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Analysis: Turkey on Europe's doorstep, but still so far from joining

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  • Analysis: Turkey on Europe's doorstep, but still so far from joining

    The Independent, UK
    Oct 1 2005

    Analysis: Turkey - on Europe's doorstep, but still so far from
    joining the club
    By Peter Popham
    Published: 01 October 2005
    Joining the European Union is the great Turkish dream.

    However distant the goal, however bitter many Turks may feel about
    the disdain in which their country has been held since it first
    applied 40 years ago, that dream has endured.

    Membership could transform the economy of this still impoverished
    nation. The process of qualifying for membership has already changed
    much in the country and will change more before it's over.

    Even if the diplomatic waters can be smoothed for negotiations to
    begin on Monday, it will be at least 10 years before the 70
    million-strong, predominantly Muslim nation becomes one of us: a
    fully-fledged member of the EU.

    Like the accession of any new member, the arrival of Turkey on
    Europe's doorstep is all about economics, trade, social reform,
    democracy, criminal justice, media freedom - everything that
    constitutes a modern state.

    Many of these factors are already in Turkey's favour: it is in many
    ways far better prepared for membership than the former Warsaw Pact
    countries. It was on our side of the Iron Curtain for all those
    years. It is a key member of Nato.

    It has had a customs union with the EU since 1996: trade in goods has
    already been liberalised, and more than half of Turkey's trade is
    already with the EU. It has already adopted many EU rules, such as
    those regarding intellectual property and competition. There is no
    wholesale privatisation that must be undertaken. The democratic
    system is looking increasingly stable and mature. The death sentence
    has been abolished.

    But uniquely in the case of Turkey, membership is not just about the
    nuts and bolts of belonging to the EU. It is also a profoundly moral
    issue, for both sides. Whether we admire or despise the EU we don't
    often think about it in moral terms. But with Turkey, the moral
    questions cannot be dodged.

    One week ago, a group of scholars in Istanbul braved the eggs and
    rotten tomatoes of protesters to attend an extraordinary conference.
    They were there to discuss the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in the
    dying years of the Ottoman empire.

    Raising this subject has been taboo in Turkey ever since. It is as if
    Germany had risen again after the Second World War with no public
    admission, ever, of how the Nazis murdered six million Jews, and as
    if they had lived and prospered in denial for the best part of a
    century. But despite hitches, threats, two cancellations by judges
    and all-round hysteria, Turkey last Saturday finally got round to
    discussing "the first genocide of the 20th century".

    Orhan Pamuk, the celebrated Turkish novelist, told a Swiss newspaper
    earlier this year: "Almost no one dares speak about these things but
    me." To his country's lasting shame, he is to go on trial in December
    for mentioning what Turkey did to the Armenians and the Kurds. But
    now at least he is not quite so alone.

    The conference was the work of the EU. "This is a fight of 'can we
    discuss this thing, or can we not discuss this thing?'" a member of
    the organising committee said at the start of the conference. Well,
    the discussion finally went ahead. It was the EU's - and Turkey's -
    finest hour for some time.

    The question posed at last week's conference was: "Is this country
    forged out of the Ottoman empire's ashes less than a century ago
    mature enough to admit the ugly stains in its history and move
    forward?"

    If it's not, the EU's door will undoubtedly be slammed on it. But if
    it can find those inner resources, the dream of Ataturk may finally
    be realised.

    Turkey, whose inhabitants down the centuries were masters of empires
    as far-flung as the Mogul empire in India, the Safavids in Iran and
    the Mamelukes if Egypt, can become a modern secular state to compare
    with any in the West. For Europe the moral dimension is even greater
    - intimidatingly large for many. How big is Europe, in its heart and
    soul? Is it a cosy, well-heeled, Christian, white man's club,
    devoted, through things like the Common Agricultural Policy, to
    keeping happy those who are already fat; keeping the Old Continent
    looking picture-postcard perfect, while accepting with ever worse
    grace a fraction of the huddled masses battering at the door? If
    that's what Europe is, it is obviously doomed, as all the latest
    demographics make clear. It's on the way out, as obviously and
    miserably as was the South Africa of apartheid.

    Or does it have the courage and the wit to avoid that fate? Most of
    Turkey will never be European the way Vienna, Paris and Prague are
    European. But Seville, Palermo and Venice are also European cities;
    and in all of them, Christian and Islamic strands are interwoven just
    as in Istanbul.

    The identities of Europe and Islam are the products of more than a
    millennium of bitter conflict. But Britain and France were enemies
    for centuries as well: the European project is all about banishing
    war and the threat of war.

    Never before has a huge Islamic nation asked for Europe's recognition
    the way Turkey has been asking these past decades. Turkey is the
    peaceful bridge to Islam of which the West is in desperate need.

    Sticking points in Turkey's progress towards full EU membership

    Turkey's status

    Austria wants Turkey to negotiate "privileged partnership" instead of
    full EU membership as advocated by the rest of the EU. Turkey has
    warned it will not accept "second class" status.

    Croatia

    The Balkan state has become a bargaining chip in negotiations.
    Austria wants talks on Croatian accession to begin immediately, but
    issue is linked to co-operation with the war crimes tribunal.

