Critically examine the arguments surrounding the possibility of Turkish accession to the EU.

General Background After the great devastation caused by the Second World War, the six countries (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) decided to form an alliance which is now known as European Union (EU). Their plan involved the delegation of certain aspects of member state sovereignty to common, independent, and supra national institutions (Cini, 2003). The motto of this institution was to represent a common interest of the whole alliance rather than the interest of any one European state. So the object of the establishment of the Union was to create a new form of institution with strong powers in an explicitly sensitive sector, at a time after the war when the history was still fluid and most of the Europe was devastated physically, economically and emotionally (Harrison, 1995). Now, the then six countries alliance has become a great institution which has included twenty seven countries under its umbrella and still in the process of enlargement (The History of European Union). But the act of enlargement is not an easy process. Every enlargement have inevitably affected and changed the community in different ways. Now it has not only become a major power with the enlargement but also faced the problems in decisions making as well. Similarly, it has been affected as the new members have brought with them their own requirements and problems, for example as a result of the second and the third enlargements, less industrialized and poorer countries have produced pressure on Common Agricultural Policy (eds. Nugent, Patterson & Wright, 1994).That is, the enlargement process or the accession of new countries has been viewed as both challenge and opportunity for European Union. For an applicant nation to become a full member of the European Union, it must fulfill certain criteria set by the EU which is developed by the European Commission and approved by the European Council. The applicant nation should have the European identity, 1

democratic status and respect for human rights as the minimum requirements to be the member state of the European Union (Miles, 1995). These criteria largely exclude the candidacy and may delay the accession process if the Commission finds their activities unsatisfactory or suspicious. Morocco which applied for the full EU membership in 1987 was quickly rejected on the grounds of lacking a European identity. Similarly, the Turkish application has been put in limbo after the commission presented mainly a negative opinion on the basis of her unstable democracy, poor human rights record and the fragility of her economy (Miles, 1995). However, once these criteria have been fulfilled the mechanism for processing an application is still lengthy. There will be a long process of investigation as designed by the European Council which might take years and delay until the satisfactory ground is met. Thus the whole process of enlargement goes through a number of formalities before it is accessed in the European Union. In a sense, the accession is a critical phase in the enlargement process as there will be a subtle bartering between the EU and the applicant country in terms of entry and the treaties about accession. After this long process, the European Parliament has to approve the accession treaties by an absolute majority of its members to become a member state of the European Union (Miles, 1995). Analyzing Turkey in relation to European Union Turkey expressed its concern to join the European Community almost since the community was formed and such interest was expressed even before countries like United Kingdom. In 1959, Turkey applied for association to the then created European Economic Community (EEC) but it is lost from the European Communitys top priorities as the cold war ends and later the Community involves in its own internal integration process as it turned into European Union in 1993. It also focused on the Economic and Monetary Union leading to the invention Euro. Only in the year 1999, Turkey receives the official candidate status which was the first step toward accession. It worked as a roadmap to open the way toward 2

integration and in 2005 depending upon the positive assessment of the European Commissions, negotiation for the Turkish accession started. In this way Turkey receives a status of a formal candidate like the other normal candidates. It shows the new European line regarding the Turkish accession (Cornell University, 2009) In this scenario, it is necessary to analyze the position of Turkey and the possible delay in its accession process. Turkey has been in an unnatural circumstance as an Islamic country with strong ties to the Middle East and Central Asia. At the same time it is a member of NATO since 1955, an associate member of the EC since 1963 and applicant for full membership since 1987 (Spencer,1993). It shows that Turkey swings between the twin polarities of Asian intimacy and the European affinity which puts it in a state of limbo. Spencer (1993) further says that as the restoration of civilians, democratic rule reaches its tenth year, and restrictions on political parties were lifted in 1987, leads toward the full membership of the EU but on the other hand, demographic growth, the role of the military, the issue of human rights and nascent Islamic fundamentalism confine to fuel the fears of neighbours, regional competitor and Western allies (Spencer, 1993, p.1). This anomalous situation of Turkey leaves it in a state of complex relationship with both European community and rest of the world. The issue of violation of human rights and torture are also case for which it has been criticized severely which has created suspicion among the member state of the EU for the accession of Turkey. The EU Accession Criteria and Turkey In the decade of 90s the European Union forwarded the formal definitions of the criterion to be fulfilled for joining in to the European Union and those conditions are known as the Copenhagen criteria. The first type of criteria is the political criteria like stable institutions, rule of law, respect of human rights, and the protection of minorities. The second

