Turkey started talks about joining the European Union back in 2005, but the process has been suspended since June 2010. The stalemate stems from Brussels' refusal to start negotiations on visa-free travel before Ankara signs a pact for the readmission of illegal migrants coming from its territory (those registered in 2011 by FRONTEX - the EU agency for external border security - were over 55,000, mainly from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and the Northern Africa).
While EU countries like the United Kingdom and Sweden have over the years sponsored Turkey's bid to join the EU, the European continental hard-core - led by France and Germany - keeps on showing resistance to Turkish membership.
London's overture to Ankara are part of a long-desired plan to transform the European club into a great free-trade area rather than a single political and economic entity. Paris and Berlin, on the other hand, would prefer to set up with Turkey an enhanced strategic partnership in place of full accession.
According to the European Parliament Resolution on Turkey's 2011 Progress Report (which regards Turkish request for membership), discussed on March 28 and 29, Ankara must still comply with several EU criteria on enlargement (the so-called Copenhagen Criteria).
The EU's legislative body voiced its concern about women's rights, the large number of lawsuits filed against journalists writing on the Kurdish issue and the detention of many Kurdish politicians, lawyers, activists and human rights defenders.
It also expressed worry about opposition parties' freedom of expression, by forgetting that, as for people's involvement in the European democratic processes, even the EU has its own skeletons in the cupboard. In this regards, on April 12 the EUobserver website reported the allegations about Brussels' commitment to curb public access to internal EU documents: a marked breach of the Lisbon treaty (the EU's constitutional pillar) according to London-based NGO ClientEarth.
The EU parliament praised improvements in the civil oversight of the military, even though it raised alarm over the judicial handling of two alleged coup plans (the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases), which see high-ranked military officials awaiting trial. Such controversies would arise from the political rift between the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish armed forces (in modern Turkey, after the rise of Kemal Ataturk's vision of state, the military has always claimed its role as the guarantor of country's secularist institutions).
Opponents of the Euro-Turkish marriage fear the ruling party in Ankara, the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), is trying to reduce the military's clout so as to carry out some form of Islamization of Turkish society. In dismissing this concern, the backers of the pro-Turkey stance within the EU underscore the liberal-democratic record of the Erdogan's government in fields such as the property rights' restoration of non-Muslim religious foundations and communities.
Yet another bone of contention in the Euro-Turkish dialogue is the Armenian genocide perpetrated by Ottomans during the World War I. The socialist candidate and current front-runner in the French presidential vote, Francois Hollande, has declared that should he win his government would draft a new law criminalizing denial of the Armenian genocide. The French Constitutional Council rejected last February a bill approved by the parliament and backed by the incumbent President Nicholas Sarkozy, which spawned a harsh diplomatic row between Paris and Ankara.
The memory of the "impious alliance", by which from the early sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century the Kingdom of France and the Ottoman Empire had forced the Habsburgs-led Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation to fight on two fronts at the same time, has by now vanished. However, flashpoints in the relations between Turkey and the EU still remain over Ankara's tensions with Greece and the related problem of the reunification of Cyprus. Athens questions the condition of the Greek minority in Turkey and the Turkish military occupation of Northern Cyprus since 1974.
EU leaders have recently urged Turkish counterparts not to boycott the European meetings when the (Greek-Cypriot) Republic of Cyprus takes over the EU rotating presidency in 2013, as well as not to hamper drilling operations for oil and gas by Greek-Cypriots in a section of the Mediterranean Sea which the Ankara-backed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) also claims.
In light of continuing poor economic performances of EU countries, coupled with the slow rhythm of membership's negotiations, within Turkey is mounting the disaffection over the European integration. Turks wonder why their fast-growing country should join a giant with feet of clay, which can hardly give lessons to them like in the past.
The answer could be in the Euro-Turkish economic interdependence. The Turkish economy grew by 8.5% in 2011, but it slowed to 5.2% in the fourth quarter of the same year. Turkey is the EU's sixth-biggest trade partner, while the Union is Turkey's main trading partner: Turkish trade with the EU accounts for 42% of its total. Europe's share of foreign investments to Ankara is 80%. Then, it is worth noting that 70% of tourists visiting Turkey come from European countries. Ankara is also the only country which has formed a customs union with Brussels before its accession.
The Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Cemil วi็ek, during a conference of EU parliament heads in Warsaw on April 20, emphasized the political and economic advantages of Turkey's accession to the EU. "Turkey's EU membership would help Europe overcome the recession as well as bring the Union's political, economic and social strength to a vast geography", วi็ek was quoted as saying by the Anadolu Agency.
Turkey's geopolitical importance for Europe is evident in many respects. The Turkish candidate might indeed offer a successful model (of Muslim democracy) for those Arab States experiencing a twisted political transition. The strategic depth of Ankara in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia could also help EU pursue more briskly its Neighborhood Policy. And, since "the vast geography" wants what it wants, the European governments and energy companies look to Turkey as a stable corridor for Caucasian, Caspian and Iraqi oil and gas resources.
Over the past two years, Turkey has been calling on the EU to revive a structured dialogue on foreign policy, but in vain. In forwarding such a demand, the Erdogan's cabinet has probably recognized that a go-alone policy in the Middle-Eastern powder keg would drain plenty of political and economic resources away from the country.
With its huge population of 78.7 million, its GDP per capita remaining low compared to most EU member states and with its Islamic soul, Turkey is still seen in the European mainstream as an "alien body". The litmus test of this negative perception is in Turkey-obsessed Greece: notwithstanding its dramatic economic situation, Greece spent US$7.5 billion for defense in 2011 (2.3% of its GDP, one of the higher ratios in Europe, according to a recently released report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) and that is ready to waste $7.2 million to build an immigrant-repelling barrier on its border with Turkey.
