Words & Numbers Friday Facts: Why EU doesnt accept Turkey. 1. GEOGRAPHY Turkey is not a European country. Ninety-seven percent of its territory lies in Asia. The EU does not need shared borders with Syria, Iran and Iraq. Agreeing to one non-European member would open the door for candidates from Cape Verde to Kazakhstan. Turkey is too big for the EU to absorb. With a population predicted to reach 91 million by 2050, it will be the dominant member of the EU. 2. POLITICS Turkey is not a mature European-style democracy. Its politics are a tussle between an overbearing military and Islamists of varying hues. Human rights are routinely abused. Dozens of journalists languish in jail. Amnesty International’s annual report is filled with accounts of torture, free speech violations, denial of minority rights, unfair trials, failure to protect women. Europe would import the intractable Kurdish issue. Public opinion in the EU is overwhelmingly opposed and the Turks are only lukewarm about joining. 3. ECONOMICS Despite it recent growth, Turkey remains an underdeveloped economy. Its GDP per capita at $14,600 is less than half the EU average. The entry of a country that poor and that big would place unbearable strains on EU finances. Turkey’s wealth is unequally spread, meaning that an army of poor immigrants would head west, joining the estimated 9 million Turks already living in the EU. 4. HISTORY, CULTURE, RELIGION Turkey’s historic and cultural roots lay in Central Asia and the Middle East. It missed the shared experiences that bind Europeans together, from the cultural legacy of Renaissance and Enlightenment, to the horrors of the Second World War II which galvanized the drive for united Europe. As an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, Turkey’s cultural traditions are fundamentally different from that of Christian Europe. Turkey’s historical interaction with Europe has always been as an outside invader. Cyprus is an insurmountable obstacle. Source: debatingeurope.eu/focus/infobox-arguments-for-and-against-turkeys-eu-membership/
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:07:33 +0000
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