TURKISH SCEPTICISM

European Report
November 7, 2006

Turkey is bracing itself for a critical European Commission report on
its progress towards joining the EU, something which could further
reduce the Turkish public’s dwindling trust in the EU. "We are in a
climate where Turkey feels besieged and the Turkish public views every
EU requirement as unreciprocated concessions and interprets them as
dishonesty and even ill-will on the EU’s part," Professor Dogu Ergil,
an Ankara-based political analyst, told AFP.

The sour mood clearly showed in a recent survey: only 32.2% of the
people polled said that Turkey should join the EU while 25.6% said
it should not. In a survey by the same institute in 2004, 67.5% said
that Turkey should definitely join the EU while 57.4% expressed the
same view in a poll in September 2005.

The 8 November report is likely to add to the disillusionment of the
Turks. It is expected to issue harsh criticism on several issues,
most notably the divided island of Cyprus and freedom of expression.

The moves in France to push through a law penalising anyone who denies
that the killings of Armenians in 1915-1917 constituted genocide
and the removal of Turkish-origin candidates from Dutch electoral
lists for refusing to recognise the massacres as genocide "have led
to the impression that even if Turkey fulfills all EU requirements,
there is no guarantee that it will become a member", said Ergil.