There are many political commentators who note that one should not confuse Europe with the EU. Following this logic, one could argue - as is often done- a privileged partnership with Turkey is more suitable: Turkey is essential for Europe but not for the EU.
About two weeks ago, two politicians who think this way, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, held a meeting in Meseberg, which was mostly about the future of “Europe”. As appeared in many newspapers, Sarkozy’s proposal to set up a “Council of Wise Men”, an expert task force to focus on the issues relating to the future of the European Union, is also supported by the German Chancellor Merkel.
This council should, in Sarkozy’s words, focus on the external borders of the EU. The council is expected to be established in the period of the coming French EU Council Presidency. The debate on the external borders of the EU, as Sarkozy hopes, should consequently deal with Turkey’s accession, too.
I cannot read Mr. Sarkozy’s mind, but in my opinion, with the deeper and technocratic work of such a council, a new angle in the debate on Turkey’s accession into the EU will not be discovered; since I cannot think of a new take on an issue that has been there for almost 50 years.
There is almost not a single day, when the European media does not either point to the debate between Turkey and the EU or to the clash between the Muslim world and the West. There is almost not single day, especially in the German media, when these same newspapers do not cover the problems Muslims and/or citizens of Turkish origin have in integrating into their societies. Somehow, they also relate this topic to the famous and old debate on Turkey, by adding pictures allegedly representing Turkey: in particular, pictures of women wearing a headscarf, i.e. pictures of the “other”.
The definition of Turkey as “the other” deepens with the continuing fear of Islam and the emphasis on Turkey’s “Muslimness”. It seems that the European media and politicians have forgotten that Turkey is a secular country.
While the European emphasis on Turkey’s religious difference is increasing, European politicians, paradoxically, have recently started to warn about Turkey being “on a road to political Islam”. Here, one should not forget how essential a secular Turkey is not only for Europe but also for the EU. Claiming that Turkey possesses a possible leading role in the Mediterranean cooperation area - in other words, the EU’s will to increase its influence in the Muslim countries akin to the US’s “Greater Middle East Project”- as Mr. Sarkozy wants to, is only possible because Turkey is a secular country. Viewing Turkey as only a part of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and the emphasis on its Muslimness appear so often recently that one really has to ask oneself: what future for Turkey, what future for the EU?
And more importantly, what future for Europe?
If the EU defines itself as the most important representative of the European values, how can one think of the EU and Europe separately? One more aspect is that all these values are only then valuable if they have earned their redibility. The EU, whose constitution relies on these European values, has lost its credibility in the question of Turkey’s accession. In addition to all the turmoils in this issue, the European emphasis on Turkey as the ‘other’ has brought
about the perception by so many people that the EU sees itself as a Christian club. But what about Europe where people from all religions live?
It is almost a fact now that the European leaders of the EU’s Franco-German motor do not consider Turkey as “European”. That the enlargement is a question of the economic framework is now history, the “cultural” differences, which were often an excuse for the economic incapacity of the EU, do overweigh now and seem to stay like this in the near future, too. Turkey’s road to the EU should finally be clear and the politicians who think of Turkey’s accession as “maybe possible after 20 years” should remember Keynes’ famous words: “in the long run, we are all dead”.
