In 1999 the EU states took the decision to commence negotiations with Turkey on the possibility of EU accession. The wisdom and appropriacy of accession are still subject to violent disagreement in the EU, while in Turkey the swell of critical voices is rising. And it isn’t as if these are accession negotiations – rather a kind of preliminary »sounding out,« likely to last around 10 to 15 years, in an attempt to make out whether Turkey really is in a position to become a full EU member. This procedure was agreed upon by the EU states in 1999, although in 1997 they had clearly pronounced against accession negotiations with Turkey.

Obviously the decision of 1999 was intended to relieve the pressure constantly being exerted by the USA in favor of Turkish EU entry. At the same time, the EU member states had no wish to commit themselves. The resulting aimless and contradictory conflict situation has on both sides led to enormous and dubious repression of important facts likely to block Turkish accession. On the European side these include in the first place the fact that all the relevant eu treaties stipulate that accession is permissible exclusively to »European states,« and no one has so far seriously asserted that Turkey is a European state. An accession agreement with Turkey or even concrete negotiations on that subject would not get past the European Court of Justice.
Add to that the neglect of geopolitical realities. On the Turkish side no notice is being taken of such historical, political and politico-religious facts as »human and civil rights,« »nationalism,« »Islamization,« »Armenians« and »Kurds.« The significance that these topics have for Europeans in relation to Turkish accession is also being underestimated. Finally, both sides are avoiding the question of whether the current mutual sounding out process can manage in 10 to 15 years what could not be managed by Turkish politics and culture in the last 80 years. Both sides would do well to find a way of extracting themselves from the unfortunate fixation on »Turkish accession: yes or no?« – it can only harm them both.