Interview

Ambassador Serenius: A Thriving Identity In Europe

by Bernard KENNEDY

For a small nation, the Finns have played a noteworthy role in the saga of Turkey's relations with the European Union in recent years. It was at the Helsinki summit in 1999, during the premiership of Paavo Lipponen, that Turkey's candidacy for membership was affirmed. A former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, chaired the commission of nine distinguished Europeans including former prime ministers and foreign ministers which last September recommended that accession negotiations should commence. And the new EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, who was due to visit Ankara early this month, is also a native of Finland.

As President Ahmet Necdet Sezer prepares to visit Finland, crowning a series of ministerial and parliamentary level exchanges, Diplomat spoke to Finnish Ambassador to Ankara Maria Serenius. Ambassador Serenius began her career in development cooperation and has held postings in almost every region of the world: Sri Lanka, Cairo, Geneva, Tokyo, Los Angeles. She was serving as Director General for Africa and the Middle East at the Finnish Foreign Ministry when she was appointed ambassador to Ankara last year.

The interview was conducted by Bernard Kennedy. It was not long before the conversation turned to the EU...... .

Q You have worked in very different capacities in some very different countries. How does Ankara compare?

A Every post is special in its own way. Turkey was always an important country but now that EU accession negotiations are imminent there is a totally new level of interest in Turkey in all EU countries. I am privileged to be here at this unique, historical moment. Finland will take over the EU presidency next year, after Austria, and that will be an additional challenge.

Q What does the accession process mean for your Embassy?

A The EU process affects everything - politics, economics, culture... It's an element that runs through everything we do. Analysing what's going on in Turkey in all these fields presents a great challenge. In these special circumstances, one of my principles is not only to make Finland known in Turkey - which is the usual work of an ambassador - but also to improve knowledge of Turkey in Finland. I am afraid we don't know Turkey well enough at the moment. The thing is, we have to increase the contact with Turkey at all levels. Contacts between NGOs are important. It may not always be easy, but the more contacts the better.

Q In what ways do you co-operate with the other EU embassies and the EU Commission delegation?

A The EU embassies co-operate very closely. We have meetings of ambassadors regularly. The deputies and the people dealing with economical and trade issues have their own meetings too, and so do the consular officials. At all levels the co-ordination is working very well. The EU Commission has a large and growing delegation here. We have close relations with them especially in areas where the Commission is competent in EU terms - trade policy, to give one example. And of course it is the Commission which will lead the accession negotiations. We feel we have excellent relations with the Commission.

Q What particular contribution can Finland make to Turkey-EU ties?

A I think mainly we can share our experience in the accession process. We joined the EU in 1995 together with Sweden and Austria. The negotiations were relatively easy for us because we had already adjusted our legislation in the context of the European Economic Area  Nevertheless, the Finns had their initial doubts. We are a small country. We worried about losing our sovereignty to Brussels and we feared we would shed our very specific identity. In practice, the opposite has happened. Strange though it may sound, we have become more European but also more Finnish. If you are confident in your identity this is quite possible.

Finland is a beautiful country with 200,000 lakes and as many islands. We were afraid that foreigners would come and buy up all our summer cottages. This didn't happen. Perhaps the cold climate and short holiday season helped us there.

Q How much of your time do you spend on EU matters and how much on bilateral issues?

A That's a difficult question. It is not always easy to distinguish between the two. We use all of the "tool box" provided by the EU - Socrates, Erasmus, twinning programmes. For example, a Finnish consultancy company has won a tender for the twinning programme in safety at work. It's EU-related but there is a bilateral dimension as well.

Q What is the current state of economic relations between Finland and Turkey? Are they dominated by telecommunications?

A All the biggest Finnish companies are represented in Turkey and they have been for 20-30 years. Nokia was the first to invest, in 1962, in a cable factory in Izmit. In those days, Nokia was involved in toilet paper, cables, rubber boots and car tires. Later on it decided to concentrate on wireless technology. Currently, about 20 Finnish companies have their own offices in Turkey and 200 Finnish companies have agents. We also export machinery - pulp and paper machinery, for example, and elevators.

Q What is Turkey known for in Finland?

A It's not well known in Finland that Turkey manufactures cars, for example. Turkey is better known for things like carpets - oriental stuff - and textiles. And of course tourism. About 80,000 Finns come to Turkey annually. Last year the numbers increased by 30% and there will be a further increase this year. The people here are friendly and a direct flight across eastern Europe to Antalya takes only three hours. There has been quite a lot of interest among Finns in golfing holidays in Belek. I think this is the way Turkey should go in order to earn more revenues from its visitors.

Q What are your plans for expanding the ties between the two countries?

A I am trying to promote trade in both directions very much. We established a Turkish-Finnish business guild in Istanbul last Autumn and it has raised quite a lot of interest.

We plan to be active in health, forestry, the environment and IT. Turks, especially young people, are very technology-savvy in the way they use their cell-phones and so on. They seem to want the latest technology. I would like to build on that. I have visited the science park at the Middle East Technical University and I would like to create some co-operation in this field. We plan to hold a seminar here on the information society in Finland. Culturally we have plans in the area of music and art.

Q Speaking of culture, is it true that the Turkish and Finnish languages are related?

A We have a very specific language, Finnish, which is unlike German or Scandinavian languages and resembles only Hungarian or Estonian. It is thought - not proven - that our languages are related to Turkish within the so-called "Ural-Altaic" group. It's undeniable that the structure and intonation of the languages are the same. When Turks pronounce Finnish they get the accent right straight away. There is a belief in Turkey that we are cousins - the story goes that we both started out in the steppes of Central Asia but later went our own ways. It's a very attractive idea.

Q The Helsinki Final Act of 1975 was a turning point in the Cold War. What roles does Finland play a role in world affairs today?

A The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe came at a unique historical moment. That cannot be repeated, of course. But besides that, Finland has been extremely active in peace support operations for almost 50 years. In 1969, we established a Training Centre for peace support operations. At present, we are contributing alongside Turkey to the Althea operation in Bosnia and to ISAF in Afghanistan, of which Turkey has just taken command. Finland has also been an active member of the Nordic Co-ordinated Arrangement for Military Peace Support (NORDCAPS) and of the Partnership for Peace programme. Another issue on the agenda is the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy, a joint initiative launched by the Finnish and Tanzanian governments in 2002. The process aims for a partnership between civil society, business and governments for a more democratic and human mode of globalisation. The next conference will be held in Helsinki this Autumn.

Q Living in Ankara, you must miss Finland with all its lakes and islands?

A Yes occasionally. Of course we do go back every summer. It's very important to keep your roots. Otherwise, you can't represent your country properly. On the other hand, it's quite easy to live and work here. Ankara is really quite compact. You meet other diplomats, business people and bureaucrats very easily. And I can pursue most of my interests here to some extent - movies, concerts, hiking and so on.

Q There are a growing number of woman ambassadors...

A Yes I think we are nine now in Ankara. Among the younger Finnish diplomats there are equal numbers of men and women, but for now only one Finnish ambassador in four is a woman. It's a career which makes demands on your family life. This is true for both women and men.

(DIPLOMAT – March  2005)