The absolute majority of Europeans are categorically against the membership of Turkey in the European Union. Even the Scandinavian countries, where emigrants from Asia were treated quite loyally, now say that Turkey’s EU membership is extremely undesirable. As for the so called “Old Europe”, here the attitude towards Turkey’s membership has always been negative. Only 10 percents of Austrians, 15 percents of Greeks, 20 percents of French, Germans and Danes are ready to meet Turks in the “Home of all Europeans”. Knowing this, Gul could not but realize the consequences of his careless announcement. Today Europeans are afraid of Turkish speech and there are real grounds for that. The results of recent public surveys show that 21 percent of Turkish citizens intend to move to some European country in case Turkey is accepted to the European Union. Another 30 percent of Turks say they do not exclude the possibility of immigrating to a European country. This means that a huge number of Turkey’s population will move to Europe and eat European bread and receive European welfare payment which can bring to undesirable economic consequences.
In spite of the negative attitude of most of the Europeans, the foreign ministers of EU member states have agreed to start negotiations with Ankara. However, many European politicians disagree with this idea. A number of influential oppositionists from France, Germany, Austria and Netherlands have already expressed their negative attitude towards Turkey’s full EU membership. The decision was harshly criticized by the former president of France Valery Jiskar D’Esten who is also the creator of the unified EU Constitution. “The great French project of creating political Europe has been rejected in favor of changing European Union to a simple zone of free trade. I am sorry about that”, Valery Jiskar D’Esten said. Even those who consider the decision on the start of negotiations reasonable, say that the reached agreement does not mean that Turkey will be accepted to the European Union. USA is perhaps the only country that is exclusively positive about Turkey’s EU membership. It is known that the intervention of Condolisa Rice became a turning point in consultations held in Luxemburg. This is why European papers write that «Turkey has received a passport to EU with a US visa»…
The agreement to start negotiations is qualified as a compromise. Ankara did not value the good will of Vienna who withdrew the demand about the necessity to give Turkey the status of a privileged partner. (Abdullah Gul emphatically refused to shake hands with the Austrian minister.) However it is still unclear what compromise the Turks made in return. Rejeb Erdoghan still states that Ankara excludes the possibility of recognizing Cyprus and the fact of Armenian genocide. Then where is the compromise if Turkey rejects the two main conditions set by the European parliament?
