There is as much of a slowdown on the EU side as there is on the AK Party side. It seems as if the opponents of Turkey's membership in the EU have gathered together to undermine the process.Of course, all of the blame cannot be put on the EU, but it is obvious that while it has readily accepted many candidates that have applied years after Turkey, its admission mechanism starts to work sluggishly when it comes to Turkey's membership. One can provide several excuses for it, but no one can deny the fact that the EU has been following a policy toward Turkey's membership that causes it to blunder on its very own raison d'être. Unexpected issues have been raised in connection with Turkey's membership so that one can do nothing but be shocked.
The EU never delineated its borders. It has been said that Turkey would be on the borderline of the union. However, unexpectedly, some started to argue that Turkey, a powerful and reliable NATO member located in strategically important area, should be a member of the EU.
Can Turkey, a democratic Muslim nation, be just as modern and European as a Christian one? There are some in the West who believe that this is impossible and argue that Muslim and democratic were, are and will be two irreconcilable terms. The nature of Islam, they say, is against democracy, a concept exclusively developed by Christian Europe. Indeed, a Newsweek reader named Russell commented on Feb. 12, 2007: "... the recent reforms in Turkey have been entirely due to pressure from the European Union, which no internal Turkish political force ever could have achieved as your writer states. How does this sit with Matthews's earlier view that Turkey could be a model for the rest of the Muslim world? We should not forget that Europe lost Turkey once before, in 1453, with the fall of Constantinople. Prior to that, the large area known today as Turkey had been solidly Christian for more than 1,000 years before Christianity was suppressed by invading Muslim armies. ... The only way Turkey can participate in Europe is to throw off the oppressive shackles of Islam and accept this legacy."
You may opt to view these sentences as individual or marginal comments, but it is not easy to say that they bear no traces coming from the collective memory of the West. Of course, historical prejudices cannot easily be eliminated. Most of the time, these prejudices can be decisive in international disagreements. As we will not be able to coexist on this planet with all the ongoing conflicts, we must stop them at one point.
As an attempt to support its EU membership, the Turkish government frequently put forward that Europe could become a global hegemonic power only with Turkey's membership. This may be true, but a world order in which Europe establishes its hegemony thanks to Turkey's accession will not be a better place. Today and in the future, the world needs not hegemonies that operates more profoundly or comprehensively, but a sense of solidarity, understanding and common responsibility against conflicts. This cannot be done by everyone maintaining their positions. We need spheres that are culturally permeable.
With its historical background, its cultural identity and its religion, which it should not be forced to overlook, Turkey represents an opportunity for the EU. Short-term political contentions and historical prejudices may lead to missing this opportunity in a tragic manner. With its own dynamics, Turkey will eventually become a country where the rule of law and fundamental rights and freedoms are esteemed. But, if the EU misses this opportunity because of the above-mentioned prejudices and illogical concerns, it will miss a lot.
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