexpansive Sarkozyrsquos words ldquoat school I have learned that Turkey is an Asiaticcountry therefore it is not Europeanrdquo reflect his unflattering and value-chargednotion of multiculturalism43 So does his comment on the Turkish languagersquos notbeing European If such vision is to represent the official and institutional view ofthe EU of course Turkey has no place in the European multiculturalism and theTurkish language could contribute nothing to the European multilingualism

Be this as it may if in Umberto Ecorsquos words translation is really the language ofthe EU and if the translation cost is the price to be paid for democracy full inte-gration and peace then Turkish cannot simply be disregarded as a non-Europeanlanguage As the Hungarian MEP Zita Gurmai elegantly puts it ldquoall languagesencode values and perspectives that one will absorb in speaking them and that willbe lost without themrdquo44 A serious reconsideration should in effect prove that thesuccessful inclusion of Turkish into the EU languages will result in a good numberof desirable outcomes for some prolonging problems within the EU and thus willeventually make the financial cost look insignificant Turkish once an ldquoauthenticrdquolanguage of the EU will guarantee a much closer integration peaceful harmoniza-tion and perfect twinning as it will take part in an atmosphere of cultural diversityand plurality which would prevent the present tactlessness of certain Europeanleaders insisting that ldquoTurkey which is not a European country has no placeinside the European Unionrdquo45

588 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

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by [

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ibra

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Oct

ober

201

4

Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

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ded

by [

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vers

ity o

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ibra

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ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

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by [

Uni

vers

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ibra

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ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

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chew

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ibra

ry]

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939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

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by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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ibra

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ober

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Europeans are entitled to discuss Turkeyrsquos accession process long and hard and byall means to criticize its performance during the negotiations of the accession chaptersand always according to the Copenhagen criteria Nevertheless any attack at the levelof multiculturalism and multilingualism appears discriminative arbitrary and preju-diced and thus offensive to the cultural values and norms that the EU itself desires topromote Particularly judging a candidate statersquos qualifications for membership inrelation to the historical and geographical origins of its language not only hampersthat statersquos fair chance of adhesion but also harms the external perceptions of theEU as a normative global actor The way that the EU treats the candidate statesconveys a global message When the EU fails to honor its own commitmentldquo[c]ultural diversity and linguistics involve the respect of cultural identity traditionsand religionrdquo46 it does not go unnoticed

The EUrsquos language policy cannot be assessed in terms of European and non-Euro-pean languages Since the adhesion of Finland in 1995 the EUrsquos linguistic family hasbeen acquainted with non-European languages and subsequent to the 2004 enlarge-ment the Europeannon-European distinction must have faded away The possiblechallenge and contribution of Turkish to the EUrsquos language regime thereforeshould not be assessed with reference to its Europeannessnon-Europeanness Theimpact of the Turkish language should be understood within the contexts of demo-cratic deficit personal adoptive language multilingual workforce and SMEs socialpeace and good immigration policy Before elaborating on those aspects howeverfew remarks on the role that Turkish could play in the EUrsquos political harmonyshould be made The Cyprus question without a doubt is the first context in whichthis issue will be first tackled

In an interview with Euractiv Romania in 2008 then Commissioner of Multilingu-alism Orban declared that whenever the Greek Cypriot government completed therequired paperwork Turkish would become the next official EU language47

Article 3 of the Cypriot Constitution which is currently in force stipulates thatboth Greek and Turkish have official language status ldquowith no distinction madebetween themrdquo48 Evidently had the Annan Plan been accepted by Greek CypriotsTurkish would have become one of EUrsquos ldquoauthenticrdquo languages49 Nevertheless dueto the now-pending political settlement on the island the Greek Cypriot governmentdoes not fulfill its obligation of registering the Turkish language with the EuropeanCommission as an official language According to Article 8 of Regulation 11958member-state languages do not automatically obtain official status The memberstate itself is expected to apply for the registration of its official languages as officialand working languages of the EU50 Because Greek had already been an ldquoauthenticrdquoEU language and the Greek Cypriot government did not register Turkish with theCommission Cyprus when it became a member state in 2004 did not contribute alanguage to the EU

