According to the International Herald Tribune, one of the conditions in the proposal is that Ankara must continue to make progress in implementing a package of legal “reforms” to meet EU-prescribed guidelines. Negotiations on Turkey’s membership, expected to last 10-15 years, would be broken off if Ankara stalled on these reforms at any point.

Guenter Verheugen, the commission’s chair, said the “legal framework in Turkey met our expectations, but implementation still leaves much to be desired. The legal framework does correspond to a democratic state of law but practice does not.”

Verheugen’s remark echoed those made recently by prominent capitalist politicians across Europe who oppose membership for Turkey. These include Denmark’s prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin who have used overt anti-Muslim prejudice to rationalize keeping Turkey out. Some have pointed to Turkey’s population of nearly 70 million, second only to Germany in Europe, and its largely agricultural, underdeveloped economy as the reasons for rejecting Ankara’s application.

The way was cleared for the conditional approval of the start of talks on Ankara’s membership when the Turkish parliament voted in a special session to amend its penal code, dropping a provision proposed by a faction of the ruling party that would have criminalized adultery. Ankara has also abolished the death penalty and eased restrictions on Kurds, an oppressed nationality in Turkey, on the right to use their language and express their culture.

Another condition in the EU commission recommendation is to restrict migration by Turkish workers seeking jobs in western Europe. Capitalist politicians opposed to Turkey’s membership in the EU have also raised fears that EU countries will be flooded with unskilled cheap labor. The per capita GDP in Turkey, reported the Tribune, is 29 percent of the average in the EU.

Turkey’s access to agricultural subsidies would also be restricted, but no details were reported. In 2002, for example, the subsidy for the 10 new EU member countries, mostly from Eastern Europe, was only 25 percent of that allotted to existing members. This subsidy is supposed to be raised incrementally toward parity in 2013.

These subsidies, also known as the Common Agricultural Policy, primarily benefit large capitalist farmers. They allow agribusiness to dump cheap farm goods onto the markets of semicolonial countries, destroying the livelihoods of local peasants. The admittance of Turkey would also aggravate conflicts between the current EU members on how these subsidies are allocated.

Turkey’s foreign minister Abdullah Gul called the recommendation from the EU commission “a historic decision for Turkey and Europe.” Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tyyip Erdogan, said the report was “balanced” but added that “the same criteria and methods” should be applied to Turkey’s membership bid as has been done with other applicants.

The Turkish ruling class has been trying to gain entry into the EU for the better part of four decades. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has made it a top priority since coming to office in 2002. They are counting on the opening of talks on joining the EU to ease the pressure from imperialist banks and creditors pressing for payment on the country’s $208 billion foreign debt.

Many capitalist politicians expressed dismay at the commission’s recommendation. “The future of the European Union as a peaceful community is at stake,” said Hans-Gert Pöttering, a conservative affiliated with the European People’s Party.

On September 23, French premier Rafarrin had said regarding Ankara’s bid: “Do we really want the river of Islam to enter the riverbed of secularism?” And French EU parliament member Jacques Toubon exclaimed that Turkey “is not consistent with our concept of the European project.”

French president Jacques Chirac has threatened to hold a national referendum on Turkey’s membership request regardless of whether the EU parliament decides to open talks. Recent polls across Europe show widespread opposition to admitting Turkey into the EU, especially in France where a majority are against.

Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder officially favor Turkey’s membership in the EU. But they and other imperialist governments in Europe have been silent in the face of anti-Muslim agitation by their subordinates against Turkey.

London, along with Washington, has campaigned forcefully for Turkey’s membership in the EU. Prime minister Anthony Blair said Turkey is a key NATO ally and vowed to usher the country into the EU as soon as possible. UK foreign secretary Jack Straw added that Turkey has approved the reforms it was asked for and the “EU must now deliver its side of the bargain.”

The British daily Telegraph said in a October 7 editorial that opposing EU membership for Turkey would allow Washington to make further gains vis-à-vis its European rivals in the Middle East. “And if the EU can make Islamists adopt democratic values, then it will have shown that its ‘soft power’ is as important as America’s ‘hard power’ in undermining the political base of Islamist terrorists,” said the Telegraph.
 
 
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