"Comment: Turkey’s European Union Membership and the Muslim World
View by Sedat Laciner
Originally published on 12 September 2006
Almost all the unsuccessful politicians in many of the European Union (EU) countries have recently been talking about the issue of Turkey’s full membership to the EU. Whatever the agenda is, they blame Turkey and the Muslims aspiring to enter the EU. The politicians in the EU are trying to conceal their inabilities and failures by criticizing Turkey. They are misleading their constituencies by fostering grudge and hatred against Turkey, which they believe belongs to another civilization. French Minister Sarkozy is one of the typical examples: In the words of Katrin Bennhold and Dan Bilefsky from the International Herald Tribune, “Nicolas Sarkozy, his eyes firmly set on France’s presidency, might have thought more about French voters than about geopolitics when he said that Turkey should never become a member of the European Union.”(1) In contrast to a politician having vision, Sarkozy capitalized on the prejudices of the French against the Turks and the Muslims. However, with this behavior, he not only eroded the Turks’ credit towards the EU and the French, but also the Muslims’ towards the world and the West."
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