TURKEY IN EU COULD BRIDGE THE WEST AND MUSLIM WORLD

By Manik Mehta

BERLIN, April 21 (Bernama) -- Turkey has been knocking at the door of the European Union for years for admittance as a full-fledged member.

Turkey has seen, not without some envy and frustration, how smaller
countries such as Cyprus, Greece and Malta as well as former Soviet satellite
states such as Poland, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania were welcomed as EU
members.

Although a Muslim majority country, Turkey has been highlighting its
“Europeanness” by pitching itself as a bridge between Europe and Asia, and its
strategic location between the two continents.

In its quest for membership, however, Turkey has come up against a wall of
opposition from a number of EU member countries, including Germany, because “it
is too poor, too big and too Islamic,” as the German media has portrayed it.

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Turkey recently, she knew that
her host, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted full EU membership
for Turkey.

Merkel offered, instead, what she called a “privileged partnership” which
Erdogan dismissed as “inadequate”.

But without Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, Turkey knows it stands no
chance of getting full EU membership.

CONSPICUOUS SHIFT IN ATTITUDE

Leading German politicians from Merkel’s conservative party, the Christian
Democratic Union (CDU), oppose Turkey’s full membership. The Minister President
of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stefan Mappus, also a CDU member,
said that good relations between Germany and Turkey, though important, did not
mean Turkey should have full EU membership.

Nevertheless, there is a conspicuous shift in attitude. Instead of the
outright, brusque rejection of Turkey as in the past, the approach is gentler
now.

Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister and chairman of the liberal Free
Democratic Party (FDP), which is the CDU’s junior partner in the coalition
government, called for “more openness” towards Turkey’s EU aspirations. Indeed,
the FDP’s parliamentary spokesman on European affairs, Michael Link, chided the
opponents of Turkey’s EU membership for “not comprehending that Turkey’s
increasing strategic importance”.

In realpolitic terms, Turkey, which is the only Muslim member in the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and, at the same time, a member of the
Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), could build a bridge between the
liberal-Christian EU and the estranged Muslim world which increasingly views the
West with suspicion and distrust.

The attitude of Europeans, including Germans, towards Turkey is
characterised by undercurrents of antipathy and fear that EU membership will
open the gates for unrestricted entry for Turks who would take away jobs,
housing and other amenities, besides “Islamising” their society.

TURKEY'S BAGGAGE

Europeans know that Turkey will bring a lot of baggage with it if it is
accepted as an EU member.

The crushing burden of a debt-ridden and bankrupt Greece, which created a
financial upheaval in the Eurozone, has hardened the European resolve to block
the admission of new, and economically weak, members.

However, although Turkey’s standard of living is much lower than the EU
average, the country has made impressive economic progress, posting since 2002 a
seven per cent average growth which is higher than the growth rate of any
European country. This growth has impressed Corporate Germany which maintains a
strong presence of over 4,000 German companies in Turkey.

Werner Schappauf, executive director of the German Industry Federation,
talking to the German business paper Handelsblatt, observed: “Indeed, as a
German export market worth 15 billion euros in 2008, Turkey is more important
than Japan.”

Juergen Grossmann, chief executive of the German energy company
RWE, urged the German Government and the EU for closer cooperation with Turkey
whose infrastructure projects offered good investment opportunities.

Grossmann underscored the importance of the Nabucco pipeline which will
transport natural gas from Erzurum in Turkey to Western Europe, thus reducing
Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.

Turkey’s huge size, seen as a liability, should in fact be an advantage.
With its geographically strategic location, Turkey could be an important partner
with the potential to become a regional power, whose influence would extend to
the Middle East, the Caucus and the Black Sea region.

TURKEY'S ISLAMIC CHARACTER

Turkey’s Islamic character bothers many in Germany. Despite its Islamic
character, however, Turkey is also amongst the most liberal of Islamic states,
having acquired a modern and secular face under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Since then,
Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West through membership in
organisations such as the Council of Europe, the OECD, NATO, OSCE and the G-20
major economies.

Turkey has already begun full-membership negotiations with the European
Union in 2005. However, as Germans like to remind, the talks have an “open-end
result”, implying that Turkey’s accession to EU membership should not be
construed as a foregone conclusion.

Turkey would still need to satisfy all members that it is qualified for EU
membership, despite being an associate member of the European Economic Community
since 1963, and a signatory to the customs union agreement in 1995.

With the EU and Turkey - and the world at large - changing dramatically,
Turkey could become a useful ally and could be accepted as a full-fledged member
in a decade or so.

The EU may then want to assert its own position vis-à-vis China, India,
Russia and the USA in future discussions over climate change, financial or
energy crises. The EU would then be glad to have Turkey as its member. Many
urge the EU not to lose time in holding talks on Turkey’s full membership and
not engage in delaying tactics with offers of “privileged partnership” which can
serve no useful purpose, and only widen and perpetuate the schism between the
two sides.

-- BERNAMA