The Daily Star - The EU and Turkey are in a wrestling match, where neither side can afford to let go - by Hugh Pope

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The EU and Turkey are in a wrestling match, where neither side can afford to let go - by Hugh Pope

The Istanbul professor who is a leading character in "Bliss," a lyrical novel by Zulfu Livaneli, imagines the Turkish intellectual as an acrobat swinging through the air. He lets go of his trapeze, sure in the belief that his European partner and inspiration waits on the other side, ready to catch him. Too late, he discovers his mistake.

If the much-bruised Turks agonize long and loud about when they'll ever be accepted as Europeans, the Europeans seem willfully blind to the Turks. Another crisis looms in the long-running negotiations over Turkey's possible membership of the European Union, this time over the conveniently distracting issue of access to Turkish ports for Cypriot ships. Because of this, the European Commission has just recommended a partial suspension of Turkey's negotiations to join the European Union. Meanwhile the reigning pope, who wants to reclaim Europe for Christianity to the exclusion of the Turks, a few days ago visited the Muslim land. So it's worth thinking again about who the Turks are, what they want, and how helpful to Europe their practice of Islam really is.

No clear answer exists, of course, to the question of whether the Turks are Europeans. There are just too many subjective variables. There is plenty of official hypocrisy, too. Europe has never negotiated with Ankara in wholly good faith, and Turkey has never been wholly sincere in its stated goal of joining the EU as it is today. But before muskets and scimitars are brought down from the attics of history, one must note that the Turks are already much more European than most Europeans realize. Comment EU-Digest: It is unfortunate that the discussion about Turkey among European politicians has so very little depth. In order to gain popularity most right-wing populist politicians even blame the candidacy of Turkey as the source for all their own domestic troubles.