“The Turks, they dream of Europe” is the opening headline of La Croix (5/10). The “Turkish question” has monopolised the attention of the international media, as it considers whether the country’s entry to the EU is or is not appropriate, after Brussels pronounced its “yes” to opening negotiations on membership. “The vast majority of Turks”, says the French Catholic daily, which dedicates a four page dossier to the subject, “ are favourable to their country entering the European Union. The Brussels Commission says yes, but highlights that the negotiations will not necessarily be crowned with success”. “No improvement worthy of note on the front of religious freedom”, says the part of the dossier dedicated to the position of Christians in Turkey. The article also quotes a report by the Pontifical Missionary Works which notes “the absence of a legal statute for religious communities“, the existence of which according to the Turkish lay government, “is incompatible with the Turkish principle of a lay state”. The French Catholic daily publishes another dossier (7/10) in which it seeks to answer four questions: “Is Turkey geographically part of Europe? Was the Roman empire European? Can a country with a Muslim majority aspire to be European? Does Turkey want to be European?”. Le Monde (4/10) also considers the debate in France on Turkish entry to Europe, while the project, according to the opening article, “provokes virulent controversy in countries such as Germany and Austria“. President Chirac, says the French paper, has announced a referendum on Turkish membership of the European Union, through a process of “revision of the French constitution that enables each new entry to the European Union to be subject to a referendum”. In its leader column of 7/10 Le Monde affirms that “the Turks are not considered ordinary candidates and their candidature has given rise to controversy”. The question is, “Can the Union continue to expand indefinitely without losing its identity? What are its limits? Is enlargement compatible with political union?”. The US presidential elections in November and the continuing crisis in Iraq are the subjects that attract the attention of the Herald Tribune (6/10), which considers the “justifications” offered to electors by President Bush for the “invasion”, and the “battles” that continue to bring blood and destruction to Iraqi cities . “Will this new and more aggressive wave improve things?”, asks David Brooks on the pages of the American daily, and goes on: “there is terrible amount of pessimism around, including in the Pentagon, among people who understand the situation well”. On 7/10 the Herald turns to the subject of Turkey saying “Turkey has scored a victory in Brussels, but a second-rate victory. There is still a long way to go”, says the paper, referring to the “qualified ‘yes’ expressed by the Commission”. Comments in the German press on the EU opening to Turkey were unanimous. “ No obligation to welcome Turkey into the EU“, affirms Carl Graf Hohenthal writing in Die Welt (6/10). “ With Turkish entry Europe would abandon the European ideal, at least in part. Turkey is not Europe, and it never will be, unless it completely abandons its national character, which is unlikely“. “ Not all engagements must end in a wedding, and it would be better if certain marriages had not followed from engagements“, says Martin Winter on the pages of the Frankfurter Rundschau, who goes on: “ from peacemaker of a troubled continent, the EU has become a geo-strategic player. Yet, however close relations between Europe and Turkey are”, Turkey “has never been a European State. Peace making, then, has nothing to do with the matter and Turkish entry is a purely strategic decision. There have to be good reasons for doing it, especially if it is not yet clear if and how the EU will manage to support the enlargement of Europe“. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (7/10) says: “ The entire Turkish elite that looks hopefully towards the West knows that the country is both mentally and sociologically immature for the UE. Not because the Turks are underdeveloped but because people there think and live differently, despite the elite who for a long time have felt themselves mature enough to join the EU“. The weekly Der Spiegel (4/10) considers the question from an internal point of view: “ The large political parties in Germany, who take care not to put Turkey at the centre of an electoral campaign, clearly seek to avoid any kind of public debate. Their positions remain deliberately vague in a sort of elevated form of populism, aimed at keeping the citizens calm and not confusing them with awkward questions and complicated answers“.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1330 N.ro relativo : 70 Data pubblicazione : 09/10/04