    Muslim issue

    Austria isolated in opposing entry of a Muslim nation to the
    "Christian" EU after France switched position to ally itself with UK
    and Germany, which favour embracing Turkey.

    Joining the European Union is the great Turkish dream.

    However distant the goal, however bitter many Turks may feel about
    the disdain in which their country has been held since it first
    applied 40 years ago, that dream has endured.

    Membership could transform the economy of this still impoverished
    nation. The process of qualifying for membership has already changed
    much in the country and will change more before it's over.

    Even if the diplomatic waters can be smoothed for negotiations to
    begin on Monday, it will be at least 10 years before the 70
    million-strong, predominantly Muslim nation becomes one of us: a
    fully-fledged member of the EU.

    Like the accession of any new member, the arrival of Turkey on
    Europe's doorstep is all about economics, trade, social reform,
    democracy, criminal justice, media freedom - everything that
    constitutes a modern state.

    Many of these factors are already in Turkey's favour: it is in many
    ways far better prepared for membership than the former Warsaw Pact
    countries. It was on our side of the Iron Curtain for all those
    years. It is a key member of Nato.

    It has had a customs union with the EU since 1996: trade in goods has
    already been liberalised, and more than half of Turkey's trade is
    already with the EU. It has already adopted many EU rules, such as
    those regarding intellectual property and competition. There is no
    wholesale privatisation that must be undertaken. The democratic
    system is looking increasingly stable and mature. The death sentence
    has been abolished.

    But uniquely in the case of Turkey, membership is not just about the
    nuts and bolts of belonging to the EU. It is also a profoundly moral
    issue, for both sides. Whether we admire or despise the EU we don't
    often think about it in moral terms. But with Turkey, the moral
    questions cannot be dodged.

    One week ago, a group of scholars in Istanbul braved the eggs and
    rotten tomatoes of protesters to attend an extraordinary conference.
    They were there to discuss the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in the
    dying years of the Ottoman empire.

    Raising this subject has been taboo in Turkey ever since. It is as if
    Germany had risen again after the Second World War with no public
    admission, ever, of how the Nazis murdered six million Jews, and as
    if they had lived and prospered in denial for the best part of a
    century. But despite hitches, threats, two cancellations by judges
    and all-round hysteria, Turkey last Saturday finally got round to
    discussing "the first genocide of the 20th century".

    Orhan Pamuk, the celebrated Turkish novelist, told a Swiss newspaper
    earlier this year: "Almost no one dares speak about these things but
    me." To his country's lasting shame, he is to go on trial in December
    for mentioning what Turkey did to the Armenians and the Kurds. But
    now at least he is not quite so alone.

    The conference was the work of the EU. "This is a fight of 'can we
    discuss this thing, or can we not discuss this thing?'" a member of
    the organising committee said at the start of the conference. Well,
    the discussion finally went ahead. It was the EU's - and Turkey's -
    finest hour for some time.
    The question posed at last week's conference was: "Is this country
    forged out of the Ottoman empire's ashes less than a century ago
    mature enough to admit the ugly stains in its history and move
    forward?"

    If it's not, the EU's door will undoubtedly be slammed on it. But if
    it can find those inner resources, the dream of Ataturk may finally
    be realised.

    Turkey, whose inhabitants down the centuries were masters of empires
    as far-flung as the Mogul empire in India, the Safavids in Iran and
    the Mamelukes if Egypt, can become a modern secular state to compare
    with any in the West. For Europe the moral dimension is even greater
    - intimidatingly large for many. How big is Europe, in its heart and
    soul? Is it a cosy, well-heeled, Christian, white man's club,
    devoted, through things like the Common Agricultural Policy, to
    keeping happy those who are already fat; keeping the Old Continent
    looking picture-postcard perfect, while accepting with ever worse
    grace a fraction of the huddled masses battering at the door? If
    that's what Europe is, it is obviously doomed, as all the latest
    demographics make clear. It's on the way out, as obviously and
    miserably as was the South Africa of apartheid.

    Or does it have the courage and the wit to avoid that fate? Most of
    Turkey will never be European the way Vienna, Paris and Prague are
    European. But Seville, Palermo and Venice are also European cities;
    and in all of them, Christian and Islamic strands are interwoven just
    as in Istanbul.

    The identities of Europe and Islam are the products of more than a
    millennium of bitter conflict. But Britain and France were enemies
    for centuries as well: the European project is all about banishing
    war and the threat of war.

    Never before has a huge Islamic nation asked for Europe's recognition
    the way Turkey has been asking these past decades. Turkey is the
    peaceful bridge to Islam of which the West is in desperate need.

    Sticking points in Turkey's progress towards full EU membership

    Turkey's status

    Austria wants Turkey to negotiate "privileged partnership" instead of
    full EU membership as advocated by the rest of the EU. Turkey has
    warned it will not accept "second class" status.

    Croatia

    The Balkan state has become a bargaining chip in negotiations.
    Austria wants talks on Croatian accession to begin immediately, but
    issue is linked to co-operation with the war crimes tribunal.

    Muslim issue

    Austria isolated in opposing entry of a Muslim nation to the
    "Christian" EU after France switched position to ally itself with UK
    and Germany, which favour embracing Turkey.
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