Turkey's Dreams of Accession
The hope of joining the EU has driven major reforms in Turkey, including economic liberalization, human rights protection, and greater civilian oversight of the military. But these reforms have fueled suspicions among Islamists and hard-line army officers. EU membership would help Turkey become a successful Muslim democracy, strengthen it as an ally in the fight against terrorism, and foster liberalization in the Islamic world.
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A Still-European Union
Wolfgang Schauble
David Phillips is right to argue that "Turkey is a crucial ally for the West" ("Turkey's Dreams of Accession," September/October 2004) but wrong to claim that only full membership in the EU will preserve that relationship.
Turkey's historical knack for melding contradictions continues. Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern republic, left a legacy that Turks are actively adapting. Relative isolationism is giving way to rising regional power. Secular democracy has let Islam back out of the bottle. And dogmatic homogeneity is being usurped by growing cultural awareness of, and even fondness for, the Ottoman past. Turks are becoming more Turkish again, and old taboos are falling one by one.
The ruckus over the election of a religious conservative as Turkey's president has exposed the illiberal nature of Turkish secularism -- as well as the pragmatism of the country's reformed Islamists. Preserving democracy in Turkey by keeping the military out of politics will be a tall order, but the future of the Muslim world's most promising democratic experiment is at stake.

User Comments
is EU still the dream ?
if you happen to make a poll or a questionaire about the chance to be admitted to the EU you can easily see that most of the turkish people will tell that no europen country will vote for Turkey to be a member in the EU. so how can the governments make such reforms ? do they know more than an ordinary citizen about the EU ? of course no. we all know that to be elected as a parliament in Turkey is not hard. Turkish people are not familiar with democracy. They are not aware of reforms or the strength of parliament. The poverty is the reason for this. So they are not awake. So there is no acceptable reason that all the governments are making reforms to be admitted as a member. They all know that Turkey will never be accepted. Even the prime minister of Turkey was against the union before coming to the power. So why has he changed ? The reason is he is dependent. most probably to the united states. The second reason is his islamic fundamentals. By supporting his reforms, the Eu countries do not know what they are going to face with. He is making good use of this support. He plays the game. In the end america and Eu countries will be dissatisfied.