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  • Turkish Skepticism

    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.
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