"Ready to join the community of values!"

"The facts show that Turkey is closer to joining the EU than any other of the current candidates", says Udo Steinbach, director of the German Orient Institute (DOI). He supports the admission of Turkey to the community of European nations.

Since 1963, says Steinbach, there have been contractual assurances that Turkey’s admission to the European Union is possible - in principle. And as he points out, there has been a Customs Union between Turkey and the EU since 1996, signifying a degree of economic integration unmatched by any other potential EU member. Steinbach sees a close connection between the EU’s new identity as a political and economic player and the admission of a country like Turkey, which plays an increasingly important geopolitical role between the Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia. The Turkish elite, says Steinbach, is also aware that there is, in the long run, no alternative to EU membership. In the land of the Bosporus, however, people also know that profound political, social and economic reforms are preconditions for admission to the EU.

According to Steinbach, a scholar of Oriental Studies, Turkey has also demonstrated its capacity for change. He sees the situation as follows: The Kemalist revolution (named after Kemal Atatürk, the first President of the Turkish Republic) was so radical, and of such historical dimensions, as to be practically unparalleled. The country left its past behind it, and set off on the road to Europe. "This process included a transition to a multi-party system after the Second World War; and no other country in the mainly Islamic Middle East has followed Turkey down this path. There has even been progress in the 'Kurdish question'. In a series of legislative stages, the political class has been moving deliberately towards European standards." Steinbach insists that the EU must not close its eyes to these developments: "If the EU regards itself as a community of values, rather than as a 'Christian-Occidental club', it cannot ignore these changes. Turkey remains a country of Muslim citizens, just as the EU is community of states with a mainly Christian population. But the value system is neutral as regards religion."

Certainly, says Steinbach, it is still too early to judge whether the burgeoning transformation of Turkey will actually lead to lasting results; and it is quite realistic to delay naming a date for the commencement of entry negotiations. But as Steinbach sees it, a Europe which conceives itself as a liberal community of values, and whose citizens already belong to a variety of religious communities, cannot do otherwise than to remain open to Turkey: "The interests of both sides speak for a European Union that includes Turkey."

Source: a press release from the Leibniz Association (Leibniz-Gemeinschaft) 04/2003.

Translation: Patrick Lanagan