What is the argument against Turkey entering the EU?

Question

Why does Turkey have to struggle to gain recognition and entrance into the European Union? I know little background on the entire situation, but I know it's been a hot issue for awhile.

Answer 1

Opposition to Turkey's ascession into the EU varies among the public of the current EU member states, as does political support or opposition to the entry bid.

The issues mentioned by some of those objecting to Turkey's EU candidacy can be divided among those inherent to Turkey's situation, those that involve internal issues about human rights, democracy, and related matters, and those concerning Turkey's open external disputes with its neighbours.

There is much contention over whether some of these arguments are used by people more as a proxy against peoples true feelings about Turkish membership in the sense that the country is not culturally European and therefore should be denied entry at all.

1. Differences in fundamental values and culture between a predominantly Muslim country (99.8 % of the population) with current dominantly Christian or non-religious EU members, all of which are historically Christian. Turkey is currently the only candidate country with a Muslim majority. Samuel Huntington regards Turkey as a split country in his book Clash of Civilizations, which could drift off to Islamism and/or nationalism if European integration fails.

2. The Turkish government's refusal to officially recognize the state of Cyprus (a current E.U. member State) until its admittance into EU, is the greatest obstacle to Turkey's accession to the E.U. This issue alone is of great diplomatic concern because it paradoxically implies that Turkey does not fully recognize the side it is negotiating with.

3.Only 3% of Turkey's territory lies in geographical Europe. Furthermore, the Turkish capital is not in Europe, but in Asia. Turkey's membership would mean that the European Union's external borders would reach Middle Eastern nations such as Syria, Iraq and Iran.

4. Turkey's large size and poverty. Turkey would upon accession represent an expansion almost equal in population to that of the 2004 Enlargement while the Turkish economy has been known for very unstable growth and sharp recessions despite some recent improvement. Many question whether the EU can support and absorb such a large Muslim state, and many member states are wary of a probable huge wave of poor Turkish immigration. Despite the strong economic gains in 2002-06, which were largely due to renewed investor interest in emerging markets, IMF backing, and tighter fiscal policy, the economy is still burdened by a high current account deficit and high debt also high unemployment.

5. Turkey's large political power once in the Union. Its almost 70 million inhabitants will bestow it the second largest number of representatives in the European Parliament, after Germany. With the current rate of population increase some fear it might even surpass Germany by the time of accession; thus drastically altering make up of the European Parliament.

6. Constant political crisis (1960, 1971, 1980, 1997, 2007) in Turkey. A stabilized democracy is crucial for accession into the EU. Related to this is the military's significant involvement in civil society.

Answer 2

A million and one reasons.  The most important one to me?

They fail to recognise the genocide of the Armenians that they commensed in 1915.  1.5 Armenians wiped off the face of the planet and many more driven from their homes and land...And Turkey refuses to offer up a mere, "Yeah, it happened" much less an apology.  The government has been known to kill or jail Turks and Armenians who speak up about it, too.  How many countries like that belong to the EU currently?

Answer 3

The real worry is Islam.  After Sept. 11 and the other horrendous terrorist attacks, Europeans trust Islamic countries about as far as they can throw them.  Not far at all.

Answer 4

This question been ask some many times on this. There are loads of reasons (1) Germans for a start don't want Turkey to be a memember of the EU they all ready have three million Turks in Germany. (2) The EU has seen how the Turk responded when the Danish newspaper did the cartoon about Allah. The Turkish burnt down EU offices etc. (3) Turkey has bad human rights records. It more to the east Turkey and to the rest of Europe in terms of history etc.

Answer 5

For one, they do not recognize an EU member state (Cyprus)... until they do, that's kind of a deal breaker...

Answer 6

They're dark and they're Muslim. Not too complicated, really.

Answer 7

Their human rights record just isn't up to snuff.  There's also the question of just what exactly constitutes a European state.  They treat the Kurds in the south-east very poorly - some would even say they are oppressed.