Why Turkey Should Not Join the EU
Aby April 7th, 2009
During the recently concluded US-EU summit in Prague, a little political tussle occured when the French President Nicolas Sarkozy rebuffed Obama’s recommendation that Turkey be inducted as a member of the European Union. While I understand the American President’s attempt at endearing himself to the Muslim world, Mr. Sarkozy stance against Turkey’s immediate admission to the EU was quite valid as a European concern.
A news video showing Barack Obama’s clash with Sarkozy in the EU summit.
While Turkey might be amongst the most moderate Muslim-majority nations, it still lags miles behind the European levels of secularlism, tolerance and human rights record of the past 50 years. Despite the progresses made in the last few decades, Turkey still remains a country pretty hostile to the idea of religious tolerance and freedom of speech. Till very recently, Turkey has been bringing up objections to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, from becoming the next NATO Secretary-General. The Turkish argument was that Mr. Rasmussen wasn’t suitable for the post because he did not offer an apology for cartoons of the ‘Prophet’ Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 (which is hypocritic considering that the Turkish leadership never recognised, let alone apologise, the Armenian Holocaust of the early 1900s). On a more active front, Turkey has been strifling its Kurdish minority for years. Turkish Christians are not treated on par with Muslims when it comes to rights to practicing their religion. The handful of churches that exist in Turkey today are either places of historical significance or annexes of foreign embassies.
Beside the religious concerns outlined above, Turkey’s admission to the EU could also create a clash of economic and political differences. Its political conflicts with Greece and Cyprus could become the next European headache, threatening the already strained stability of the European Union. In addition to this, as a member with the smallest economy, Turkey will also create a drag on the EU economy, far more than the effect of Poland, Lithuania and Romania’s admission to the EU. It could also become a corridor for migrants from North Africa and the Arab world to gain a backdoor entry to Europe.
Unless all the above (and additional) concerns are smoothened out between Turkey and Europe, admitting Turkey would be an extremely premature and self-destructive move for the EU. This is the part President Sarkozy and Chancellor Markel got right.
Loading ...