It is true that as the Commissionrsquos communication underlines ldquoMember States arethe key decision-makers on language policyrdquo51 From this perspective it seems to beup to the Greek Cypriot government to make the necessary arrangements for theTurkish language and they are entitled not to do so Nevertheless their preference

Empire of Languages 589

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

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at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

of not registering Turkish as an EU official language contradicts their official dis-course promising that ldquo[a]s an EU member Cyprusrsquos democratic institutions canguarantee the political rights and freedoms of all its citizensrdquo52 Turkish is the demo-cratic means that would provide better communication between the EU institutionsand Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot government should not be in the positionto prevent such communication In the words of a scholar of law ldquothe TurkishCypriotsrdquo should not be ldquodeprived of the possibility of using their own officiallanguage in their relations with the European institutionsrdquo53 The Greek Cypriot gov-ernmentrsquos treatment of the issue as a non-issue disturbs even its Greek Cypriot citi-zens Olga Demetriou for example highlights that the absence of Turkish in thecommunication with the EU also hampers ldquothe access of young Turkish-Cypriotsto the EU-related job marketrdquo54

The equal status of Greek and Turkish in Cyprus as a matter of fact manifests itselfon ldquoCypriot euro coinsrdquo Effective since January 1 2008 ldquoon the national siderdquo of thecoins ldquothe name lsquoCyprusrsquo reads both lsquoKYPPOSrsquo in Greek and lsquoKIBRISrsquo inTurkishrdquo55 The rights to which the coins thus testify should not be denied to theTurkish Cypriots What is more the fact that Commissioner Orban has now beenreplaced by a Cypriot Androulla Vassiliou as the Commissioner for EducationCulture Multilingualism and Youth makes the topic of EU multilingualism evenmore sensitive Vassiliou as a commissioner who rhetorically believes that ldquoeveryEU programrdquo of multilingualism should have ldquoa direct impact on citizensrsquo livesrdquo56

should not deny such impact to the Turkish Cypriot youth The Maalouf Report under-lines that ldquo[t]o neglect a language is to run the risk of seeing its speakers becoming dis-enchanted with the European projectrdquo57 The EU executives and member states shouldrealize that the failure of including Turkish in the EU languages has further aggravatedthe Turkish Cypriotsrsquo disenchantment with the EU which has been ongoing since theill fate of the Annan Plan Turkish could have helped facilitate closer reconciliation onthe island Leaving the further elaboration on this point to the actors of the Cyprusissue this study now aims to concentrate on the impact of Turkish on European multi-lingualism in the light of the future adhesion of Turkey to the EU

The EU language policy once again as the Maalouf Report stresses should be ableto provide answers to such pressing questions

how do we get so many different populations to live together in harmonyhow do we give them a sense of shared destiny and of belonging togetherShould we be seeking to define a European identity If so can this identitytake on board all our differences Can it accommodate elements of non-Euro-pean origin Is respect for cultural differences compatible with the respect forfundamental values58

For those who have said ldquoYesrdquo to the majority of the above questions Turkishmust seem as a ldquorewarding challengerdquo which the European multilingualism needsto face Another contribution to the already crowded linguistic family of Europewill result in new complexity but it will also reaffirm ldquothe need for a broader

590 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

policy to promote multilingualismrdquo59 A broader policy of multilingualism willenhance the ideal of unity in diversity and manage the tendency toward monolingu-alism better In his campaign for multilingualism awareness Orban has very aptlypointed out that Europe should resist the tendency of linguistic ldquostandardizationrdquoand seek to ldquorespect and promote differencesrdquo as well as secure democraticrights60 By this token restraining the number of EU languages will only encouragethe linguistic homogeneity which in Wrightrsquos words could not be the ldquobasis forEuropean integrationrdquo61 A multilingual democratic Europe should encompass thelanguages of the candidate states

