Testing time for Turkey
Editorial
Sentinel & Enterprise Online (Fitchburg, Mass.)
Monday, January 03, 2005
The European Union crossed a threshold recently that, just a few years
back, would have seemed unimaginable. The members decided that
negotiations could begin on the admission of Turkey to their union.
This is good news for Turkey, which has sought E.U. membership since
1987. But of course, admission is not a matter of mailing an application
to Brussels and awaiting the verdict. Although Turkey has made
substantial progress in the past years toward bringing its system of
governance into alignment with Europe’s, it has a long way to go.
The Turkish democracy remains strongly influenced by the military, and
the country’s economy is still some distance from basic free-market
principles.
Turkey’s treatment of minorities remains unsatisfactory, its
human-rights record is decidedly mixed, and freedoms of religion and
speech are far from the standards in Europe. Not least, Turkey continues
to deny the history of the Armenian genocide, and the Turkish army
occupies a third of the territory of a member of the European Union —
Cyprus — while refusing to recognize the Cypriot government. All of
these facts are incompatible with E.U. membership.
Talks are expected to last some dozen years, and in that time Turkey may
well transform itself to satisfy the European Union. If so, this will
mark a new day for Turks, and greatly benefit two immediate neighbors,
Armenia and Greece, which suffer from longtime Turkish hostility and (in
Armenia’s case) a devastating economic blockade. The Turkish government
has a sincere desire to move the country Westward, and the process of
E.U. accession should yield innumerable benefits.
Two questions, however, shadow the process: While the Turkish government
strongly favors E.U. membership, it is not clear that Turkish citizens do.
The second question is more complex. Turkey sits astride the border of
Europe and Asia, and is a longtime member of NATO, yet whether the
homeland of the onetime Ottoman Empire is “European” is debatable.
Turkey is a very big, poor and overwhelmingly Muslim country: Can it be
integrated into a European economic, political and cultural system that
is now very different from its own? Moreover, Turkey would be the
largest member of the E.U., which is already strained by several
comparatively non-affluent members.
None of these obstacles is insuperable, and while many Europeans have
reservations about Turkey, many others think that Turkish E.U.
membership makes sense. The next years will be a testing time: for
Turkey, for Europe, and for the meaning and future of European identity
and unity.
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