One of my favorite modern philosophers, Slavoj Zizek, writes in one of his articles:
"In the much celebrated free circulation opened up by global capitalism, it is 'things' (commodities) which freely circulate, while the circulation of 'persons' is more and more controlled."
I remembered the Zizek quotation after I have heard of a new, significant development about the "Visa-Free Europe For Turks" issue... (My main article is here. And expert views are here and here.)
Latest reports suggest that the United Kingdom is ready to change its legislation to allow more Turks to establish business in the country.
Ankara Embassy of the U.K announced that "the current laws are being reconsidered in order to find a suitable way that would give an opportunity to entry requests of Turkish citizens who want to establish a business in the U.K."
It should be considered as the first step for Europe Without Borders and Europe For All of Us. We should be thankful to British statesmen who have proven that they have some respect for the rule of law.
The rest of the EU took what it needs from Turkey by the Customs Union -which is functioning in advantage of the EU and against Turkish trade interests- and it tries to make us forget the target of the free movement of individuals, the second pillar of the historical process of socio-economical accession, taking its roots from 1960s.
You can question if the British response is "just pragmatic" or not, but I still wish that we could observe similar rapid reactions from all EU countries which insist to keep all those illegal boundries -like visa- up against Turks...
Then the anachronistic hypocrisy shall be over and we would have a more egalitarian, less exploitative international system where both the individuals and the commodities can go around the world without being blocked by the virtual borders...
PS: Zizek was here in Istanbul last week. I participated two of his seminars and I took the poor photo above. Maybe I can write about his speech later... His recent article on Turkey is recently published by The Guardian.