At the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU in January 2010 MiguelAngel Moratinos Foreign Minister of Spain said that Turkey ldquowould bringEurope more advantages than drawbacksrdquo62 In this respect the Turkish languagetoo will bring ldquomore advantages than drawbackrdquo particularly to the European immi-gration policy The European public is convinced that Turkish immigrants throughoutEurope have been experiencing grave integration policies Thilo Sarrazin GermanCentral Bank executive member has expressed his discontent asking ldquoHow couldyou integrate someone who [only] reads Turkish newspapers has Turkish spousesand friends sits at Turkish coffeehouses and watches Turkish TVs at nightrdquo63 Immi-grants are rightly required to learn the language of their host countries in order to takepart in good full successful integration As Orban has forcefully stressed ldquomigrantworkers need to learn the language of their host country in order to achieve inte-gration into our societiesrdquo Language skills are proven to be mutually rewardingfor they will allow the immigrants ldquoto progress and succeed in their careersrdquo64

Nevertheless since languages define personal identities and are matters of personalpride immigrants may demonstrate resistance to learning the host countryrsquos languageas it may in their eyes stand for giving up their own national identity A European lin-guistic environment embracing Turkish may break such resistance among the Turkishimmigrants all around Europe The Maalouf Report concludes that

[j]ust as an immigrant would be encouraged to fully adopt the language of thehost country and the culture it carries it would be fair and useful for the immi-grantsrsquo languages of identity to also be part of the languages which Europeansthemselves would be encouraged to adopt65

With the conviction that their culture and language respected immigrants wouldreciprocate with increasing their language abilities with a particular focus on thehome countryrsquos language In that sense it should be expected that Turkish oncean EU language will have a positive impact on the EUrsquos immigration managementOnce given the official ldquoauthenticrdquo status Turkish which is the foremost ldquonon-indi-genous languagerdquo in Germany would encourage the Turkish immigrants to integratebetter with the German society66 The negative implications of the unfortunate wordsby the German Chancellor Angela Merkel ldquothe multicultural conceptrdquo of livingldquohappily side by side [with the Turkish immigrants] has failed and failedutterlyrdquo67 need to be undone

Empire of Languages 591

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Germany also needs to take note that the German and Turkish societies eventuallydo not have to be that different or incompatible The Eurobarometer survey of 2006has displayed that within five years from 2001 to 2006 ldquo[t]he only substantial dropin support for English equivalent to 11 points is observed in Turkeyrdquo In return ldquotheshare of Turks who perceive German as a useful language for children to learnincreases by 12 pointsrdquo68 A good language policy could actually be very practicalin healing the cultural tension between two societies and achieve some portion ofthe European integration Bilateral encouragement of language education betweentwo states could bring social peace troubled by the discourse of discrimination xeno-phobia and immigrantsrsquo cultural rigidity According to the Commission commit-ment to multilingualism ldquonecessitates understanding other people and their way ofthinking to oppose intolerance xenophobia and racismrdquo69

The Turkish language will exert an equally positive influence on business develop-ment all around Europe The Davignon Report whose motto is ldquoLanguages MeanBusinessrdquo highlights the loss of business because of the lack of language skills ofthe European SMEs The Commission has acknowledged on numerous occasionsthat the EUrsquos capacity for global competition depends on its capacity to ldquopromotea healthy multilingual economyrdquo70 The role of multilingual communication inglobal marketing and sales strategies is undeniable and within this contextTurkish comes to the fore as a useful tool to promote business in Europe Recentsurveys show that ldquonot all languages have a market valuerdquo but ldquoevery languageencapsulates an economic subjective valuerdquo because ldquothe use of each language deli-vers to its speakers a utilityrdquo71 From this standpoint emphasizing the utility ofTurkish seems only fair An EU Council conclusion of May 22 2008 on multilingu-alism stipulates that ldquo[w]ith a view to promoting economic growth and competitive-ness it is important for Europe also to maintain a sufficient knowledge base innon-European languages with a global reachrdquo72 Turkey prepares itself for the multi-lingual business environment of the EU as TUSIAD the leading Turkish businessassociation for example publishes an Intellectual Property Rights Dictionaryldquocontaining 1000 terms to be used in EU accession talksrdquo The dictionary has beenintroduced by Euractiv as ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo73

