Turkey's EU Politics - Report Example

Introduction: The EU is now in an expansionary mode. The dream of Sherlemon seems to be slowly buit surely getting fulfilled. The only difference isthat military imperialism has been replaced by economic imperialism. In 2004, when Poland with 9 other member states joined the EU, conversations have been going on about the probable date of the inclusion of turkey into the EU. Interestingly, unlike other member states, Turkey’s inclusion into the EU seems to be undergoing much hardship. The reasons of this hardship are sometimes endogenous and sometimes exogenous. Turkey – the problems faced in entering the European Union Turkey faces a three-fold problem in order to enter the European Union. It is 1) Too big: Turkey has a population of around 70 million people. In terms of size, it is twice as large as Poland, the largest state joining the EU in the year 2004. if the current trend continues, then within a generation Turkey would become the largest nation in Saudi Arabia. 2) Too poor: according to the 2004 data, the per capita GDP in Turkey, measured in terms of PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) was $6700, which was far less than nations like Slovenia ($ 19000), Slovakia ($13300), Poland ($11100) and Latvia ($10200). 3) Too agricultural: around 35.4 percent of employment in Turkey is in agricultural whereas agricultural employment in Poland is only 19 percent of the employment. Poland actually has the highest percentage of agricultural employment among the ten nations those joined the U on the year 2004. 4) The authoritarian nature of the Turkish government is another bottleneck of joining of Turkey in the EU. EU is one of the strongest proponents of laissez faire and democracy. With Turkey following its strictly authoritarian rule, always prompt in determining all the steps of the nations, is actually totally against the essence of EU. 5) Too Muslim: In Europe, Turkey comprises of the largest number of Muslims. Within the ERU, all the other states are Christians from the days of the crusades, these two religions, namely Christians and Muslims, time and again engaged in occasional conflicts, sometimes leading to a bloody battle. I turkey gets included within the EU; all the other participating states will have a skeptic outlook towards Turkey. “You want to enter the European Union. So you have to do whatever we want you to.” This comment was hurled toward Turkey by the European Union – authoritative, commanding, disgraceful or a modern uproar of imperialism. In any sense the latest developments towards the Turkish inclusion in European Union is quite painful to watch. Countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia and many central and eastern European Countries followed Turkish model in order to achieve economic liberalization and a democratic set up. Interestingly, the Poland and the Czechoslovak has been taken into the European Union long ago but Turkey remained as untouchable. This is not all. Turkey and Greece have similar kind of economic structure and political set up. Whereas Greece has been awarded a ticket to European Union, discussion are still going on regarding the inclusion of turkey. Day by day, the conditions that have to be maintained in order to join the EU is becoming far more complex. Initially there were only Copen Hagan criteria to follow but in recent times, some members of the EU are also claiming the Armenian issue as a precondition of the membership. Holding Turkey responsible for the Armenian genocide, the major politicians of Europe are relentlessly trying to stop Turkey’s inclusion into EU. A combined effort on behalf of these politicians has been laid to include Pontus Greeks and Assyrians in the genocide list. Interestingly, if anyone raises a question of French massacre of 1.5 million Algerians, a tranquil silence is maintained. This kind of well thought policy to disgrace will be hard to combat in near future and it seems unless Turkey gives away its intention to join the EU, such baseless allegations will continue. The pro- European Union, Turkish politicians are making great efforts in order to convince people in favor of joining the EU. However, the rigid behavior of EU till now has only achieved mass anger and irritation regarding Turkey’s effort to join the EU. For everlasting well health of any organization or a system is highly dependent upon the mass consensus. It has been proven historically as well as statistically that confronting public anger, no system has made to the end. The reasons that are often raised in favor of Turkey’s participation into EU speak of the upliftment in human rights as well as democratization. Surprisingly, the human right condition at turkey is better than that in European Union. However, the military influence or the government of Turkey is greater than the accepted average. It is actually in order to reduce this military influence on politics, the Turkish government has always favored the possibility of joining the EU and in the process tried to convince the inhabitants of this country. However, soon the crude pressure that the European Union exerted on Turkey was visible and the toll of humiliation on Turkey was at such a staggering level that the people were no more interests in this ‘handshake’. The inclusion of Turkey into the EU might lead to a clash of civilization. Turkey as we know, is a country with larger percentage of population as believers of the Muslim religion. The USA and the Euro holds a very skeptic view towards the Muslims. Almost in all the cases, they generalize that religion Muslim with terroriam. In the process, they also forget that even these Muslims have their own set of problems with terrorism. Inclusion of turkey into European Union may only lead to further complexities. Turkey might fail to win the trust of the rest of the EU and soon feel isolated within the community. Therefore turkey’s inclusion into the EU instead of providing greater livelihood to the Muslim community may only consolidate the level of oppression on them. It has been found that nations friendly to America or Europe are always subject to terrorist attacks from groups like Al Quaida. If Turkey joins the EU, this may only expose the country to the greater possibility of a well-planned terrorist attack. The partial behavior of the EU in providing grants towards the nations may also prove detrimental to the Turkish economy. Within the EU, one hand, countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal received huge funding from the European union but turkey, comparing to these nations, have received almost nothing. The Turkish business community expects that once turkey joins the EU, its economic stability will definitely rise. However, the inconsistent policy measures taken by EU in course of time have actually increased the volatility within the economy. If turkey does not join EU as an individual nation, it may choose to engage in trade with Russia, China and India. These trade relations will be far more productive and honorable to the nation. Moreover, if Turkey restrains from joining the EU, then the anti-EU sentiment that is moving over the nation will come down and Turkey will reenter a more stable social environment. It is also true, that once this tussle with EU set aside, people of turkey will look after more reasonable solutions of the failure of Turkey to live up to its potentials. The implication is without blaming the EU for the failure and disturbances caused within the nation, the people will look into their own self to find the root of the problems. Last but not the least, the PKK terror that was troubling the country for a pretty long time now, can be tamed with more effective struggle and without any sort of pressure from the EU and the doubles standard that the EU maintains in order to keep the stronger member states happy at the expense of the weaker member states. Conclusion: Joining into any economic Union on one hand brings in a monetary efficiency gain, larger market and on the other results in severe economic stability loss. For a country like Turkey, which is in terms of demography, ethnicity, religion, economic condition and social structure, so different from other currently involved member states in the EU, the outcome of joining an economic community is even more risky. It is hard to tell at this point of juncture that what will be the exact outcome if turkey joins the EU, but one thing that must be considered in this context is that whatever is the outcome Turkey must not undergo any disgraceful treaty with the rest of the EU countries. References: Avci, Gamze. "Turkeys EU Politics: What Justifies Reform?" in Enlargement in Perspective, ARENA Report no. 2, ed. Helene Sjursen Ertzlan, Nathan. "EU Excludes Turkey from Enlargement Plans," Turkish Daily News, December 14, 1997 Grabbe, Heather, "European Union Conditionality and the Acquis Communautaire," International Political Science Review 23, no. 3, 2002, pp. 249-68. Onis, Ziya. "Diverse but Converging Paths to EU Membership: Poland and Turkey in Comparative Perspective," East European Politics and Societies 18, no. 3, 2004, pp. 481-512 Phillips, David. "Turkeys Dreams of Accession," Foreign Affairs 83, no. 5, September/October 2004, pp. 86-97 Read More