TURKEY’S BID TO JOIN EU REMAINS A MIRAGE

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Oct 31 2006

The European Commission is to present its progress report on November
8 on Turkey’s application to join the European bloc amid media reports
and official statements suggesting the report will be negative.

Last week, in an interview with the Italian daily Il Corriere della
Sera, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he feared
talks with Turkey could be stopped.

"On Turkey, I fear there may be a stop in accession negotiations,"
the paper quoted the commission chief as saying in a headline.

"I am sorry to say this, but things are going badly. Reforms in Turkey
are going forward very slowly and I do not see the progress I would
have expected. We hope the Finns can help avoid the break-off in
negotiations but I really am very worried," he added.

Earlier this month, Barrosso called for a pause in further EU expansion
after Bulgaria and Romania join the EU in January 2007.

The European paper Financial Times, in today’s (Tuesday) edition,
in a first-page headline said the "EU report will deal a fresh blow
to Turkey."

The paper noted that next weeks’ report will criticize Turkey for
failing to make enough progress on freedom of expression, curbing
the use of torture and establishing civilian control over the military.

Ever since accession negotiations with Turkey began in December 2005,
Europeans have been placing one hurdle after another over the future
of Turkey’s EU aspirations, such as the Cyprus issue, the Armenian
genocide, the Kurdish issue or the enlargement fatigue.

The EU is putting pressure on Ankara to recognize the Greek Cypriot
government and to open up its ports to Greek Cypriot ships and vessels.

For their part, the Greek Cypriots have been blocking any closer
cooperation between the EU and the Turkish Cypriot community of
Northern Cyprus.

The European Parliament wanted to put recognition of the "Armenian
Genocide" as a condition for Turkey’s EU membership, but at the last
moment the EP report was changed and it said that "although recognition
of the Armenian genocide as such is formally not one of the Copenhagen
criteria (membership condition), it is indispensable for a country on
the road to membership to come to terms with and recognize its past."

The French parliament passed a bill that criminalizes the denial of
the so-called "Armenian genocide," causing further tension in ties
between Europe and Turkey.

Moreover, the right’s expected presidential candidate in May’s election
in France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has publicly stated that Turkey should
never be allowed to join the EU.

Turkey was officially recognized as a candidate for EU membership
in 1999 but negotiations started only on October 3, 2005, a process
nobody knows how long it will take to complete, if ever.

In contrast, Croatia, which started entry talks together with Turkey,
is expected to be given full EU membership at the latest by 2011.

It cannot be denied that Islam is a factor which plays heavy on the
minds of policymakers, the media and the people in Europe when the
issue of Turkey’s membership is weighed.

Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing has been quoted as
saying that Turkey’s entry into the EU would be "the end of Europe."

He told the French paper Le Monde that Turkey’s capital was not in
Europe, 95 percent of its population lived outside Europe, and it was
"not a European country."

The BBC in a report on Turkey’s bid for EU membership said "there is
a continuing debate among member countries about whether Turkey is
culturally and geographically compatible with the European Union —
and that a broad strand of opinion says it is not."

Turkey should be barred from joining the European Union, former German
chancellor Helmut Schmidt wrote in his book "The Self-Assertion of
Europe, Prospects for the 21st Century".

He cites Islam as one of the reasons for the rejection.

"Islam is another issue of concern to the EU, says Schmidt.

"The outcome of the re-Islamization process is uncertain and
fundamentalism is possible."

Such statements by top European politicians can only reinforce the
view that the EU was, is and will remain a Christian club.

The abrasive reaction of the Europeans towards Turkey is having its
reaction on Turkey’s public.

A poll published last week showed a dramatic decline in support for
EU membership in Turkey.

The survey, published in the Turkish newspaper Milliyet showed 32.2
percent thought Turkey "must certainly enter the EU," a sharp decline
on the 57.4 percent figure last year and 67.5 percent in 2004.

The poll also showed that only 7.2 percent trust the EU.

Meanwhile, media reports hint that the EU summit in December could
freeze membership talks with Turkey which could spell the end of
Turkey’s desire to join the European club.