According to the renowned philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteinrsquos language gametheory an individual will agree to learn a new language ldquoif the expected returns ofher current linguistic competence are smaller than the additional net communicativebenefits expected from a new languagerdquo74 For the businessmen and SMEs that wishto invest in Turkey and its immediate and expanded neighborhood the knowledge ofTurkish will most certainly promote business While presenting Turkey as an emer-ging market equal to the Brazil Russia India and China countries the Guardianquotes an economics professor ldquoTurkeyrsquos potential lies in its ability to exploit itsproximity to markets in the region such as the Middle East Central Asia theBalkans Russia as well as taking advantage of the energy market in the regionrdquo75

The European SMEs can anticipate partaking of the spillovers in the side-businessfields of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline Nabucco pipeline and joint railway pro-jects Such commercial ventures in Turkey the Central Asian Republics Balkans

592 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

and the Middle East will prove that a working knowledge of Turkish comes handy forobvious reasons In this sense Turkey should be considered as a qualified actor totake part in the strategic partnerships and the Job Mobility Partnership which willpromote business through ldquoinvesting in human capital and developing skills for thefuturerdquo76

As the language game theory suggests ldquo[t]he home-based bias emphasizes that alack of familiarity due to cultures and languages impedes investmentsrdquo77 In order toprevent the mismanagement of business and immigration as well as to enhanceEuropersquos positive and unbiased perceptions of the Turkish culture this paper pro-poses that Turkish should be promoted throughout the EU as a ldquopersonal adoptivelanguagerdquo The promotion of Turkish will improve the European perceptions ofTurkey but for the Turkish language to be promoted the European perceptions ofTurkey need to be improved first A survey conducted by the Bosphorus UniversityIstanbul and two Spanish Institutions the University of Granada and the Auton-omous University of Madrid unveiled early last year that in a referendum onTurkeyrsquos membership 52 percent of the respondents would vote ldquoNordquo and that 39percent of the respondents perceive Turkey as ldquoa Muslim country incompatiblewith common Christian roots of Europerdquo78 Communicating Turkey the way it actu-ally is and promoting the Turkish language appear to be extremely difficult

The concept of ldquoadoptive personal languagerdquo which has been referred to as theldquolanguage of the heartrdquo79 highly depends on the external perceptions of themother country of that language Whereas Croatia another candidate country pro-vokes little opposition Turkey encounters considerable resistance The famousBritish independent policy advisor Simon Anholt in his striking comment saysthat ldquo[i]n many ways Turkeyrsquos brand image today in the West is in the sameshape as if Ataturk had never livedrdquo On this account Turkey needs a ldquocomprehen-sive and consistent strategy for gradually improving its international imagerdquo empha-sizing ldquothe real Turkey in its modern manifestationrdquo80 This strategy surely requiressubstantial planning Of course subsequent to Orhan Pamukrsquos receipt of the NobelPrize for Literature in 2006 the awareness of Turkish language and literature hasincreased Nevertheless the promotion of Turkish requires a continuous and coherentstrategy The business lobby of Turkey in this context could assume a crucial role inconveying the business value of Turkish to their European counterparts chambers ofcommerce SMEs and trade unions Languages could offer various advantages forbusiness Research demonstrates that other than its commercial value Turkish is avaluable asset for computational linguistics since it is an essential spam-filteringtool protecting the electronic communications81

As for improving Turkeyrsquos image in Europe the Turkish studentsrsquo increasingmobility within the framework of the Erasmus program has been and will continueto be transforming Europersquos perceptions of Turkey Studying and working abroadis one of the most efficient ways of engaging in multicultural and multilingualcontact In this way the Turkish youth seize the opportunity to excel in their linguisticskills represent Turkey in its modern manifestations and create an affinity for theTurkish language In order to have a more complete multilingual experience

