Former Belgian co-chair of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission, Marc Galle, published a book in 1995 on how Europeans viewed Turkey. It was called “Turkey, the Disliked Country” (1995). The claim that Turkey is disliked among the European public has long been a fundamental argument used by European politicians to deny Turkey’s demands during negotiations: “Although you are right, we cannot agree to your demands because there is no way we could convince our public and would end up paying a heavy price for it at the first elections!” European politicians have frequently employed the “Our public dislikes you” argument to strengthen their hand against Turkey in negotiations and reduce any costs that may result from saying “no” to Turkey. They have virtually endowed the “European public” with a function similar to the hungry lions in the Coliseum at Rome. In ancient Rome, convicts sentenced to death would be thrown to the hungry, starved and tortured lions, kept in cages beneath the Coliseum and brought up to the arena via an elevator system on the day of the games. Similarly, whenever European politicians wish to kill a decision concerning Turkey, they have had the “European public” kill it on their behalf, just as the hungry lions in the arena killed the convicts in ancient Rome.

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