European Union

Turkey is applying for membership but is not currently a member of the European Union. There are five main reasons given for the European Union's failure to accept the bid.

1) Turkish Failure to Recognize the Armenian Genocide:Many states in the European Union have recognized the Armenian Genocide as a fundamental denial of human rights against the Armenians. The Turkish Government currently espouses the view that while there may have been some indiscretions, it does not rise to the level of genocide. However, this view runs contrary to nearly all established scholarship outside of Turkey. Additionally, Turkey compels many world governments to not to accept the term "genocide" using its critical location and foreign policy as weapons against taking this view.

2) Turkish Invasion and Occupation of North Cyprus: In 1974, the Turkish army launched an amphibious assault in Cyprus to protect Turkish Cypriots from an increasingly pro-Greek Cypriot majority. In 1974, the UN established a ceasefire line which has divided Cyprus into northern and southern halfs. To this day there has been no formal peace treaty. Turkey has also moved 200,000 Turkish citizens to the north of Cyprus in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. (Considering that the population of Cyprus is only 1.1 million, this is a huge population transfer.) Being in a state of war against an EU member state, which Cyprus is, and occupying the de jure territory of another country are both violations of the terms of accession to the European Union

3) Turkish Repression of the Kurdish Minority: Kurds represent between 15-25% of the overall Turkish citizenry. They have a unique language, culture, and society from ethnic Turks. Many aspects of Kurdish culture are actively restricted. Their language was illegal for many decades as was the right to name their children with Kurdish names. Some Kurdish cities have been renamed in order to "Turk-ify" them. Some Kurds have risen in rebellion against the Turkish government, but far many more have attempted to have a peaceful discussion with the Turkish government. However, the Turkish government has assassinated numerous Kurdish politicians attempting to make peace and improve the situation. This maltreatment of a significant minority is appalling to European Union member states.

4) Turkey's Poor Human Rights Record: There are limits on the Freedoms of Speech and the Press in Turkey. The Justice System is relatively corrupt and the Prison System is badly maintained. Additionally, there are extra-national executions (where a person is sent to another country to be executed since capital punishment is illegal in Turkey) and relatively common applications of prisoner torture. There are military barracks near most Turkish cities in order to prevent protests and riots. Turkey is a liberal democracy in comparison to most Middle Eastern countries, but not in comparison to the much greater transparency and freedoms in most of the remaining European Union countries.

5) Turkey's Developing Economy: Turkey is a developing economy whereas most of the European Union has a developed economy. Since the European Union is first and foremost an economic union and then a superstate structure, having an economy that operates along different principles from most European economies makes accession more difficult.

There are two additional reasons cited by Turks and their sympathizers as to why their bid has not been accepted.

1) Economic Competition: Although Turkey is a developing country, it has a population larger than every current European Union member other than Germany. Turkey's economy is growing at a very high rate and Turkish infrastructure is completely evolving. Additionally, due to European Union internal migration laws, many Turks would likely migrate to other European countries without VISA issues. This would lead to competition for employment opportunities between citizens of other European Union countries and Turkish migrants. The fear of the growing Turkish economy and the migration of Turks to other countries makes many Europeans wary of Turkish accession.

2) Islam: There is currently no member in European Union which is a majority-Muslim country. Given Europe's frigid reception of Muslim immigrants, many Turks say that the primary reason that they have not been allowed to become a part of the European Union is that their religion and culture have been labelled as "different" and "non-European".

As long as Turkey denies the Armenian genocide, it does not belong in "Europe"!

It is incredible how selective our notion of history is. While the persecution of the Jews has a prominent place in Western history books, the other massacres are entirely forgotten. And the older and further down in history the genocide was perpetrated, the weaker the emotional echo becomes. This also applies to the Turkish genocide of 1915 on the Armenian population that cost the lives of more than one million citizens and which will be commemorated worldwide next week.

Consecutive Turkish governments have refused to recognize this dark chapter in their history. However, now that Turkey will most likely begin with negotiations to access the European Union, it is high time Ankara recognized the malicious and systematic eradication of the Armenian population by the Turkish army. Whoever wants to become a member of the EU, must - analogous to the German mea maxima culpa after World War II - be honest about its history. After all, the EU is also a value community and countries that deny a genocide do not belong in it.

During the period between 1915-1918, the Turkish army evacuated almost all the Armenian villages in the Ottoman Empire and killed hundreds of thousands of citizens or deported them from Western Turkey to Syria through barbaric hunger marches. These events are very well documented and though there is a slight disagreement over the exact number of victims, one thing is certain: this was the first genocide of the 20th century that moreover served as a model for Hitler's holocaust. After all, the Nazis could conclude from the lukewarm reactions in the West that they too could get away with the destruction of the Jews as long as it was carefully kept out of the attention of the international media.

This is not about not letting bygones be bygones. But when Turkey becomes a full member of the EU in a few years, Armenia will be our direct neighbor. However, the Armenian-Turkish relations are still very bad, particularly because this historical angle was never taken out. The government in Yerevan demands of Turkey to recognize the genocide as a historical fact. Armenia is supported in this by various European parliaments.

As such, among others, the French, Belgian, Greek and Swiss parliaments have urged Ankara to admit the genocide; the European Parliament already declared in 1987 that Ankara's refusal to recognize the historical events forms an obstacle for Turkey's EU-membership. Pope John Paul II has also called on Turkey to take this step. The American Congress finally decided in 2000, after much debate, that the Armenian genocide should not be considered important for discussion, especially after Turkey threatened to close the American military bases in her country.

The Netherlands has a very small Armenian community, therefore the question has not yet been placed on the political agenda. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Bot refused to recognize the Armenian genocide as a relevant fact in a parliamentary debate last December. This is not only surprising, but moreover unwise. How would we react if comtemporary Germany would label the holocaust as historically incorrect and irrelevant?

There are examples which confirm that the mere recognition of a historical truth can lead to political approachment and even renewed trust between countries. One can think of the conflict over the massacres in Katyn for instance. Only in 1990 the Russian government recognized that the Soviet army killed 4400 Polish soldiers, and not - as was claimed for so long - by the Nazi's. Last month the Croatian government also made a start to judge its history in all honesty. The initiative of prime minister Ivo Sanader to investigate and recognize the crimes of the Croatian Ustase during World War II, fit in her aim to access the EU in the near future. This example should be followed by Turkey.

After all, the precarious point is that the process of the European unification is in its mutual political trust and solidarity. The EU is not a temporary cooperative union, but a design for a new political entity. Without solidarity and honesty the EU has no future. This is a great difference between Europe and other continents. Considering that Japan has never recognized that during World War II the greatest crimes were committed in Korea and China, every form of cooperation remains superficial. If Turkey wants to be a part of Europe it will have to learn a lesson from the examples of Germany and Japan. We can only speak of true "Europeanization" when Ankara recognizes the historical facts unambiguously. This means that the Armenian genocide must be included in Turkish history books, with which an end will finally come to the Ottoman view that Turkey is one way or the other superior to its neighboring countries.

*Dr. P. van Ham is a chief investigator of the Institute Clingendael.

The European Union, or the "European Economic Community" as it was originally known, started in 1958 with just 6 members:

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands

There are now 27 members, with the 28th, Croatia, due to join on 1st July 2013.