TURKEY AND THE EU

Should Turkey be part of the European Union? That question has resurfaced, as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Ankara for an official visit. Germany matters, since more than 3 million Turks live in Germany; and with the German population likely to shrink over the next 50 years, they will become a bigger and bigger part of society.

Turkey was one of the very first countries outside of the original six EEC member states to ask to join; it applied for associate membership as early as 1959, and obtained an association agreement in 1963. It applied for full membership in 1987, and started accession negotiations in 2005. These are progressing, albeit slowly.

The fact that EU-Turkey negotiations have been going on for 50 years shows how difficult they have been. Ex-communist countries that would not have dreamed of being part of the EU in the 1960's are now fully signed-up members of the club; and, in some cases, even have the euro for their currency. Coups, Cyprus, the (mis)treatment of its sizeable Kurdish minority, and other legal issues, have hampered efforts to align Turkey with the growing body of European law and practice.

However, underlying all of this work lurks a more fundamental question, namely whether Turkey should be a member of the European Union at all. Ms. Merkel thinks not; and I have to say that I agree with her. I do not doubt that Turkey could, with time, meet the necessary legal standards. I have no problem with the fact that most Turks are Muslims, whereas most current Europeans are not. Nor am I worried that Turkey would be both the biggest and poorest member state; other biggish, poor nations (eg Spain, Poland) have joined successfully.

My objection is more historical. I just don't believe that the boundary of Europe lies in the mountains dividing Turkey from Iraq, Syria and the Caucasus. It is a tricky question where the Eastern border of Europe lies; could Russia, in principle, ever join? But I don't have any doubt about where the boundary of South East Europe lies, and it is on this side of the Bosphorus.

The great mistake in dealing with Turkey, in my opinion, was not telling them this at the start. For better or worse, the whole Europe project is precisely that; a European one. Countries outside of the EU can have dealings with it, and the EU has a raft of agreements with countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere. But it is a European club.

Ms. Merkel will almost certainly upset her hosts by telling them this. But better late than never.

Walter Blotscher