AUSTRIA TODAY
April 5, 2006 Wednesday 7:35 PM (Central European Time)
M&C News: Austrians Hold up Turks for the 2nd Time
The Austrians have now managed to stop the Turks from entering Europe
twice: Once at the gates of Vienna in 1683, and the second time at
the gates of Luxembourg on Oct. 3, 2005. Talks that were due to begin
in Luxembourg to discuss the protracted admission process that would
bring Turkey into the European Union ran into a last-minute objection
from Austria when Vienna blocked the discussions from going ahead.
Austria suggested that instead of full membership Turkey should be
offered a ´privileged partnership.´ Basically, what this translates
to is Turkey would, for all intents and purposes, enjoy all the
advantages of other EU members, except Turkish citizens would not be
allowed the same rights of residency and free travel in the rest of
the EU as other citizens of the bloc currently enjoy. If that
reasoning seems to be somewhat discriminatory, it`s because, in fact,
it is. The reason is many Europeans still fear the sudden influx of
millions of Muslims from Turkey suddenly entering the EU, and forever
changing the face of Europe; a Europe that until now has been largely
dominated by a Judeo-Christian culture. Turkey`s population today
stands close to 70 million and is almost exclusively Muslim. By the
time the talks conclude in 10 to 15 years, Turkey`s population is
expected to reach about 81 million, making it the most populous
country in the EU. Upon hearing that an agreement was reached,
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul flew to Luxembourg for a late
night ceremony to formally open accession talks.
“We have reached a historic point,” Gul said before leaving Ankara.
“Full membership negotiations will, God willing, begin tonight.” The
negotiations included strong U.S. diplomatic intervention on Turkey`s
behalf. The question of whether Turkey is or is not geographically
part of Europe is somewhat irrelevant at this point. With the
exception of a small sliver of land actually in Europe, the rest of
the country is in Asia Minor, which is Asia. As for its people,
again, with the exception of a minority who consider themselves
European, the vast majority consider themselves Turkish — a culture
unto itself. And the rest probably identify more with their immediate
neighbors in Syria, Iran, Iraq, etc. Indeed, drive along the region
abutting the Syrian or Iraqi borders and there can be no doubt about
what part of the world you`re in — and it`s certainly not Europe.
The important question here is that by including Turkey in the EU,
Europe extends its sphere of influence to the very borders of the
Arab and Islamic world at a time when Europe and the West are coming
under threat from politicised militant Islam. With Turkey in the EU,
Europe´s borders extend to the periphery of Syria, Iraq, Iran and
Azerbaijan; all Muslim countries, as well as to the borders of
Armenia and Georgia. Think of the advantages of democratic Europe
abutting countries such as Syria, Iraq and Iran. The challenge of
spreading democracy would become a tad easier with a democratic
Turkey member of the EU, sitting at the very gates of the Middle
East. Turkish nationalism, motivated by shattered pride as a result
of an EU refusal, would most likely end up hurting European-Muslim
relations if Turkey were to be permanently shut out of Brussels.