set of criteria is economic criteria such as functioning market economy, and the ability to compete with in the European Union. And the final criteria are the adoption of the laws or the legal texts drafted by the EU and the capacity to meet the obligation stamping from the EU membership countries. The only condition to fulfill before the designing of the Copenhagen criteria was the political one (Cornell University, 2009). It shows that the political and the economic criteria are the major criteria to join the EU especially after the Copenhagen summit. Regarding the implementation of these criteria by Turkey, according to the report of Commission in the year 2007, there has been a progress in regard of economic and monetary policy. In general, the European Commission declared that the preparations in the field of economic and monetary affairs were at an advanced stage (Europa, 2009). And Turkey has also gained substantial progress in the political area as well. But at the same time Turkey needs to progress in a number of human rights related issues like the cases of torture, excessive influence of army over intellectual and the political riots and Turkey also needs to develop legal approximation to the laws of EU (Spencer, 1993). These are some of the manifest reasons for the delay of Turkish accession in the European Union but there are some other hidden issues that should not be forget while analyzing this long process of accession which is taken from the different perspective by the European Union. Hidden Aspects of Deferral The first issue is the recognition of the Armenian massacre of 1915 as genocide by some of the member states like France. Though the European parliament made it clear that the Armenian massacre could not be the political criterion to join the EU, it has created a sort of unseen rivalry between Turkey and the member state of the EU. The Turkish government denies the recognition of the massacre as the genocide (Cornell University, 2009).

Another agenda related with delay in Turkish accession in the European Union is the possible interference of Turkey in northern Iraq against PKK. Since 1984, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) has engaged in a campaign of insurgency and acts terrorism against the Turkish state. Turkish government in response to this act has used force in an effort to suppress the PKK (Spencer, 1993). As reported on BBC News (2009) Turkish government banned Democratic Society Party (DTP) which is supposed to have relation with the PKK. Though the European Union supported Turkey through condemning the PKK as a terrorist organization it still wants to seek the political solution by the Turkish government with the PKK. At the same time Turkey blames the European nations for not taking action against PKK, No EU country has extradited members of the PKK to Turkey, despite labeling it as a terrorist organization (BBC News, 2007). Another equally important issue that comes along with this is the issue of human rights in Turkey which has brought a sort of misunderstanding in Euro-Turkish relation. Spencer in his book comments that despite an official prohibition of torture, however, reports of abuses still come to light, and doubts over Turkeys respect for individual freedoms persistsuntil these doubts are more directly addressed Turkeys claim to be integrated in EU will be challenged continuously (Spencer, 1993, p.10). Besides these issues, there is still another issue which is not negotiable for European Union i.e. Cyprus. Cyprus has been a member state of the European Union since 2004. On the one hand, Turkey is committed to the settlement of the Cyprus problem under the United Nations but it does not involve Cyprus to additional protocol to the association agreement that is the protocol dedicated to the EU member state so there is a kind of discrimination by Turkey among member state that is not acceptable for the EU. As a result, in 2006, the commissions recommended partially suspend negotiation with Turkey due to the lack of progress in the Cyprus issue (BBC News, 2007) 5

