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Boston Herald, MA
Oct 9 2005
Turkey waiting for EU
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Sunday, October 9, 2005
Eighteen years after it applied for membership in the European Union,
Turkey and EU diplomats have begun formal negotiations on the
application. The talks may take 10 years, but it is important that
eventually Turkey be admitted.
The Muslim world is torn by a struggle between the peaceable
majority and intolerant fundamentalists who seek religious rule under
a new caliphate eventually embracing the whole world. Nothing would
go further to convince Muslims that they have nothing to fear and
everything to gain from modernity and the West in general, and
secular government in particular, than the recognition of Turkey as a
full member of Europe.
Turkey's economy is oriented to the West, it has been a member
of NATO for more than a half-century, and its government has been
determinedly secular since 1925, even though it is now led by a party
that calls itself Islamic.
Turkey has jumped through hoop after hoop to prove to critics in
Europe that its values are acceptable. It abolished the death
penalty, legalized use of the Kurdish language and finally has begun
to examine whether the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
in 1915 and after was the genocide that the rest of the civilized
world considers it.
There are more hoops, such as the country's refusal to recognize
Cyprus, on which it must relent if it wants to join the European
Union because Cyprus is now a member. But hoops are what negotiations
are about.
Europe's fears are more of an obstacle to membership than
Turkey's policies and values. Many workers in the original Common
Market member countries fear wage and other competition from the new
members to the East, and politicians often play to those fears. There
is a certain irony in this, for hundreds of thousands of German
workers are Turks recruited to make up labor shortages caused by
World War II.
Austria has been devious in trying to block negotiations by
tying them to the status of Croatia, which it is backing for
membership. The rest of Europe at least has recognized this is not
1683, and no conquering Turkish army is knocking at the gates of Vienna.
Oct 9 2005
Turkey waiting for EU
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Sunday, October 9, 2005
Eighteen years after it applied for membership in the European Union,
Turkey and EU diplomats have begun formal negotiations on the
application. The talks may take 10 years, but it is important that
eventually Turkey be admitted.
The Muslim world is torn by a struggle between the peaceable
majority and intolerant fundamentalists who seek religious rule under
a new caliphate eventually embracing the whole world. Nothing would
go further to convince Muslims that they have nothing to fear and
everything to gain from modernity and the West in general, and
secular government in particular, than the recognition of Turkey as a
full member of Europe.
Turkey's economy is oriented to the West, it has been a member
of NATO for more than a half-century, and its government has been
determinedly secular since 1925, even though it is now led by a party
that calls itself Islamic.
Turkey has jumped through hoop after hoop to prove to critics in
Europe that its values are acceptable. It abolished the death
penalty, legalized use of the Kurdish language and finally has begun
to examine whether the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
in 1915 and after was the genocide that the rest of the civilized
world considers it.
There are more hoops, such as the country's refusal to recognize
Cyprus, on which it must relent if it wants to join the European
Union because Cyprus is now a member. But hoops are what negotiations
are about.
Europe's fears are more of an obstacle to membership than
Turkey's policies and values. Many workers in the original Common
Market member countries fear wage and other competition from the new
members to the East, and politicians often play to those fears. There
is a certain irony in this, for hundreds of thousands of German
workers are Turks recruited to make up labor shortages caused by
World War II.
Austria has been devious in trying to block negotiations by
tying them to the status of Croatia, which it is backing for
membership. The rest of Europe at least has recognized this is not
1683, and no conquering Turkish army is knocking at the gates of Vienna.