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Turkey not ready for EU membership

14th February, 2011 - Posted by Wolf Paul - No Comments

I have always felt that since the European Union had started accession negotiations with Turkey they needed to continue these negotiations in good faith and not be swayed by the xenophobic sentiment welling up now and again in various European countries, including my own country of Austria. I felt that once Turkey had been invited to discuss membership, the discussions and negotiations had to be conducted on the basis of facts rather than emotions.

However recently a number of facts seem to speak against Turkey’s membership in the European Unions, the most recent being the mid-January 2011 decision of Turkey’s supreme court which deprives the Syrian Orthodox monastery of Mar Gabriel of property which it has held for centuries. This seems to be part of a concerted effort to weaken this ancient Christian church; it puts the continued existence of the monastery at risk.

As an Evangelical I am not really into monasteries, but they are a crucial part of the tradition of the Syrian Orthodox church, and if Turkey wants to be a member of the European Union it will have to abide by European standards of religious liberty and property rights.

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