In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Who’s the Sick Man of Europe? A Wavering EU Should Let Turkey In
  • Fatos Tarifa (bio) and Benjamin Adams (bio)

In late 2005, after several decades of Turkey seeking access through Europe's gates in Brussels, the European Union opened official accession talks with Turkey. That moment was a seminal occasion in European-Turkish relations; for more than forty years Turkey had been moving with great difficulty down the road toward greater integration with Europe. Jack Straw, British foreign secretary at the time, called it "a truly historic day for Europe and for the whole of the international community."1 Yet despite the great progress Turkey has made against seemingly overwhelming odds, the road ahead to full membership looks no less tortuous, and many find it difficult to predict whether Turkey will be successful in its bid. Europe's attitude toward Turkey continues to be ambivalent at best, with many Europeans expressing abiding reservations. Turkey's bid to join the EU comes at a time when Europe is struggling to define itself as it expands further eastward and finds itself confronting a series of demographic, social, economic, and bureaucratic challenges.

While today Turkey is in a much better position to join the EU than most observers would have thought possible ten or even five years ago—indeed, no country that has begun accession talks to join the EU has ever failed to become a member—many observers are warning that Europe and Turkey [End Page 52] are headed for a train wreck. Whatever the outcome, the experience of accession talks between Turkey and Europe will have a profound impact, for better or worse, on both parties for years to come. Their deliberations have, indeed, forced to the surface difficult questions of the EU founding principles—controversies that Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman would never have been able to portend in their European project—as well as of the redistribution of resources and the EU's ultimate boundaries.

In this essay we examine why Turkish accession poses such a challenge for Europe and what it means for Europe's future prospects, both internally and on the world stage. In doing so, the pros and cons of Turkish membership will be examined and evaluated, and a consideration will be given to possible outcomes for both Turkey and the EU.

Timeline

For centuries Turkey has had ties to Europe. As the center of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey served as both a bridge to and a barrier between Europe and the Middle East and Asia. Ever since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Turkey has looked west to Europe as a model of its own future. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, revived Turkish nationalism in the wake of the Ottoman Empire with his Kemalist philosophy, which was informed by European ideas of secularism, modernity, and democracy as well as, somewhat paradoxically, militarism.

Throughout the last half of the twentieth century Turkey maintained very close ties to the United States and Western Europe. Turkey became a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, the same year the Treaty of London established this pan-European organization, whose goals were, and remain, the promotion of democracy and protection of human rights and the rule of law in Europe. In 1952 Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization even as it shared borders with the Soviet Union, and thus was a critical ally of the West during the Cold War. Soon after joining NATO Turkey began approaching Europe to strengthen economic ties with the continent, and since that time Turkey has been "knocking on [Europe's] door . . . full of high hopes and good intentions."2 [End Page 53]

As the European integration project gained momentum with the Treaties of Rome (1957) that established the European Economic Community (EEC)—later to become the European Community (EC)—Turkey sought to participate in it. Applying for association with the EEC as early as 1959, Turkey has had the longest and the most arduous and painful relations with the EU of all countries that have—or will—become EU members. The EEC Council of Ministers accepted Turkey's application. Four years later, an...

pdf

Share