TURKEY AND THE EU (2)

Some three years ago, I wrote a post saying that German Chancellor Angela Merkel ought to tell Turkey that it would not (and should not) become a fully fledged member of the E.U. Turkey was one of the first countries to ask to join what was then the 6-member E.E.C., way back at the end of the 1950's. Since then, the club has expanded to 27 Member States (soon to be 28 with Croatia), while at the same time playing eternally hard to get with its Turkish suitor.

Recent events have strengthened my view on this. My fundamental objection is that although there is a lack of clarity elsewhere, I simply do not believe that the south eastern frontier of Europe should be east of Lake Van, on the border with Syria, Iraq and Iran. With Syria currently in the midst of a vicious civil war, and on a possible path to complete meltdown as a state, I can't see that any current Member State has an interest in providing a European safe haven a few kilometers from a war zone. It's possible that the situation will improve. But the Middle East has a habit of confounding optimists, as the last decade in Iraq shows clearly.

Meanwhile, within Turkey itself, there are severe cracks in the carefully constructed facade that the country is ready for E.U. membership. The Cyprus problem is no closer to resolution; Turkey locks up more journalists than China; it has treated its Kurdish minority badly (and at times appallingly) for decades; there are squabbles with Armenia; and the large Alevi sect do not always find it easy to get along with their more orthodox Sunni brethren. Most worryingly, Prime Minister Erdogan has discovered an increasingly authoritarian streak that brooks no dissent. Young Turks of all persuasions particularly dislike the last, as the demonstrations in Istanbul and other cities show. If they continue during the summer and the Turkish police become ever more violent, then I suspect that more and more Europeans will come to the view that Turkey should stay as part of Asia.

In Roman times, the Mediterranean was an inland sea, North Africa was the city's bread basket, Anatolia was firmly Greek, and everything on the other side of the Rhine and Danube frontiers was barbaric and beyond the pale. But times have changed since then. And while it is uncontroversial that (say) Finland is a European country, so it is also uncontroversial (in my view, at least) that Turkey is not. What remains is that it should be told so.  

Walter Blotscher