Growing
Pains As Turkey Prepares for Historic Entrance
October
4, 2005
by
Michael Lundell
The expected entrance
of Turkey
into the EU has not come easy. Even with the Muslim country's acceptance
of several key sticking points and the opposed countries of Austria
and Cyprus
backing down as recently as yesterday, there are several major points,
which have yet to be resolved.
The decision to
bring Turkey into the EU has evolved over a serious of road bumps that
may ultimately prove too much to handle. Opposition is growing stronger
in Europe, particularly in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party
has garnered some 80% of the public to oppose Turkey's admittance into
the EU.
Concerns in Europe
revolve around a few main issues. A major one would be that Turkey,
a country of 70 million Muslims, is not in line with the more Christian
European countries in its overall philosophy. Europeans are calling
on Turkey to acknowledge its participation in the 1915 Armenian massacre
in which some 800,000 Armenians in Turkey were purportedly killed. Turkey
has also been criticized for its part in the repression of Kurds in
the East.
The EU is also calling
on Turkey to acknowledge the sovereignty of member state Cyprus. The
Cyprus problem stems from Turkey's involvement in the island nation's
independence in which a Greek coup overthrew a coalition government.
Turkey responded by invading the country and taking control of the Northern
part of the island. Turkey still controls the area, calling it the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus. No other nation recognizes the area.
There are also concerns
in the EU that Turkish membership would mean that the EU would have
to officially deal with International conflicts that take place along
Turkey's borders. Those borders include such hotspots as Iraq
and Syria,
among others.
EU speculation comes
alongside a growing nationalist movement in Turkey, which rejects the
country's desire to join the European Union. Many in Turkey reject calls
to recognize the government of Cyprus. There are Turkish concerns that
they would have to adopt Western, European styles of Laws as well.
<---back
to news blog
