The New York Times

Monday, December 13, 1999

Bringing Turkey Into Europe

The European Union's offer to accept Turkey as a future member is one of those developments that mark a historic step beyond restrictive old rivalries and power alignments.

Recognizing the potential of the moment, Turkey's leaders have accepted the offer, despite misgivings about diplomatic requirements attached to the invitation and the difficulty of democratic reforms expected by the E.U. Joining the E.U. can provide the chance Turkish governments have sought for years, with strong backing from Washington, to assure their strategically located country's full integration into the democratic West.

The timetable for membership may be lengthened somewhat by the E.U.'s conditions on economics, human rights and regional relationships. Ankara is particularly sensitive to demands that it resolve territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean, submitting them to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if necessary. But the E.U. could not be expected to admit a country that had unresolved border disputes with a member state. Turkey is also concerned about the E.U.'s decision that the ethnic Greek government in divided Cyprus might someday be admitted without the Turkish part of the island. E.U. members like Britain, however, can be expected to protect the interests of Cyprus's Turkish minority in any future accession deal.

Some Turks are also uneasy because their country will now be expected to conform to strict European human rights standards. But this, like the other conditions, imposes no unfair or discriminatory burden on Turkey. The same standards would be imposed on any candidate for E.U. membership.

For this reason, E.U. membership is favored by the most democratic elements in Turkish society. They expect closer formal ties with the union to have positive effects on Turkish law and political life, which remains heavily influenced by the military. The expected reforms include a widening of personal and political freedoms, the elimination of torture and capital punishment and the promotion of political, rather than military, solutions to problems affecting the Kurdish minority. Opponents include nationalists opposed to any compromise on the Aegean or Cyprus, business leaders whose financial practices might not stand up to European scrutiny and banking regulations, and defenders of the traditional repressive approach to Kurdish affairs.

For two millenniums and more the territory comprising modern Turkey has been a vital geographic bridge between Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It has been crossed by Alexander's legions, early Christian evangelists, the medieval Ottoman conquerors of Balkan Europe, NATO forces containing the former Soviet Union, and today by American pilots patrolling Iraq. Turkey, already a NATO member, plays a critical role in protecting American security interests in the region.

Yet for decades the European Union denied serious consideration to Turkey's bid for membership. Legitimate misgivings about human rights abuses, thinly disguised prejudices against the Muslim faith of most Turks and narrowly nationalist objections from Greece, Turkey's regional rival, combined to keep Ankara outside Europe's most important economic and political organization. With Europe at last ready to welcome Turkey, Ankara could not afford to walk away.