Turkey Makes 11th Hour Plea to Europe

Spiegel International, Germany
Dec 16 2004

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is getting nervous as
Friday’s decision approaches. Will Turkey be allowed to start
accession negotiations with the European Union or won’t it? On
Thursday he appeals to the citizens of Europe to open up the door for
his country to join.

Friday’s decision on whether to begin European Union accession
negotiations with Turkey is fast approaching and the press coverage
leading up to the historic decision is becoming even more relentless.
Article after article looks at the mood in Turkey , at pro and con
arguments and at what Turkey’s potential accession means for the EU.
German editorialists are having a field day and most major German
dailies lead with the story on Thursday.

As so often happens in Germany, it is the thin and often trashy
tabloid Bild that steals all the thunder. On page two, it prints
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s open letter to “my
European friends.” There isn’t much in the article that is likely to
change the debate on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, but he does,
yet again, run through Turkey’s arguments for why a “yes” vote on
Friday would be the right one.

After outlining a brief history of Turkey’s courtship with the EU,
Erdogan writes: “Turkey has fulfilled all of the (reform) demands
asked of it and thereby created a solid basis for a positive
decision. … There should be no doubt that we will not now cease
following this path; rather we will continue to move ahead.” Erdogan
also reminds Bild readers once more what the European Union stands
for. “The European Union is dedicated to the principle of ‘Unity in
Diversity.’ I would consider it inconsistent and also dangerous if
one were to attempt to adhere to this idea while at the same time
denouncing Turkey for its different culture and religion.” Finally,
in a small dig at the debate currently raging in many European
countries over the integration of Muslim immigrants, Erdogan argues
that keeping Turkey out of the EU “would be very harmful for
integration and could very well reach the exact opposite result. The
EU should look less to the present and more to the middle and long
term.”

Commentaries in the rest of Germany’s dailies are relatively
predictable. The conservative daily Die Welt, which recently
published an article called “10 Reasons Against an EU Accession for
Turkey,” runs a long front page editorial by Editor in Chief Roger
Koeppel. “The problem, the scandal, is that a decision is being made
before a broad public debate could get started. Neither (German
Chancellor Gerhard) Schroeder nor (Italian Prime Minister Silvio)
Berlusconi, nor (Great Britain Prime Minister Tony) Blair or other
advocates of accession can honestly answer the questions which they
carelessly declare resolved: What will it all cost? Who will pay?
What is to be done if there is a wave of immigrants to Germany?” His
contribution can be summed up in one sentence: “The doubts,” he
writes, “are justified.”

Another conservative paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also
comes out solidly against a Turkey EU membership. The daily points
out that there are many hurdles Turkey has yet to overcome — the
diplomatic recognition of EU member Cyprus, for example, and the
acknowledgement of the early 20th century ethnic cleansing
perpetrated against its Armenian population. The paper argues that
the EU lacks the courage to address these issues. Referring to the
European Parliament’s approval of starting membership negotiations
with Turkey on Wednesday, the paper writes: “The European Parliament
has now climbed the peak of cowardice. The report writers have
established that Turkey hasn’t yet fulfilled all of the criteria, but
recommended a beginning of negotiations anyway. And the parliament,
where delusions of grandeur have recently found a home, rubber
stamped it. Is there any level (of EU government) where the interests
of Europe are considered?”

Siding for Ankara is the left-of-center daily Die Tagesspiegel, which
devotes the first six pages of Thursday’s paper to Turkey, with a
long editorial by Sadik al-Azm, a well-respected intellectual in the
Arab world. He focuses on the positive example Turkey has set in the
Arab region and notes that now, slowly, many countries in the region
are beginning to follow that example. Al-Azm mentions that, whereas
before many in the Arab world were only too happy to criticize Turkey
for its secular government and democratic political system, many are
now praising the state it has become. Speaking of Egypt, he writes,
“without the Turkish example, the Muslim brothers would never have
had the will and boldness to introduce their new, advanced reform
plan for Egypt.”

Finally, the financial daily Handelsblatt presents readers with a
horror vision of the disintegration of the EU, but then spins it into
something positive. “There’s no doubt that Turkish membership could
mean the end of the old EU as we know it. Many see this as the real
danger. But it could present an historic chance for a new EU facing
the challenges of the 21st century. Why shouldn’t the EU reinvent
itself as a large community of values, prosperity and security, which
could integrate not just Turkey, but also Ukraine?”