Empire of Languages 593

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

however mobility should not be delimited to students Young workers apprenticesand investors should also acquire freedom of movement within the EU TheDavignon report testifies that most of the EU fund supporting mobility stems fromthe European Social Fund the Regional Development Fund and the CohesionFund82 Therefore we argue that Turkeyrsquos success at multilingualism depends onits access to those funds

Conclusion

Following the adhesion of Finland in 1995 Finnish had become the first non-Euro-pean language in the linguistic family of the EU When it was Finlandrsquos turn to takeover the rotating presidency for the first time on July 1 1999 a surprisingly strongopposition emerged complaining about the inappropriateness of an EU presidencywebpage in a non-European language In order to ease up the tension Finnish offi-cials came up with the solution of broadcasting and publishing Latin news-in-briefHaving enjoyed a strong tradition of Latin language and literature in Finland underthe auspices of famous scholars Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta Finlandbrought forward an easy compromise83 Thankfully with the 2004 enlargementand afterward the strict distinction of Europeannon-European language does notat least institutionally apply any more Otherwise the funds for multilingualismwould have first been allocated to Latin courses

Today in the discussions of Europersquos future multilingualism comes to the fore as anecessarily crucial ideal Despite the Commissionrsquos emphasis on the ldquomother tongueplus two foreign languagesrdquo goal Europe fails to exhibit a multilingual mapAlthough Luxembourgers (99 percent) and Latvians and Maltese (93 percent) havehigh scores in multilingualism Hungarians (71 percent) British (70 percent)Spanish Italians and Portuguese (64 percent each) do not impress the world withtheir tendency of mastering their mother tongues only84 As such the Commissionunder the conduct of Commissioner Vassiliou is planning the relaunch of multilingu-alism policies By 2012 new goals will have been set and new methods for measuringthe language competence will be used This relaunch is an opportunity for Turkey tobe involved in Europersquos multilingualism in order to complete a crucial phase of itshistorical commitment to the European integration Turkey needs to follow every dis-cussion on multilingualism

The present research attempted to draw attention to multilingualism the rather neg-lected component of multiculturalism and its role in Turkeyrsquos further integration toEurope The public opinion scholars Antonia M Ruiz-Jimenez and JoseI Torreblanca very rightly underline that ldquo[t]he key to Turkish EU membershipmay well lie in the way accession is argued and justifiedrdquo and ldquonot wholly in theway it is negotiatedrdquo85 Turkeyrsquos commitment to multilingualism and promotion ofTurkish as one of the ldquopersonal adoptive languagesrdquo will increase its chances ofarguing and justifying its membership bid In return the EU its institutions andpeoples need to be more receptive to the democratic legitimacy and business andculture value of the Turkish language Celebrating the ldquoMultilingualism Dayrdquo

594 C Akca Atac

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

Philippe Cayla the president of Euronews underlines that multilingualism is centralto all political cultures86 The jurisdiction of those words that have been spoken actu-ally in defense of the French language could certainly be extended to the use ofTurkish throughout Europe

Notes

1 Lucia Kubosova ldquoBarroso Defends Romaniarsquos New Multilingualism Jobrdquo EUObserver November15 2006 httpeuobservercom922866rk=1

2 Ibid3 ldquoCommission of the European Communities Final Report of High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo

httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangdocmultireport_enpdf 2008 p 224 Ibid p 65 Abram de Swaan Words of the World The Global Language System (Cambridge Polity Press 2001)

p 1446 ldquoEU Language Policyrdquo http eceuropeeueducationlanguageseu-langauge-policyindex_enhtm7 OJB 17 610 1958 385 Phoebus Athanassiou ldquoThe Application of Multilingualism in the European

Union Contextrdquo Legal Working Papers Series No 2 March 2006 httpwwwecbintpubpdfscplpsecblwp2pdf

8 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo p 69 Ibid

10 Council Conclusions of May 22 2008 on Multilingualism Official Journal C 140 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServdouri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML

11 ldquoCommission Communication on Multilingualism Tapping the Full Potential of Languages inEuroperdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagesnewsnews2853_enhtm

12 ldquoFinal Report High Level Group on Multilingualismrdquo pp 5 and 613 Agnieszka Doczekalska ldquoDrafting and Interpretation of EU Law-Paradoxes of Legal Multilingual-

ismrdquo in Gunther Grewendorf and Monika Rathert (eds) Formal Linguistics and Law (BerlinMouton de Gruyter 2009) p 341

14 Ibid15 ldquoEU Translation Policy lsquoHere to Stayrsquordquo February 25 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-

translation-policy-stayarticle-17051616 Ibid17 Stephan Sberro ldquoCould-and Should-English Win the lsquoLanguage Warrsquo in Regional Integration

NAFTA and EU Experiencerdquo Jean Monnet Working Paper No 13 2009 httpwwwcenterslawnyuedujeanmonnetpapers09091301 p 37

18 Ibid p 3619 Christina Julios ldquoTowards a European Language Policyrdquo in Mary Farrell Stefano Fella and Michael

Newman (eds) European Integration in the 21st Century Unity in Diversity (London Sage 2002)p 185

20 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo Communication from the Com-mission to the European Parliament the Council the European Economic and Social Committeeand the Committee of the Regions September 18 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfcom2008_056_enpdf p 10

21 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages Could Strengthen Europerdquo Proposalsfrom the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Com-mission Brussels 2008 httpeceuropeaeueducationpolicieslangdocmaaloufreport_enpdf p 4

22 ldquoCommission Wants Fewer Anglophone Spokespersonrdquo Euractiv January 22 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenfuture-eucommission-wants-fewer-anglophone-spokespersonsarticle-189155

23 Ibid24 Ibid

Empire of Languages 595

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f Sa

skat

chew

an L

ibra

ry]

at 1

939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

25 Doczekalska (2009) p 36626 ldquoEU Translation Policy Here to Stayrdquo27 Sue Wright Community and Communication The Role of Language in Nation-State Building and

European Integration (Clevendon Multilingual Ltd 2000) p 12028 Julios (2002) p 19029 Julios (2002) pp 184 186 and 19130 Leonard Orban ldquoThe Benefits and Challenges of Linguistic Diversity in Europerdquo October 23 2009

httpeuropaeurapidpressReleasesActiondoreference=SPEECH09495ampformat=HTMLampaged=1amplanguage=ENampguiLanguage=en

31 ldquoFramework Strategy for Multilingualismrdquo httpeceuropaeueducationlanguageseu-language-policydoc99_enhtm

32 Julios (2002) p 18733 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo 10 It should also be noted that the

LINGUA program was supposed to evolve eventually to a scheme of ldquoprotecting the less widely usedand less widely taught languagesrdquo Its influence has unfortunately remained limited basically to learn-ing English Sberro (2009) p 33 The Erasmus Action which funds student mobility grants enjoys arelative success nonetheless

34 ldquoA Rewarding Challenge How the Multiplicity of Languages could Strengthen Europe Proposals fromthe Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue Set Up at the Initiative of the European Commis-sionrdquo Brussels 2008 httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangd20ocmaaloufreport_enpdf pp 811 22 and 23

35 ldquoEU Multilingualism Strategy to Focus on Language Learningrdquo Euractiv February 19 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureeu-multilingualism-strategy-focus-language-learningarticle-170364

36 Orban (2009)37 ldquoCILT Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Language Skills in Enterprise

2007rdquo httpeceuropaeueducationpolicieslangkeystudies_enhtml38 ldquoLanguages Mean Business Companies Work Better with Languagesrdquo November 8 2008 httpec

europaeueducationlanguagespdfdavignon_enpdf pp 5 and 1439 Ibid p 740 ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquo pp 7 and 1141 Ibid pp 7 10 and 1142 Julios (2002) p 19543 Asharq al Awsat ldquoSarkozy lsquoA LrsquoEcole Jrsquoai Appris que la Turquie est un Pays Asiatiquersquordquo March 30

