Middle East Forum
"Will They or Won't They?
The future of Turkey and Europe
by Michael Rubin
National Review Online
October 3, 2005
On October 3, Turkish and European Union officials will sit down in Brussels to begin negotiating Turkey's accession to the European Union. The day marks a new chapter in Ankara's decades-long quest to join Europe. Turkey first applied for membership in the European Economic Community in September 1959. It achieved association status four years later. But the European Community rejected its application for full membership in December 1989. In 1993, the European Union member states agreed upon the Copenhagen criteria to define the prerequisites for membership. Few thought Ankara would pass the bar. But, to the surprise of many European politicians, their Turkish counterparts pushed through unprecedented economic and structural reform to meet the criteria. In August 2002, for example, the Turkish parliament agreed to abolish the death penalty and permit Kurdish-language broadcasts. In July 2003, the Turkish parliament pushed through an additional reform package diluting the political influence of the military. The August 2004 appointment of Mehmet Yigit Alpogan to head the National Security Council cemented a fundamental change in Turkish politics."
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