JASON FITZHARRIS,
Madam, - At the upcoming EU summit in Copenhagen the vexed question of whether Turkey will be even allowed to become a candidate, let alone a member of the EU, will arise.
There are some who think Turkey should never become a member of the EU. They come out with various pathetic excuses to hide their real motives.
They mention that Turkey is not in Europe, while ignoring that Turkey participates in the Council of Europe, UEFA and Eurovision. They also ignore that Turkey was part of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. If it has been in Europe for over two millennia it is still in Europe today.
They mention its dodgy democracy as an excuse while ignoring the fact that 10 of the candidate countries were Communist only 15 years ago and were therefore less democratic than Turkey is now.
They also ignore that Greece, Portugal and Spain were all under military or fascist dictatorships until the mid-1970s and they are now members of the EU.
They mention Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority but ignore the discrimination that Russians experience in the Baltic states, including denial of citizenship. They turn a blind eye to the discrimination that the Roma people experience in Central European states.
Yet these countries are soon to be members of the EU.
The real motive is religion. Turkey is an Islamic country and some people want Europe to remain an exclusively Christian club. If to be European is to be Christian, what about non-Christian Europeans? There are 15 million Muslims in Europe. Are we to say that they cannot have European citizenship?
And what about other religions? Is Israel permanently barred from EU membership because it is too Jewish? This talk is very dangerous and we have been here before. We have had Nero, the Inquisition, fascism, to name but a few. All these started because a vocal few declared their religion and culture to be superior and they didn't want any infidels contaminating it.
Turkey does have its problems. Its democracy is unstable, its military too powerful, its human rights abysmal and its economy in tatters. And until these problems are fixed it can't join; but if they are fixed, will we still say no? To be Christian is to love your neighbour as you love yourself, so at the Copenhagen Summit what European government will be Christian enough to step forward, extend the hand of friendship and end centuries of pointless hatred and bloodshed. In a few days we will soon see. - Yours, etc.,
JASON FITZHARRIS, Carlow.