Turksy should be allowed to join the EU.
The Times
December 11, 2006
Straight Road to Europe
Turkey does not deserve the punishment the EU contemplates
For 43 years, Turkey has been knocking at the European Union’s door. Despite being the guardian of Nato’s southern flank, firmly aligned with the West throughout the Cold War, it has watched other states with dictatorial pasts and fragile economies — Spain, Portugal and Greece, and Eastern Europe’s new democracies (Germany was led by Adolf Hitler in the decade before it joined the embryonic EU) — push past it in the queue for admission. It has listened to European statesmen extol enlargement, correctly, for expanding the community of stable, prosperous democracies and establishing the EU as a confident, outward-looking player on the global stage. It has worked hard to deprive them of reasons for keeping Turkey’s application on hold, not just through internal reforms but by endorsing, and persuading Turkish Cypriots to agree to, a United Nations plan that would have ended the division of Cyprus if the Greek Cypriots had not then stubbornly rejected reunification.
By the time the EU finally rewarded Turkey’s efforts by promising, in October 2005, to open accession talks and pursue them in good faith, Turkey was entitled to expect its members to keep their word. They have not done so. It has proved impossible even to start negotiating, because Cyprus has blocked the opening of all but one of the 35 “chapters” of the accession dossier until Turkey opens its ports to Cypriot shipping.
It is true that Turkey is legally obliged to open its markets to all EU members, without exception. But the Union is also morally obliged to reciprocate, as it promised it would, by simultaneously ending the trade and travel embargoes on the Turkish Cypriot part of Cyprus. The Greek- Cypriot Government has blocked that, too — and insists it will continue to whatever Turkey does. Far from pressing Cyprus to see reason, the EU has laid all the blame for this absurd dispute on Turkey — and has stubbornly carried on doing so even after last week’s politically brave offer by Ankara to make a unilateral first move towards compromise. At this week’s EU summit, governments are poised to “punish” Turkey by putting large segments of the negotiating agenda in the deep freeze. There they would stay until all EU members decided otherwise.
The EU should do no such thing. The effect, although no one is saying so, could be to keep Turkey out of Europe for the duration. That would suit Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right would-be president of France; both are openly opposed to admitting Turkey. It would please Austrians, Belgians and Dutch who have become increasingly neuralgic about immigration in general and Muslims in particular. It is their support that Cyprus relies on. But for Europe, even more than for Turkey, this would be an error of historic proportions.
The political and strategic case for embracing Turkey has been made stronger, not weaker, by the Islamist challenge. Its part-Asian identity should be seen as an asset, as should its proxim-ity to and knowledge of the Middle East. EU entry is contingent on Turkey showing that Islam can sit with secular democracy, a challenge that Turkish modernisers are determined to meet. It should not be contingent on temper tantrums in Cyprus — a country that stands greatly to gain from good relations with the country that will in future dominate the Aegean economy. Turkey will not settle for second-class citizenship, as Mrs Merkel knows and should publicly admit. There is no middle way. Turkey’s road into the EU will be long. The Union should not make it unnecessarily crooked.
thetimesonline.co.uk
The Times
December 11, 2006
Straight Road to Europe
Turkey does not deserve the punishment the EU contemplates
For 43 years, Turkey has been knocking at the European Union’s door. Despite being the guardian of Nato’s southern flank, firmly aligned with the West throughout the Cold War, it has watched other states with dictatorial pasts and fragile economies — Spain, Portugal and Greece, and Eastern Europe’s new democracies (Germany was led by Adolf Hitler in the decade before it joined the embryonic EU) — push past it in the queue for admission. It has listened to European statesmen extol enlargement, correctly, for expanding the community of stable, prosperous democracies and establishing the EU as a confident, outward-looking player on the global stage. It has worked hard to deprive them of reasons for keeping Turkey’s application on hold, not just through internal reforms but by endorsing, and persuading Turkish Cypriots to agree to, a United Nations plan that would have ended the division of Cyprus if the Greek Cypriots had not then stubbornly rejected reunification.
By the time the EU finally rewarded Turkey’s efforts by promising, in October 2005, to open accession talks and pursue them in good faith, Turkey was entitled to expect its members to keep their word. They have not done so. It has proved impossible even to start negotiating, because Cyprus has blocked the opening of all but one of the 35 “chapters” of the accession dossier until Turkey opens its ports to Cypriot shipping.
It is true that Turkey is legally obliged to open its markets to all EU members, without exception. But the Union is also morally obliged to reciprocate, as it promised it would, by simultaneously ending the trade and travel embargoes on the Turkish Cypriot part of Cyprus. The Greek- Cypriot Government has blocked that, too — and insists it will continue to whatever Turkey does. Far from pressing Cyprus to see reason, the EU has laid all the blame for this absurd dispute on Turkey — and has stubbornly carried on doing so even after last week’s politically brave offer by Ankara to make a unilateral first move towards compromise. At this week’s EU summit, governments are poised to “punish” Turkey by putting large segments of the negotiating agenda in the deep freeze. There they would stay until all EU members decided otherwise.
The EU should do no such thing. The effect, although no one is saying so, could be to keep Turkey out of Europe for the duration. That would suit Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right would-be president of France; both are openly opposed to admitting Turkey. It would please Austrians, Belgians and Dutch who have become increasingly neuralgic about immigration in general and Muslims in particular. It is their support that Cyprus relies on. But for Europe, even more than for Turkey, this would be an error of historic proportions.
The political and strategic case for embracing Turkey has been made stronger, not weaker, by the Islamist challenge. Its part-Asian identity should be seen as an asset, as should its proxim-ity to and knowledge of the Middle East. EU entry is contingent on Turkey showing that Islam can sit with secular democracy, a challenge that Turkish modernisers are determined to meet. It should not be contingent on temper tantrums in Cyprus — a country that stands greatly to gain from good relations with the country that will in future dominate the Aegean economy. Turkey will not settle for second-class citizenship, as Mrs Merkel knows and should publicly admit. There is no middle way. Turkey’s road into the EU will be long. The Union should not make it unnecessarily crooked.
thetimesonline.co.uk
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