Though Turkey and the EU reached an 11th-hour deal and launched accession talks on Tuesday, deep-running doubts persist, writes Doaa El-Bey After two days of crisis negotiations among European Union (EU) foreign ministers, entry talks with Turkey, scheduled for Monday, formally began after a brief ceremony in the early hours of Tuesday. The talks had faced a last-minute deadlock after objections by Austria, which insisted on granting Turkey "privileged partnership" rather than full membership. Opening membership talks requires the approval of all 25 EU member states. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the commencement of talks as a key milestone in Turkey's long-standing efforts towards joining the EU. "A common decision was taken in favour of the alliance of civilisations ... This is Turkey's success, it is everyone's success, it is our people's success," he said after agreeing on a text that would allow membership talks to begin. Last December, EU leaders meeting in Brussels gave the sizable and predominantly Muslim country a date of 3 October to start accession talks. However, Turkey's insistence that it would not recognise Cyprus -- a member state -- in July created new strains in the final stretch towards its long-awaited day in the spotlight. Turkey has sought full membership of the EU since it was made an associate member in 1963. Fadi Hakura, a specialist with London's Chatham House think tank, believes that anything less than membership is not possible because Turkey is already a member of NATO, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development and the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe. "Turkey has already had a privileged status with the EU," he said. Were Turkey to accept anything less than full membership, "that could potentially lead to the indefinite postponement of Turkish accession," Hakura added. By starting membership talks just a few hours after the scheduled time, the EU avoided a serious blow to its credibility. However, a long and arduous route is ahead before all member states accept Turkey and help it reach its long sought after membership. Although Austria is just one state of the 25 EU member states, its stand ahead of the talks represents widespread European reluctance to grant Turkish membership. A poll published by an Austrian news agency and released in Vienna on Sunday concluded 73 per cent of Austrians think cultural differences between Turkey and the EU are too big to warrant granting Turkey EU membership. Across the EU, that view is held by 54 per cent of the population. Some European governments express clear objection to Turkish membership to the EU. The newly-nominated Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Markinkiewicz said that Turkish membership is a matter for the distant future. German chancellor-elect, Angela Merkel, said she preferred that Turkey get privileged status rather than full membership. Further, a few days before the talks, the European parliament asked Ankara to recognise the killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in 1915 as genocide. The move angered Turkey, which insists there was no Armenian genocide. Hakura believes that some European countries and politicians who oppose Turkey's EU aspirations raised such sensitive issues deliberately, "to place obstacles in the path" of Turkish membership. "It is noteworthy that the heads of the Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches in Turkey, Patriarch Mesrob II and Patriarch Bartholomew respectively, strongly support Turkish EU membership," Hakura added. Despite widespread objections to Turkish membership, the EU can gain a lot from the commencement of entry talks. The EU can appear reliable and unbiased, opening doors to states that meet political criteria regardless of religion. In addition, while European states are wary of bringing the poor, predominantly Muslim nation of 70 million into the union, its youthful population could help stave off a pension crisis, increasing the size of the working age population on an increasingly-ageing European continent. Turkish membership could also pave the way to a warmer relation with Greece, and lead to a peaceful settlement of the Cyprus problem. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 into a Greek Cypriot-controlled south and a Turkish-occupied north. The EU wants Turkey to recognise Cyprus. The other issue is Turkey's political and social character. In recent years, Turkey has implemented a number of political and human rights reforms, like abolishing capital punishment, outlawing all forms of torture, banning sexual discrimination and removing all bans on Kurdish language broadcasting. The commencement of accession talks will likely encourage Turkey to carry out further reforms to fulfil EU membership criteria. More important yet, Turkey can act as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world. "Given Turkey's geo-strategic location between Europe and Asia, it would bring an important cultural dimension and understanding to the EU. And Turkish membership would be emblematic of an outward-looking and confident EU. As an EU member, Turkey can demonstrate to the Muslim world that traditions and modernity can coexist harmoniously together," Hakura said. Time will tell whether entry talks will lead to an alliance of civilisations and full membership, or jilted ambitions and an even bigger gap between the West and the Muslim world. Either way, negotiations are going to be long and arduous and are likely to take at least 10 to 15 years.
