Turkey Can Improve Democratic Record for EU Bid
Turkey has shown progress since it officially applied to become a full member of the European Union in April 1987, but it's still lagging in many basic aspects of democracy, writes Tulin Daloglu.
![German Chancellor Merkel and Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan attend a joint news conference in Ankara German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) attend a joint news conference in Ankara February 25, 2013. REUTERS/Altan Burgucu (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3EA7R](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2013/02/1-RTR3EA7R.jpg/1-RTR3EA7R.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=x_uQPA-u)
ANKARA Turkey — Turkey’s effort to join the European Union is still far from being realized. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has justifiably expressed his frustration with this, which was set as a state policy since more than a half-century ago. As he is, however, openly lambasting the country’s past at any given opportunity, starting from the military coups to the generals' role in policy-making; from the alleged state restrictions that prevented pious Muslims like him from practicing Islam to the previous governments’ economic failures, the Europeans take even a more critical look at Turkey — coupled with all of the things that Erdogan has been critical about this country’s past as well as the size of its population, belonging to a different culture, tradition and religion.
Therefore, one should applaud German Chancellor Angela Merkel honestly saying at a joint news conference with Erdogan, while wrapping up her two-day visit to Turkey on Monday [Feb. 25], that she has “hesitations concerning Turkey’s full European Union membership.” She also stated: “We are conducting negotiations whose outcome is open-ended, that is to say the results are not known.”