Page 151 - A Call for a Turkish-Islamic Union

he First World War and the Second World War
taught humanity a lesson in the form of wanton
T slaughter on a global scale, major European cities
reduced to rubble, flattened housing estates, and genoci-
dal concentration camps. The West, caught in the middle

of these wars, drew a very important lesson from these
tragedies: form alliances in order to have an efficient, eas-
ier, and quicker conflict-resolution mechanism. Other Eu-
ropean countries had tried to form alliances in the past,
but these were never long-lived either because of a con-
flict of national interest or for some ideological reason.
This time, the West knew that the desired union had to be
more than just an economic or a joint defense pact; it had
to be a union established upon common cultural values.

Obviously, this is a lengthy process.
These wars devastated Europe's economy and indus-
try. The survivors had to rebuild hundreds of cities, repair
infrastructure, and reestablish a functioning education
and health system. The war was over, but now the
colonies were demanding independence. It appeared to
be a hard job to create stability as well as a union amidst

all of this disorder. The first step in this direction was the
European Coal and Steel Federation, formed in 1951 pri-
marily to serve and develop industry. This union eventu-
ally became the European Economic Community (EEC),
then the European Community (EC), and finally the Eu-
ropean Union (EU). Eventually, it became a strong union