EU, Turkey Launch Membership Talks Following Historic Agreement
The European Union and Turkey reached a historic agreement on Friday on starting talks on admitting the predominantly-Muslim nation to the bloc
The European Union and Turkey reached a historic agreement on Friday on starting talks on admitting the large Muslim nation to the bloc more than 40 years after Ankara signed an association deal as a first step to membership in 1963.
"[It] is an historic event," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters. “It shows that those who believe there is some fundamental clash in civilizations between Christian and Muslim are actually wrong, that we can work together and we can cooperate together."
According to Reuters, the landmark deal, which could change the face of Europe and Turkey in coming decades, came after hours of wrangling between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the summit chairman, mainly over Cyprus.
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Reports say that while the rest of the world views the Greek Cypriot government in the south—which joined the EU in May—as the sole legitimate representative of the whole island, Turkey recognizes only the Turkish Cypriot enclave in north Cyprus.
Still, Turkey pledged unilaterally to sign a protocol extending its EU association agreement to 10 states that joined the bloc in May, including Cyprus, before it starts entry talks, Reuters reported.
In return, Balkenende, holder of the EU presidency, would spell out that this was not tantamount to recognition of the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia, which Ankara has rejected until there is a settlement for the divided island.
The EU decision also made clear Turkey could not join before 2015—by which time it is projected to have the bloc's largest population with more than 80 million, giving it the most voting power in decision-making and the most European Parliament seats.
Those who support Turkey’s entry into the EU say bringing in the predominantly Muslim nation—viewed by Washington and others as a key Western ally and a bridge between Europe and the Middle East—would spread stability and security, and promote dialogue with the Islamic world by taking in a vibrant Muslim democracy.
Opponents, on the other hand, say Turkey is too big, too populous, and too culturally different to integrate into the EU, and the bloc risks a mass influx of Turkish workers and “enlarging itself to death by extending its borders to Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
Christian groups and human rights organizations have also expressed concerns regarding press freedom, religious freedom, and respect of minority rights. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which released a statement earlier this year, said that while the past year has brought substantial legislative reform, “established patterns of violations are proving hard to eradicate.”
“Police still routinely ill-treat detainees, and reports of outright torture in police custody persist," the agency reported. "Prosecutors continue to indict writers and politicians who express a religious or ethnic perspective on politics, charging them with racial or religious hatred, as well as ‘insulting state institutions."
HRW was particularly worried that some people are still in prison for their opinions and that torture is still used in many penitentiaries.
Additional sources also report that Christians are still precluded from military careers and the higher levels of public office because they are held to be a “suspect” social group for the country’s security. "Christians cannot attend religious schools, since seminaries, novitiates and schools for vocational formation have been abolished," one source said. "If a young man, for example, feels called to the priesthood or to consecrated life, he must go abroad. Furthermore, new churches cannot be built to meet the religious needs of the Christian communities."
In a letter released this month to French President Jacques Chirac, the president of the French bishops' conference, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux stressed that "some fundamental rights, in particular religious freedom, are not totally respected in Turkey, despite the reforms undertaken."
In a seperate letter, also released this month, the Council of Churches in the Netherlands said Turkey must recognize religious minorities within its borders before entering the European Union (EU). In the open letter to the Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the council said the fact that Turkey is a predominantly Muslim nation was no bar from membership, but stressed the EU should insist it recognize Syrian, Orthodox and other religious minorities.
"It is important that all religious minorities gain the right to build and maintain buildings such as churches and monasteries, to set up theological training, to speak and teach in their own language, and to be free in carrying out diaconal and other church-related activities," stated the council, which comprises Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Currently, Turkey still does not formally recognize the Syrian Orthodox minority living within its borders.
Although the region in which Turkey is now located was the center of much of the Apostle Paul's work for the early Christian Church, with the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, it became the ‘guardian of Islam’ for centuries. Sources say in the twentieth century, the number of Christians in Turkey dramatically decreased from twenty-two percent in 1900 to today—where 99.8 percent of the people are Muslim and most people have never heard the Gospel of Christ.
