Turkey and us

To be in two minds about Turkey is, for Europe, a normal condition, dating back to the time of Justinian and Constantine. The Ottomans were as much a European as a Near Eastern power. Britain fought the Crimean war to defend Turkey's European status and curb Russian expansionism. This uncertainty and ambivalence - geographical, strategic and confessional - has outlived both the demise of the sultans and the post-1922 rise of Ataturk's modern, secular Turkey. It persists to this day.

Given this history, the proposition that the EU's summit in Copenhagen next week will finally decide, once and for all, whether Turkey does or does not belong to Europe would appear risible. Clear-sighted, informed and objective thinking is required. Even if, by some miracle, all other summit issues were cleared away, the age-old Turkish question has the capacity to make the counting of angels on pin-heads look straightforward. Yet the pressure to cut away the detritus of the past and give Turkey a firm date for commencing EU accession talks is formidable. And the consequences of a fudge, a deferral or an outright rejection may be momentous. A Turkish rebuff at the very moment of the EU's largest-ever enlargement could be a defining choice. Europe as an ideal, as an inclusive, cooperative project and as a political, economic and legal entity would have discovered its limits - and its limitations.

Pressure for a "yes" to Turkey comes from the Turks themselves, kept waiting for 40 years and now, brandishing a sheaf of human rights reforms and led by a new, majority-backed government, grimly determined not to be denied. It also comes from Greece, which sees a chance to bury old enmity, and from Cypriots who, almost despite themselves, badly need the latest UN peace plan to work. The pressure comes, too, from others in Europe who rightly hope to fortify Turkish democracy and terminally weaken the military's backroom sway. It comes, presumptuously, from the US, fixated on Turkey's strategic importance regarding Iraq and Nato. Most persuasively, perhaps, the pressure for Turkey's inclusion arises from its rare marriage of Islamic and western values, an exemplary tryst in these divisive times.

The problems of Turkish EU membership are many and should not be minimised. It is a relatively poor country with a large population whose assimilation will be long and complex. But the basic, largely unspoken, arguments against rest on prejudice, ignorance and selfishness. In the end, Europe cannot be defined solely by geography, income, religion, or strategic calculation. Europe is an idea. And Europe in the 21st century is what we make it, freed from the chains of history and united by a common future vision. There is no good reason why Turkey should not share in that.