The decision was made after leaders of the 25-member bloc backed down from their demand that Ankara immediately recognize Cyprus as an independent country. Instead, the government of Turkey agreed to extend an existing trade accord to the 10 EU members that joined in May, which include Cyprus. This Mediterranean island was divided in 1974 following an attempt by the then-military government of Greece to annex the island. Seizing the moment, the rulers of Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the country.

Commenting on the EU leaders’ decision, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated, “We’re at a point where we’re reaping the reward of 41 years of work. The process from now on will be even more difficult.”

Making it clear that many roadblocks lie ahead in these talks, French president Jacques Chirac said, “These are negotiations in which each of the member states can make up their own mind from the start to the end of the talks and could at any moment put an end to these negotiations.” Chirac has promised to hold a national referendum in France to decide on whether to allow Turkey to join the EU. According to recent opinion polls, a majority in France opposes accepting Turkey into EU membership.

Politicians and pundits in Europe have argued that Ankara’s entry into the EU would allow Muslims to predominate against “Christendom.” “Do we really want the riverbed of Islam to enter the riverbed of secularism?” said French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin in a September 23 interview.

“The integration of Turkey is the breakdown of the European project,” said Hervé Morin, a member of the French parliament from the Union for French Democracy party. “We don’t have a common history, culture, or vision. The European identity is built on a common history, a Judeo-Christian culture, and culture of human rights and the enlightenment ideas.”

Turkey, a largely agricultural country with 71 million inhabitants, is more populous than any current EU member, while its per capita income is roughly one-third of the average of longtime EU member states.

Its admittance into the bloc would exacerbate one of the deepest conflicts within the European Union—over the so-called Common Agricultural Policy. Under this policy, farm products of EU member states are subsidized. The subsidies primarily benefit big capitalist farmers. While erecting tariffs and other trade barriers against goods from semicolonial nations, agribusiness in the EU dumps these cheap agricultural goods on the markets of semicolonial countries, decimating the livelihoods of peasants in those countries. In 2002, the unequal application of the farm subsidy policy between the wealthy imperialist nations in the EU and the others became a stumbling block for 10 governments, mainly from eastern Europe, which had applied for membership but were told they would not receive an equal subsidy. In the end, they accepted a package of subsidies that amount to 25 percent of what other member states are entitled to. Parity would not be forthcoming until 2013, at best.

Washington has campaigned for Turkish entry in order to weaken the European Union, which was originally centered around a French-German bloc—what U.S. officials sometimes refer to as “Old Europe”—to better compete against U.S. imperialism for domination of the world’s markets and resources. Ankara has blocked with Washington to prevent the imperialist governments of “Old Europe” from developing an EU military force that could be effective independently of the U.S.-dominated NATO. Turkey, a NATO member, has an army larger than any of the EU members and its military budget is exceeded only by Britain, France, Germany, and Italy.  
 
 
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