Is the fall of Constantinople haunting Turkeyâ^À^Ùs EU bid?
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels

FT
September 5 2004

The ghosts of the past are brooding over one of the most important
decisions yet to face the European Union. The decision is over when
to begin the practical business of extending EU membership to Turkey,
a relatively poor Muslim country of 70m people.

On Monday Günter Verheugen, the EU’s enlargement commissioner,
will hold talks in Ankara with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime
minister.

A month later, on October 6, the European Commission is expected to
say that the basic conditions for the start of membership negotiations
have been met. And in December, EU presidents and prime ministers
will decide whether to fix a date for the process to begin.

Officially, the debate is about whether Turkey’s government has met
the EU’s criteria on human rights and political reform.

It has been EU policy since 1999 that Turkey’s â^À^Üdestinyâ^À^Ý is
to join, subject to its meeting of the conditions. Many Commission
officials and national governments believe that Mr Erdogan, who is both
reformist and Islamist, represents a historic chance for negotiation
that has to be seized.

But many European leaders are wrestling with doubts. Some problems
concern the future: what will happen to EU integration if Turkey
becomes the most populous member state, with more voting power,
by 2015, a possible date for entry; whether Turkish immigrants will
pour into richer lands to the west; and what the impact will be on
the EU budget of its accession.

â^À^ÜThe geopolitical questions connected to Turkish accession [to
the EU] seem to be among the most important geopolitical issues of
the 21st century,â^À^Ý Mr Verheugen said last week.

Other problems attend the past and a legacy that goes back to the
time when Turkey’s Ottoman rulers first challenged the continent’s
established powers early in the last millennium.

According to historians such as Britain’s Norman Davies, the
entity known today as Europe is the heir to a medieval concept of
â^À^ÜChristendomâ^À^Ý forged through battles with the Moors and
the Turks.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s head of theology, told Le
Figaro last month, outlining his opposition to Turkish membership:
â^À^ÜTurkey has always represented another continent throughout
history, in permanent contrast with Europe. There were wars with the
Byzantine empire; think of the fall of Constantinople [now Istanbul]
in 1453 and the threat to Vienna and Austria.â^À^Ý

Austria’s Habsburg empire stopped the Ottoman push into Europe by
ending the Turks’ siege of Vienna in 1683. The Catholic Habsburgs and
the Muslim Ottomans were then the bitterest of foes. And even today,
Vienna is perhaps the most wary capital of Turkey’s admission into
the EU.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austria’s foreign minister and soon to become
EU commissioner for external relations, is aware of how sensitive
the topic remains in her native country.

â^À^ÜTurkey today is not yet ready for joining the EU,â^À^Ý she said
in June. â^À^ÜAnd the EU today is not yet ready for such a step either
. . . given that we have just completed the biggest enlargement in
the Union’s history.â^À^Ý

Mr Erdogan maintains that embracing a secularised Muslim country such
as Turkey would send a powerful message to the Islamic world.

Oguz Demiralp, Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, argues that even the
continent’s ancient dividing line on the Bosphorus is an arbitary one.
â^À^Ü[The Turkish heartland of] Anatolia has always been part of
European history,â^À^Ý he says. â^À^ÜSt Paul preached in Turkey. Even
Santa Claus [also known as St Nicholas] comes from Turkey.â^À^Ý

For many activists, the biggest issue is Turkey’s behaviour in 1915,
when it carried out what some governments have classifed as a genocide
of its Armenian inhabitants.

Adolf Hitler, the German leader, enthused about the â^À^Üannihilation
of the Armeniansâ^À^Ý on the eve of the second world war. Some
historians say that between 800,000 and 1.3m people died in massacres
and forced marches. Turkish officials maintain such figures are
exaggerated and add that the Ottomans also experienced heavy losses
in the first world war.

But the Armenian issue is not one of the EU’s formal criteria. â^À^ÜI
don’t know if there would be any point to that,â^À^Ý Mr Verheugen said.

In the meantime, Greece Turkey’s oldest foe is today one of the most
forceful proponents of Turkish accession. Greek tourists are now more
familiar with Anatolia, politicians have tired of their old conflict,
and finance officials have reined in the costly militarisation of
the Aegean.

Even Cyprus, invaded and partitioned by Turkey in 1974 after an
Athens-backed coup, insists it will not veto a decision to set a date
for the start of negotiations.

Additional reporting by Kerin Hope in Athens