Asia Times Online :: Turkey's EU membership hits a wall
While EU countries like the United Kingdom and Sweden have over the years sponsored Turkey's bid to join the EU, the European continental hard-core - led by France and Germany - keeps on showing resistance to Turkish membership.
London's overture to Ankara are part of a long-desired plan to transform the European club into a great free-trade area rather than a single political and economic entity. Paris and Berlin, on the other hand, would prefer to set up with Turkey an enhanced strategic partnership in place of full accession.
According to the European Parliament Resolution on Turkey's 2011 Progress Report (which regards Turkish request for membership), discussed on March 28 and 29, Ankara must still comply with several EU criteria on enlargement (the so-called Copenhagen Criteria).
The EU's legislative body voiced its concern about women's rights, the large number of lawsuits filed against journalists writing on the Kurdish issue and the detention of many Kurdish politicians, lawyers, activists and human rights defenders.
It also expressed worry about opposition parties' freedom of expression, by forgetting that, as for people's involvement in the European democratic processes, even the EU has its own skeletons in the cupboard. In this regards, on April 12 the EUobserver website reported the allegations about Brussels' commitment to curb public access to internal EU documents: a marked breach of the Lisbon treaty (the EU's constitutional pillar) according to London-based NGO ClientEarth.
The EU parliament praised improvements in the civil oversight of the military, even though it raised alarm over the judicial handling of two alleged coup plans (the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases), which see high-ranked military officials awaiting trial. Such controversies would arise from the political rift between the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish armed forces (in modern Turkey, after the rise of Kemal Ataturk's vision of state, the military has always claimed its role as the guarantor of country's secularist institutions).
Opponents of the Euro-Turkish marriage fear the ruling party in Ankara, the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), is trying to reduce the military's clout so as to carry out some form of Islamization of Turkish society. In dismissing this concern, the backers of the pro-Turkey stance within the EU underscore the liberal-democratic record of the Erdogan's government in fields such as the property rights' restoration of non-Muslim religious foundations and communities.
Yet another bone of contention in the Euro-Turkish dialogue is the Armenian genocide perpetrated by Ottomans during the World War I. The socialist candidate and current front-runner in the French presidential vote, Francois Hollande, has declared that should he win his government would draft a new law criminalizing denial of the Armenian genocide. The French Constitutional Council rejected last February a bill approved by the parliament and backed by the incumbent President Nicholas Sarkozy, which spawned a harsh diplomatic row between Paris and Ankara.
The memory of the "impious alliance", by which from the early sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century the Kingdom of France and the Ottoman Empire had forced the Habsburgs-led Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation to fight on two fronts at the same time, has by now vanished. However, flashpoints in the relations between Turkey and the EU still remain over Ankara's tensions with Greece and the related problem of the reunification of Cyprus. Athens questions the condition of the Greek minority in Turkey and the Turkish military occupation of Northern Cyprus since 1974.
EU leaders have recently urged Turkish counterparts not to boycott the European meetings when the (Greek-Cypriot) Republic of Cyprus takes over the EU rotating presidency in 2013, as well as not to hamper drilling operations for oil and gas by Greek-Cypriots in a section of the Mediterranean Sea which the Ankara-backed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) also claims.
In light of continuing poor economic performances of EU countries, coupled with the slow rhythm of membership's negotiations, within Turkey is mounting the disaffection over the European integration. Turks wonder why their fast-growing country should join a giant with feet of clay, which can hardly give lessons to them like in the past.
The answer could be in the Euro-Turkish economic interdependence. The Turkish economy grew by 8.5% in 2011, but it slowed to 5.2% in the fourth quarter of the same year. Turkey is the EU's sixth-biggest trade partner, while the Union is Turkey's main trading partner: Turkish trade with the EU accounts for 42% of its total. Europe's share of foreign investments to Ankara is 80%. Then, it is worth noting that 70% of tourists visiting Turkey come from European countries. Ankara is also the only country which has formed a customs union with Brussels before its accession.
The Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Cemil วi็ek, during a conference of EU parliament heads in Warsaw on April 20, emphasized the political and economic advantages of Turkey's accession to the EU. "Turkey's EU membership would help Europe overcome the recession as well as bring the Union's political, economic and social strength to a vast geography", วi็ek was quoted as saying by the Anadolu Agency.
Turkey's geopolitical importance for Europe is evident in many respects. The Turkish candidate might indeed offer a successful model (of Muslim democracy) for those Arab States experiencing a twisted political transition. The strategic depth of Ankara in the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia could also help EU pursue more briskly its Neighborhood Policy. And, since "the vast geography" wants what it wants, the European governments and energy companies look to Turkey as a stable corridor for Caucasian, Caspian and Iraqi oil and gas resources.
Over the past two years, Turkey has been calling on the EU to revive a structured dialogue on foreign policy, but in vain. In forwarding such a demand, the Erdogan's cabinet has probably recognized that a go-alone policy in the Middle-Eastern powder keg would drain plenty of political and economic resources away from the country.
With its huge population of 78.7 million, its GDP per capita remaining low compared to most EU member states and with its Islamic soul, Turkey is still seen in the European mainstream as an "alien body". The litmus test of this negative perception is in Turkey-obsessed Greece: notwithstanding its dramatic economic situation, Greece spent US$7.5 billion for defense in 2011 (2.3% of its GDP, one of the higher ratios in Europe, according to a recently released report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) and that is ready to waste $7.2 million to build an immigrant-repelling barrier on its border with Turkey.
Asia Times Online :: Turkey's EU membership hits a wall
