EuroNews – English Version
September 29, 2005
EU prevarication affects Turkish membership enthusiasm
Rising nationalist sentiment in Turkey is accompanying the
reservations expressed in Europe towards whether the Union can
successfully take the vast mostly Muslim country of 70 million
people. Pro-European Radikal newspaper said ‘Europe is stretching
patience to the limit’.
Readers discovered what looked like a new pre-condition: The European
Parliament demanding that Turks recognize as genocide the mass
killing of Armenians 90 years ago.
Turkish support for joining the EU has fallen from 73 percent a year
ago to 63 percent in a recent survey. Establishment and army pride in
the modern Turkey forged by Kemal Ataturk, still a hero for most
Turks, remains strong. Yet reformers insist that to transform a
Kemalist state into a democracy respecting individuals the EU
provides the way.