Pope Reveals Reservations for Turkey’s EU Membership

22.06.2005 11:54

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Pope Benedict XVI, the spiritual leader of the
Roman Catholic Church, showed a suspicious attitude towards Turkey’s
European Union (EU) membership in the first book he has written since
becoming the new Pope in the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI indicates in his new book titled “The Example of
Benedict in the Crisis of Cultures” (L’Europa di Benedetto nella crisi
delle culture) that Turkey does not have Christian roots contrary to
European countries. According to the news published by Apcom, a
private Italian news agency, the Pope invites readers to think about
Turkey’s EU bid.

The news reads that the pontiff referred to Saint Benedict whom the
Catholic Church perceives as the “protector of Europe” in his new book
and defined Turkey as a country that has no roots in Christianity and
is influenced by Islamic culture; in other words, Turkey has the
atmosphere of an Islamic culture in fact.

Determining in his book that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as the founder of
the Turkish republic had tried to transform Turkey into a secular
state by adopting secularism formed in the Christian world, Pope
Benedict XVI advocated that the European identity might only be
determined by the context and norms of the same enlightened
culture. Any country fulfilling these criteria might be European.

Speaking to an Italian newspaper about his book, Benedict XVI also
said that the non-mentioning of the Christian roots in the EU
constitution was wrong.