TURKEY BELONGS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
By John K. Cooley

Christian Science Monitor, MA
Oct 2 2006

Full Turkish membeship would do much to stabilize its turbulent Middle
East neighborhood.

ATHENS – It’s time for policymakers of the 25 European Union (EU)
nations, as well as leaders of 70 million Turks, to take a deep breath,
step back, and carefully consider whether it’s wise to halt or impede
Turkey’s effort to join the EU.

Turkey’s pro-Western government, along with a majority of its business
leaders and its secular-minded, Westernized military, is committed to
accession. But some Turkish politicians who have favored membership
for decades have recently expressed doubts because of widespread
European rejection.

Strategic and human considerations favor Turkey’s bid, if it has
fulfilled all the preconditions – a big "if" at this juncture. Now
that EU ministers have postponed a membership progress report from
Oct. 24 to Nov. 8, decisionmakers happily have more time to review
the pros and cons of this crucial question.

Membership advocates insist that EU rules would stabilize Turkey’s
economy and political structure.

But objections are growing louder in European capitals. It wasn’t
always this way. Back in 1959, France invited a wary Turkish government
to join the EU’s predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC),
as an associate member, which it did in 1963. Today, Nicholas Sarkozy
and Segolene Royal, the two front-running candidates in France’s 2007
presidential election, and senior politicians in Austria, also facing
elections, urge some kind of "privileged relationship" for Turkey,
short of full-fledged membership.

Turkey began knocking at Europe’s door when it applied to fully
join the former European Community in 1987. For more than a decade,
it met with refusals, based partly on the Ankara government’s poor
relations with Greece, especially conflict related to Turkey’s 1974
invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus.

In the 1990s, Turkey agreed to a customs union with the EU, abolishing
many trade tariffs with its members. Its candidacy got a further
boost in 2002, when Turkey’s Islamist but pro-European Justice and
Development Party (AKP) came to power and began making the reforms
necessary for EU accession. Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip
Erdogan, a consistent proponent of EU membership, has pushed through
abolition of the death penalty, cracked down on torture, and secured
more rights for Turkey’s substantial Kurdish minority.

Today, support for accession has plummeted among both Turks and
Western Europeans, with levels of approval well below 50 percent.

Austria, mindful of its 17th-century role as a bulwark against Turkish
invasion of Western Europe, and commentators elsewhere object to having
Turkey’s 99.8-percent Muslim population join the EU. They call it a
"Christian club," an epithet also used by Turkish and other Muslim
opponents of EU membership. Fear of massive Turkish immigration,
which could deprive Western Europeans of jobs, is widespread.

Another objection is that only 3 percent of Turkey’s vast territory is
within geographical Europe, leading to a European debate about where
Europe’s real borders should be. European critics condemn Turkey’s
acts of closing newspapers opposed to government policy.

They also criticize its prosecution of intellectuals and authors –
such as prizewinning novelist Orhan Pamuk – for "insulting Turkishness"
or discussing the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians.

Kurdish terrorist bombings at Turkish tourist resorts and guerrilla
warfare by the Marxist Kurdish Workers’ Party are further prickly
issues.

But Cyprus remains the key. The EU requires Turkey to recognize the
Greek Cypriot-governed Cyprus Republic by opening Turkish harbors and
airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes. Ankara and the so-called
Turkish state in northern Cyprus (recognized only by Turkey) refuse.

They demand that the EU first lift "embargoes" against the north by
unfreezing promised economic aid. But the EU and the international
community refuse, arguing that this would be de facto recognition of
the Turkish Cypriot regime. The Greek government, despite hostility
from the Greek public, strongly backs Turkish EU membership in order
to strengthen relations with its neighbor and old rival, Turkey.

Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer eloquently argues
Turkey’s case for membership. In a Sept. 27 article in the German
newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, Mr. Fischer reminds us that Turkey,
as a modernizing Muslim EU member, would be a bridge between Islam
and Europe; would extend benefits of the economic eurozone; and would
help to curb the spread of Islamist extremism and violence.

The EU ministers should reassure Turkey in November that it belongs
in an expanded EU. The protracted accession negotiations – possibly
as long as 10 to 15 years – with the desirable goal of full Turkish
membership could do much to stabilize Turkey’s turbulent Middle East
neighborhood. The United States should continue to encourage all
concerned to keep moving in that direction.

~U John K. Cooley, a former Monitor correspondent, has covered the
Middle East and eastern Mediterranean region for more than 40 years.

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