Turkey: The importance of backing Erdogan

Date: 31/01/04

The many reasons for supporting a pivotal Muslim country

IT WAS a symbolic moment: an avowedly Islamist leader of a Muslim country that had refused to join the coalition against Iraq, invited into the White House. Yet George Bush was right to extend this honour to Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week. Although the Turkish prime minister and his Justice and Development Party have Islamist roots, they are proving in office to be of the liberal variety that believes in free markets and secular democracy. If democracy is to be successfully fostered across the Muslim world, especially in Arab countries, it is vital to encourage this Turkish exemplar.

Encouragement means more than just White House receptions. Over Iraq, for example, although the idea of deploying Turkish troops has been dropped, the Americans should reassure the Turks that they will not support Kurdish separatism, which would risk stirring up Turkey's Kurdish minority. They should also be ready to let Turkish firms bid for reconstruction contracts. On the economy, the IMF and other creditors should offer the Turks, who have been taking most of the right economic medicine, more generous terms on loan repayments. But what Mr Erdogan wants most is a date for opening negotiations to join the European Union.

The EU is to decide on this in December. Plenty of voices are raised against. Turkey is too big (it will soon have more people than Germany), too Asian, too army-dominated, too abusive of human rights - above all, too Muslim. Yet none of these arguments stands up to scrutiny. Size cannot logically be a bar to membership. The bulk of Turkey is indeed in Asia, but a chunk is clearly in Europe and much of the country is west of Cyprus, which is joining soon. The army is strong - Turkey has long been a bulwark of NATO - but Mr Erdogan has stood up to the generals, most recently over Cyprus. The country's human-rights record is improving: Kurds are better treated, torture in prison is rarer, the death penalty is suspended. In short, Mr Erdogan's Turkey is well on the path to fulfilling the democratic and other criteria needed to qualify for the EU.

Which leaves just two big issues. One is Islam. Some Europeans, especially in the Christian Democratic tradition, prefer the EU to be a Christian club. But that is an untenable position. For one thing, millions of Muslims already live in EU countries. Albania and Bosnia, clearly in Europe and so eligible for EU entry one day, are mainly or partly Muslim in heritage. Turkey has already been accepted as a potential candidate. To reverse that now would send a dreadful signal to pro-western and pro-democratic forces in other Muslim countries. It would be a geo-strategic error of historic proportions.

The other knotty problem is Cyprus. Turkey's occupation of the northern, Turkish-Cypriot part of the island means that, on May 1st, only the southern, Greek-Cypriot part will be admitted to the EU - unless negotiations to unite the two parts succeed before then. As it happens, Mr Erdogan promises much here too. He has pushed the recalcitrant president of northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktash, into accepting a coalition government that wants to reopen negotiations that at least take into account the UN plan for unification. By pitching his appeal for negotiations carefully, he has secured the assent of the army, which sees northern Cyprus as a strategic asset.

Sorting out Cyprus will not be easy: it has eluded outside peacemakers for 30 years. The chances of reaching a settlement before May 1st are slim. But the entry of Cyprus into the EU, along with Turkey's own aspirations to join, have created the best chance so far of reuniting the divided island. Mr Erdogan should be left in no doubt that he must deliver the Turkish side of Cyprus if he is to have his date for opening EU negotiations. But so long as he does, the EU must say yes.

Editorial provides 'the many reasons for supporting a pivotal Muslim country'.