2005 wwwinfo-turcorgarticle1355html44 ldquoA lsquoLingua Francarsquo for the European Labour Marketrdquo Euractiv December 7 2010 httpwww

euractivcomenculturea-lingua-franca-european-labour-market-news-50036345 ldquoNicolas Sarkozy Un Traite Simplifie Propose au Parlement lsquoJe Veux que lrsquoEurope Changersquordquo Stras-

bourg February 21 2007 httpwwwtaurillonorgNicolas-Sarkozy-un-traite-simplifie-propose-au-Parlement

46 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for an Open European Societyrdquo Minutes of the Plenary Session at theEuropean Parliament in Strasbourg March 24 2009 httppreuractivcompress-releasemultilingualism-asset-open-european-society-8866

47 ldquoInterview Importance of Multilingualism lsquoWill not Diminishrsquordquo April 2 2008 httpwwweuractivcomencultureinterview-importance-multilingualism-diminisharticle-171266

48 Peter Yves ldquoManaging or Celebrating Linguistic Diversity in the EUrdquo 2004 httpwwwieeumontrealcapubicationsfr_fichiersCOLLOQUE-2004IvesIESfinalpdf p 6

49 Prior to Cyprusrsquos adhesion to the EU the Annan Plan was taken to referenda concurrently on both sidesof the island Whereas 75 percent of the Greek Cypriot voters said ldquoNordquo 65 percent of the TurkishCypriot voters said ldquoYesrdquo The fact that their ldquoYesrdquo vote for an EU-supported UN plan has not sub-stantially eased up the sanctions on them has caused significant resentment among Turkish CypriotsA 2007 survey showed that 65 percent of Turkish Cypriots now opted for two separate states and not a

596 C Akca Atac

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Uni

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Oct

ober

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4

united Cyprus See Mehmet Hasguler and Murat Tuzunkan ldquoCyprus at a Crossroadsrdquo Middle EastQuarterly Vol 16 No 4 (Fall 2009) pp 63ndash71

50 Doczekalska (2009) p 34251 ldquoMultilingualism An Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo p 452 Euripides L Evrivades ldquoCyprus in the European Union Prospects for Reunification Peace with

Turkey and Regional Stabilityrdquo Mediterranean Quarterly Vol 1 No 3 (Summer 2005) p 753 Atilla Arda ldquoTurkeyrsquos European Dream Starts with the Turkish Languagerdquo May 19 2006 http

wwwagoravoxcomnewseuropearticleturkey-s-european-dream-starts-483554 Olga Demetriou ldquoCatalysis Catachresis The EUrsquos Impact on the Cyprus Conflictrdquo in Thomas Diez

Mathias Albert and Stephen Stetter (eds) The European Union and Border Conflicts The Power ofIntegration and Association (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2008) p 81

55 Atilla Arda ldquoTurkish Language Enters Euro Areardquo January 24 2008 httpwwwlawofemuinfoblog200801turkish-languaghtml

56 Quoted in ldquoVassiliou Vows to Boost Student Mobility Job Skillsrdquo Euractiv January 15 2010 httpwwweuractivcomenprioritiesvassiliou-vows-boost-student-mobility-job-skillsarticle-188956

57 ldquoA Rewarding Challengerdquo p 1258 ldquoA Rewarding Challengerdquo p 359 ldquoA New Framework Strategy for Multilingualismrdquo COM (2005) 596 quoted in ldquoMultilingualism An

Asset for Europe and a Shared Commitmentrdquo p 360 Orban (2009)61 Wright (2002) p 12062 ldquoDie Turkei Gehort zu Europardquo Welt am Sonntag January 24 2010 httpwwwweltdedie-welt

politikarticle5960004Die-Tuerkei-gehoert-zu-Europahtml63 ldquoSarrazin Yine Turklere Ccedilattırdquo Deutche Welle Turkce March 10 2010 httpwwwdw-worlddedw

article0533866900html64 Orban (2009)65 ldquoA Rewarding Challengerdquo p 2066 Also in Bulgaria 8 percent of the citizens name Turkish as their mother tongue ldquoEuropeans and Their