Turkey, In-between Friend or Foe Thus, this accession process can be seen from the two different perspectives. First economic, on the one hand it can be seen as a chance for the EU to integrate in a large and dynamic market but at the same time it is seen as the extra financial burden to the EU to correct the imbalances with the Turkey and the regional policy of the EU. The second factor is related to the Turkish size and the demography. That means if turkey is integrated to the EU it will be the second largest country in EU after Germany and which in turns holds the major role in the institutions of EU. Another latent case behind the accession is the Muslim religion and the fear of Muslim ruling the Europe. Huntington (1996) in his book The Clash of Civilization writes that Turkey does not receive a membership of the European Community, and the reason behind that, as President Ozal said, is that we are Muslim and they are Christian and they don't say that (Huntington, 1996, p.216). This statement though given years ago still holds a significant meaning while talking about the Turkish accession. This Islam phobia of the European community has raised the question as in Spencers words whether western civilization will be able to develop to include Islam (Spencer, 1993, p.14). There are other expected impacts of Turkish accession to the EU which can be taken as the cause of deferral in the integration process. It is the Europes own dilemmas whether to include the Turkey or not. For example the identity of the European Union, with the inclusion of Turkey in the EU, it has to redefine the meaning of European or the identity of Europe. The major theme of the joining European Union is any European country that respect the principle of the EU may apply for its membership. So, what is European is itself at the crossroad. It lacks the valid criteria to define itself. There are countries in Europe which are not the part of the EU like Switzerland, Norway etc. And there are other regions which are not in Europe but are the part of European Union like the former French colonies. It shows that it lacks identity in geographical ground and it also proves that EU is not a geographical 6

concept rather a political concept which is controversial. Similarly, the EU lacks the validity on the ground of religious identity as well. There are countries like Poland which tries to link the European identity with the Christian root but at the same time Islam is a part of European history as well and the key religion in the countries like Bosnia and Albania. So the only valid criterion to define European identity is political and not the geographical and religious (Aljazeera 2009). Thus, beside the resolution of the Cyprus issue, and the assurance of the human rights there are other issues as well which has caused the deferral of the accession and it might derail the integration as a whole. Recently the Turkish government has reformed in its constitution which used to be taken as the obstacle to the accession of the Turkey in EU which is taken as one step toward the EU. But at the same time, debate like Turkey is no more keen to join the EU is also started to be heard which makes the credibility of the EU lighter. Talking to the Aljazeera television (2010) professor of the Istanbul University, Hasson Koni said, Turks, they do not feel too much attracted to the EU anymore because of the rising of anti-Islamic feeling in the European countries, rising of the nationalism in the European countries, and the economic condition of European countries are also worsening (Aljazeera 2010). But in the contrary Turkey has growing market in the Middle East Central Asia, and Asia. But having said so, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan, said the referendum as historic and this would help its candidacy to EU. It has opened the door for the accession. The European Union took the referendum as a step in the right direction, but made clear that it needs to be followed by other much-needed reforms to address fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and religion (Aljazeera 2010). Thus, the current scenario shows that the accession of Turkey is still in the crossroad. But it is clear that Turkish enthusiasm for joining the European Union is waning as the country is increasingly looking east, a report of Aljazeera said (Aljazeera 2010). 7

Though the countries like United Kingdom is enforcing in favour of Turkish accession as the mediator between Europe and the Middle East. Cameron in his visit to Turkey said that he wanted to "pave the road" for Turkey to join the EU. He further said that European Union without Turkey is not stronger but weaker... not more secure but less... not richer but poorer". (BBC News 2010). But still there are hardliner countries like Germany and France which are very critical to the accession of the Turkey in the European Union (Aljazeera 2010). In the visit of Germany chancellor Angela Merkel said that Turkey is not suitable for full EU membership. She rather focused on the privileged partnership (BBC News 2010). In conclusion, this anomalous situation of Turkey leaves it in a state of complex relationship, in between friend and foe with both European community and rest of the world. The issue of violation of human rights and torture are the cases for which it has been criticized severely. Cyprus issue has become an ever aching wound in the heart of Turkey. Besides, the religious legacy of being Muslim has become curse to its accession. And among these circumstances Turkey is looking towards Brussels expecting for its call. But unless and until these doubts are more directly addressed Turkeys claim to be integrated in EU will be challenged continuously.

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