Romania and Bulgaria join EU; Turkey still begging
Dec 31, 2006 in Europe, Turkey
Romania and Bulgaria officially become members of the European Union at midnight tonight. Both are former communist states and members of the Warsaw Pact. Both are relatively poor nations whose GDP per capita is about 33 percent of the EU average. Both have governments that are chronically plagued by corruption and mismanagement. And yet, none of these concerns were deemed serious enough to block Bulgaria and Romania’s entry into the EU.
Contrast this with Turkey. Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952. Its economy is comparable to those of Bulgaria and Romania, and has grown at a faster rate. It has maintained the same system of government since 1923. Its cultural influence on Southeastern Europe (including Bulgaria and Romania) dates back several centuries. And it has sought entry into the European Union since 1987, when Bulgaria and Romania were still under communist governments.
There are many concerns cited by European officials who oppose Turkish membership in the EU. Some of these are legitimate, such as Turkey’s treatment of its ethnic Kurds and its refusal to recognize the government of Cyprus. However, others, such as its relatively weak economy and assertions that it isn’t sufficiently ‘Western’, are questionable in light of the accession of two poor, former communist nations. Other objections to Turkey’s entry are flagrantly hypocritical, such as concerns over its commitment to free speech. While Turkish laws criminalizing the expression of certain political views are indeed outrageous, are they any more so than Holocaust denial laws, which exist in prominent EU nations France, Germany, and Spain? Similarly, if Turkey’s acknowledgment of a genocide committed by a previous regime should be a condition to its entry, then why was France never pressured to acknowledge its collaboration with the Nazis as a condition to its entry?
As a Muslim, I have mixed feelings about Turkey’s EU dreams. On the one hand, the accession of a prominent Muslim nation to the EU could be a positive step in improving relations between the West and the Muslim World. On the other hand, Turkey’s desperate courting of the EU is yet another chapter in the sad story of its dramatic transformation from a vanguard of Islamic civilization to a fanatically secular state hostile to all things Islamic. I hope the success of the AKP is an indication that Turkey may embrace a moderate form of secularism and that its accession to the EU would have positive consequences for Islam and Muslims.