Languages NovemberndashDecember 2005rdquo February 2006 httpeceuropaeueducationlanguagespdfdoc31_enpdf pp 5 and 6

67 Kate Connolly ldquoAngela Merkel Declares Death of German Multiculturalismrdquo Guardian October 172010 httpwwwguardiancoukworld2010oct17angela-merkel-germany-multiculturalism-failures

68 ldquoEuropeans and Their Languagesrdquo69 Quoted in ldquoLanguage Use in the EUrdquo Euractiv November 27 2009 httpwwweuractivcomen

culturelanguage-use-euarticle-13766370 Ibid71 Aurelien Portuese ldquoLaw and Economics of the European Multilingualismrdquo Social Science Research

Network July 28 2009 httpssrncomabstract=1517424 p 772 Official Journal C 140 06062008 P 0014 ndash 0015 httpeur-lexeuropaeuLexUriServLexUriServ

douri=OJC2008140001401ENHTML73 ldquoTurkey No Longer Lost in Translationrdquo Euractiv November 19 2010 httpeuractivcomen

enlargementturkey-no-longer-lost-translation-news-49986174 Quoted in ibid p 775 Simon Roughneen ldquoAfter BRIC Comes MIST the Acronym Turkey Would Certainly Welcomerdquo The

Guardian February 1 2011 httpwwwguardiancoukglobal-developmentpoverty-matters2011feb01emerging-economies-turkey-jim-oneill

76 ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquo p 1477 ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquo p 1778 ldquoEuropeans Confused about Turkey Accessionrdquo Euractiv January 27 2010 httpwwweuractiv

comenenlargementeuropeans-confused-turkey-accessionarticle-18925379 Orban (2009)

Empire of Languages 597

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939

11

Oct

ober

201

4

80 Quoted in ldquoEuropeans Fear Mass Turkish Immigration Turkey in the EU- What the Public ThinksrdquoEuractiv August 20 2009 httpwwweuractivcomenprioritiesturkey-eu-public-thinksarticle-171187

81 Levent Ozgur Tuna Gungor and Fikret Gurgen ldquoAdaptive Anti-Spam Filtering for AgglutinativeLanguages A Special Case for Turkishrdquo Pattern Recognition Letters Vol 25 (2004) pp 1819ndash1831

82 ldquoLanguages Mean Businessrdquo p 1183 For Latin fever in Finland please see ldquoThe Website and Visual Image for Finlandrsquos EU Presidency

Unveiledrdquo May 31 2006 httpwwwvnfiajankohtaistatiedotteettiedotefijspoid=156528 andNicholas Watt ldquoFinns Turn Jargon of Unio Europaea into Poetry with Weekly Latin ReadingsrdquoJuly 3 2006 httpwwwguardiancoukworld2006jul03eupolitics

84 ldquoLanguage Use in the EUrdquo85 Quoted in ldquoTurkey in EU-What the Public Thinksrdquo86 Philippe Cayla ldquoLa Journee du Multilingualismerdquo Le Monde May 4 2010 httpwwwlemondefr

ideesarticle20100504la-journee-du-multilingualisme-par-philippe-cayla_1346228_3232html

Notes on Contributor

C Akca Atac is an assistant professor of political history at Ccedilankaya University Ankara She received herPhD in history from Bilkent University and pursued postdoctoral study at the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles (UCLA) Her research interests include theories of empire historical cosmopolitanism eight-eenth-century British Empire and European integration history Among her recent publications isldquoRe-entering the Cosmopolitan Phase of Imperium Remarks on Obamarsquos Presidency and Discussionsof American Empirerdquo in Perceptions Journal of International Affairs She is currently working on herbook chapter on eighteenth-century British historiography of ancient empires to appear in EnlightenmentHistoriography which will be published by Brill Leiden in 2012

598 C Akca Atac

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Uni

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4