Following the start of the official negotiations Turkey’s accession to EU has become more visible than ever. Although the leaders of the member states have hardly reached a decision on Turkey’s full membership. This however, will subsequently be subject to the approval of member states either through referendums or by their parliament. Thus the form of the relations between Europe and Turkey have been shifted to an upper level. At this stage Turkey needs to monitor more closely the changes in opinions of EU governments as well as general public.
The aim of this report is to bring an historical view point to the underlying causes of perceptions towards Turkey in EU. Firstly a brief historical background will be provided for the relations and the counter perceptions between Turkey and Europe for the purpose of the argument of the report. Then the reasons for the different attitudes of EU member states’ public towards Turkey will be examined and discussed. Finally, a framework for the character of attitudes of the member states will be drawn. In this context the term interpolarized is used for describing the opposed as well as interactive nature of relations between Turkey and EU. In addition, the term guest workers describes the immigrants from Turkey whom invited by the host european countries for filling the gap of industrial work force during 1960’s and 1970’s.
BACKGROUND
The Anatolian peninsula has become a passage for the movements of mankind from east to west as well as a settelement for the civilisations for ages. This historic record, has resulted in an inherited charasteristic perception of “other” for both the settlers of Anatolia and their western and eastern neigbour communities for each other. From this point of view, in the world of today, relations between Turkey and main European Countries-England, France, Germany and Italy- could be described as interpolarized. As far as the eastern perspective to Turkey concerned however, mainly a westernised character is attributed to Anatolia. In other words, Anatolia is situated in somewhere in purgatory.
PERCEPTIONS OF THE EU MEMBER STATES CONCERNING TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP BID
Although it is broadly believed that a negative approach is dominating the general public opinion of EU countries towards Turkey’s full membership, the historical background and relations differentiates the attitudes are observed among them. While a relatively positive approach is coming from the people of eastern europe and Mediterranean region, the public opinions in Austria, France, Germany, Nedherlands and Belgium reflect the most opposing character.
As a matter of fact, the opinon pools from the EU support this argument broadly. According to the Euractive sources(*), the pools demonstrate that, 70% of French people are opposed to Turkey’s accession in the EU, just in the line with, 74% of the German public and 76% of Austrian people are against Turkey’s membership which is the same more or less in the Netherlands and Belgium. In the enlarged EU however, the same sources indicate that 52% of citizens are opposed to Turkey pointing to a better position compared to the cases in opposing countries individually. This recovery mainly stems from the new accession countries Bulgaria and Romania –around 60%- as much as Hungary, Czech Republics, Slovakia constituting Balkans in a broad sence and Mediterranean countries of Spain and Portugal. Hence, for the purpose of this report the above mentioned countries can be grouped according to their perceptions about Turkey. While the first group consists of Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium being opposed in character, the second group including Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Spain and Portugal.
Regarding the Mediterranean block in the second group, governance of Islam in Spain and Portugal in the days of ancient Andolucia is identical. This experience brings about a relatively positive Iberian social insight towards Turkey as a muslim country and easterner in character. Concerning the Balkan attitude in the same group; Bulgaria, Romania and partly Hungary and Slovakia as the former Ottoman teritories are have a traditional experince about Turco-Islamic way of life and culture.
On the other hand, a clear negative image about Islam and about citizens of Turkish origin is observed in the first group countries where Turkish muslim citizens constitute a considerable amount of the populations. This public perception about Turkish minorities also
(*) Euractive: European Union Information Website
determine the public attitude towards Turkey’s position in EU. According to the EU sources, Turkish muslim population which mainly consist of guest workers amouts to 4 - 8% of the populations in the first group countries; Belgium, Nedherlands, Germany, Austria and France respectively. It is apparent that the main cause behind this common perception has been the perceived clash of cultures as long as the lack recognition to acknowledge that Turks form a part of these societies.
A survey conducted among more than 17,000 people in 17 countries and released in July 2005 by Pew Global Attitutes Project named “Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics” also provides evidences for the argument. According to the survey; in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, concerns about Islamic extremism both within their own borders and around the world are high. Worries over Islamic extremism are nearly as high in France and Spain.
The survey also gives evidence that these concerns are associated with opposition to Turkey's accession in the EU. As stated above, nearly two-thirds of French (66%) and Germans (65%) oppose Turkey's EU bid, as do a majority of the Dutch (53%). However, support for Turkey's membership into the EU is most extensive in Spain (68%) and Great Britain (57%).
An other finding of the survey is that opposition to Turkey's membership is also related to increasing anxiety about national identity. Negative perceptions about immigration – not only from the Middle East and Africa but from Eastern Europe as well – are even more strongly related to opposition to Turkey's accession to the EU than are concerns about Islamic extremism.
CONCLUSION
Since the relations between Turkey an Europe stand on a broad historic background of opposition, perceptions of both communities are adverse. Therefore cultural and religious mutual prejucides as well as uneven distribution of income and weakness in justice system in Turkey will be a determinative factor in the accession process. Nevertheless, opinion pools address different attitudes towards Turkey’s position between member states.
As a result, the first argument of this report is that, in a broad sense member states can be diveded into two main groups according to their positive and negative perceptions about Turkey relatively. Secondly, it is brought forward that the underlying cause of this grouping is broadly due to the different social textures which are shaped by interrelations with muslims and Turks in the past.
In the light of the above it is recommended that, in order to strenghten its position Turkey should pursue a more comprehensive an complex publicty policy that relies on a great deal of expertise towards EU by taking into account the various causes perceptions of the every member states’ public individually.
APPENDIX
1) ALTINTAŞ, Volkan, “Will The European Sun Rise From The Bosporus?”, ZEI EU-Turkey Monitor, Vol.1 No.1, October 2005.
2) Euractive, The EU-25’s View of Turkey’s Membership Bid, Published:17.12.2004, www.euractive.com/en/enlargement/eu-25-view-turkey-membership-bid/article-1, 27.03.2007
3) Pew Global Attitudes Surwey, “Islamic Extremism: Common Concern For Muslim and Western Publics”, Released:14.07.2005, http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=248
4) SAFIOLEAS, Penelope D., “Identity Shift and Europe’s Changing Perception of Others: Europe, Turkey, and the Issues of Self-Identification”, http://www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/2_1identity.htm, 30.03.2007
5) World Economic Forum in Turkey Summit Report, http://www.weforum.org/pdf/SummitReports/turkey2006/turkey/default.htm,
30.03.2007.
