Does Turkey deserve to be a member of the European Union?

Here's a curious link I just stumbled upon while researching Islamic fascism - it's named Voice for Europe and it's a petition campaign by various European organizations against the accession of Turkey to the European Union.

According to the Voice for Europe website, the European Union is trying to define its future shape in a slow and complicated process. Accession talks with the Republic of Turkey would significantly render the process more difficult, and Turkey's EU membership would prevent finding a common consensus, due to the basic political, social, and cultural differences between Turkey and Europe. (May I add a loud "DUH" to that)

One of the most obvious questions one has to ask is, how is Turkey part of Europe anyway? Is Turkey even a European country? Well, according to the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union and to the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe “Any European State may apply to become a member of the Union” . Therefore it is essential to define whether the applicant is a European country or not.

Geographically only 3% of Turkey's territory, called the Thrace lies in Europe. The rest of Turkey's territory is called Asia Minor. So from a geographical point of view Turkey is an Asian country.

Some supporters of Turkish accession claim that historically Turkey has always been connected to Europe, therefore it is European. With this kind of logic Spain could be a Latin American and France could be an African country because of their previous colonies.

The facts of the matter is, Turkey, or rather the Ottoman Empire established its connection with Europe by conquering Byzantium and the Balkan states, by coming from outside, not evolving from inside of Europe.

Most of the Turks see the Ottoman Empire as peak of their Golden Age, which from the point of view of Europeans of those days was in fact a threat to their countries, culture and religion.

With regards to origin, Turks consider themselves Asians, with the exception of a few elites of the society who regard themselves Europeans. The majority feels culturally closer to Middle Eastern neighbors than to Western and Northern Europeans, or even to their Greek neighbors. Traditions and habits of Turks are totally different from European customs.

Based on their religious-traditional background, up to 50% of women (according to, take it or leave it, Amnesty International) suffer from domestic violence, and there are still up to 300 honour killings per year in Turkey. (Honour killing is the murder of a female family member because of her supposed improper behavior, such as not wearing a hajib, having sex before marriage, adultery suspicions and others). These deeply rooted customs can in no way be considered to be acceptable in Europe.

Even though among Islamic countries, Turkey is undoubtedly closest to the Western conception of democracy, it is impossible to ignore the threat of gradual but steady Islamisation.

Another clear evidence of this is the fact that in 2004, at the 31st session of Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, held in Istanbul, the decision of the EU which denounces stoning as an inhuman punishment, was condemned in point 62 by some Islamic States in compliance with Islamic Sharia (religious law based on Koran and Hadis).

In about 2/3rd of all weddings, it is the parents of young Turkish people who choose partners for them from Turkey, who then immigrate to Germany. This is the phenomenon of “imported brides” who do not speak the language of their host country, are not familiar with western lifestyle, live secluded in ghettoes, and thus it is highly improbable that they could become integrated into the European society.

You can read the rest of the mission statement for the Voice for Europe here.