Spurning a devoted lover
The statement by Ali Babacan, Turkey's chief negotiator for European Union membership, on the one hand, and the statement by an EU diplomat about the prospects for Turkey's admission into the EU on the other hand, reflect how difficult and how time consuming it will be for predominantly Muslim Turkey to eventually be accepted into the European club.
The formal negotiations between the two sides ended with little in the way of results last week in Berlin and, following Austria's veto, Turkey will have to wait perhaps another decade or even more to be eventually allowed to join the predominantly Christian European club. For 40 years, Turkey has struggled to join but to no avail. And polls now show that the majority of EU citizens oppose Turkey's membership.
Quoting Babacan, the Associated Press reported that Turkey will have to complete negotiations on 35 separate items as prerequisites for joining the EU, although there is no guarantee even then of automatic entrance.
"There are points of no return, and Turkey has passed these. Turkey is a big country, and we have to be aware that on some subjects it will take time to achieve harmony," said Babacan.
Separately, Richard Bernstein, in an article that appeared in the International Herald Tribune last Friday, quoted an EU diplomat as saying that the EU attitude was "like a man who has a girlfriend but doesn't want to marry her, but doesn't want to break up with her either."
Babacan, who is also Turkey's economics minister, is right to point out that Turkey will continue knocking on the EU door as the country knows that getting a room in the EU house is the only way for his country to achieve its full identity as a true member of Europe and to bring wealth and security to its people. However the image of Turkey as a "girlfriend" reflects the EU's indecisiveness in accepting Turkey and a litany of vacuous promises that merely serve to allow the EU to continue "getting its way" with that country. The girl continues to be wholeheartedly devoted to her lover while the man's heart is in reality elsewhere.
Economic and cultural factors are often mentioned as the biggest obstacles for Turkey. Many Europeans worry that the 70 million people of relatively poor Turkey will be a new burden for the EU and that cheap labor will threaten the well-paid workers of the prosperous grouping.
But outsiders, especially Muslims all over the world, see the main reason for the rejection of secular Turkey as being religion, rather than just cultural and economic problems. Other newly admitted EU members have more or less similar problems but the story was different for them because they are Christian. It is difficult to deny such perceptions as many European politicians and even the Vatican itself have expressed reservations about Turkey.
Especially since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which were followed by other attacks by Muslim terrorists around the world, including here in Indonesia, Western countries are much more hostile toward Islam. Many Muslims in Europe, the United States and other countries where Islam is a minority religion, may feel they are being subjected to discrimination and harassment even though they have nothing to do with terrorism and are as peace- loving as the adherents of other religions.
With its continuous rejection of Turkey, the European Union, which prides itself on being a multicultural, multiethnic and multireligious organization, has embarrassed itself in front of the world, especially the Muslim nations. The European countries have also humiliated their 20 million Muslim citizens because religion has become a major obstacle to treating the 70 million Turkish citizens as being equal to those of non-Muslim European nations.
Following the negotiations in Berlin, it seems on the surface that only Austria does not want Turkey in the club. Other bigger members, like France, Germany, Italy and Britain, however, also share the same sentiments, but are hiding behind Austria.
The European Union has the full right to decide its own future, including the acceptance of new members. But its slippery attitude to Turkey will only strengthen the perceptions in other countries, especially Muslim nations, that the majority of Christians on the continent are not ready to treat Muslims equally. It will send the wrong message to the world, and could well affect interreligious harmony and increase hostility on both sides.