Letters to the editor of the Economist on: Turkey in Europe?
SIR – Charlemagne assumes that the steps Turkey is taking towards human-rights reform (so it can join the European Union) are more than simple promises (September 17th). However, Turkey must also enforce these laws if it is serious in proving it has taken the reform path. Recent events suggest otherwise: the Greek Orthodox Halki seminary remains shut; Hrant Dink, the Istanbul publisher of the Armenian newsletter Agos, faces up to three years in jail for telling an audience that he is “an Armenian of Turkey”; and in March, the government defended Turkish police who attacked women during a peaceful protest. The latter event caused Gerhard Schröder to remark that Turkey's value system is “incompatible with [Europe's] common values”. To promise human-rights reform is one thing, but to put it into effect is something quite different.
James Pro, New York
SIR – The idea that the ideology of Islam and its adherents in Turkey can be democratised is a pipe dream. Just look around you in any major city in Europe these days for a reality check. If Turkish immigrants cannot integrate, and voluntarily segregate into Islamic “parallel” societies, why the hopes for Turkey modernising itself? Why risk getting stuck with more such immigrants? If one is confronted with the problem of a bomb with a burning fuse the proper solution is not to swallow the bomb in order to stabilise it—one might get blown to bits that way—but rather to keep the bomb at bay.
Bas van den Beld
Utrecht, The Netherlands
SIR – Despite so-called reforms, Turkey's military maintains a decisive voice in politics, making real democracy questionable. Its military and foreign policy is slavishly pro-American and the EU does not need another Trojan horse like Britain or Italy in its midst preventing it from being a reasonable counterweight to America's unilateral interventionism. Because of its large population Turkey will insist on a decisive role, pushing founding countries like Germany and France aside.
H.S. Weiler
Cairo