German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to arrive in Turkey for an official visit overshadowed by disagreements over Ankara's plans to join the EU. Mrs Merkel opposes full EU membership for Turkey, which began negotiations to become a member in 2005. There are also disagreements over the education of Turkish children in Germany in the Turkish language. After months of avoiding the subject, Chancellor Merkel has chosen this moment to revive her idea of offering Turkey what she calls a privileged partnership with the EU, rather than full membership. Mrs Merkel has stressed that she does see integration as possible in up to 28 of the 35 so-called chapters of EU law with which Turkey has to comply before it can become a full member of the union. But her proposal has been firmly rejected by the Turkish government as a breach of the terms agreed when membership negotiations began five years ago. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8592170.stm Turkey is being asked to open its ports and airports to Cyprus which they have yet to do, they are asked to reform certain human rights issues like legal rights for their Kurdish population. Turkey is unwilling to sanction Iran on nuclear power as the EU these are some of the political obstacles to EU membership. The French has passed a law making it illegal to deny the armenian genocide and a move that brought about angry protests in Turkey. Turkey is the only candidate ever to have been obliged to start accession talks on the basis that it may never be granted full membership, even if it passes every test. :shrug: In Europe, the cooling of political attitudes towards Turkey, fuelled by public fears of immigration and suspicion towards Islam, has been dramatic. Some opinion polls suggest that opponents of Turkish membership account for two-thirds of the population in France, Greece and Cyprus. In Austria it is around 80%. A turning-point was last year's referendums in France and the Netherlands, when voters rejected the draft EU constitution. After that, conservative leaders such as Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy in France spoke out loudly against full EU membership for Turkey, even in 15 or 20 years time. Turkey's Muslim make-up has also become an issue. Hans-Joerg Kretschmer, the EU's ambassador in Ankara, says Europe wants to see "for the first time in the history of mankind whether a Muslim country is able and willing to embrace the values of Western civilisation". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6121106.stm Already the issues of a muslim Turkey as an EU member has exposed a rift. Erdogan has asked Germany for dual citizenship and Turkish schools in Germany and Merkel flatly refused saying: "I do not think this brings us forward, as I think that Turkish children and pupils should go to German schools. I do not think much of the idea of Turkish children going to Turkish school," she told the Passauer Neue Presse regional newspaper. Erdogan had this to say: "In Turkey, we have German high schools - why shouldn't there be Turkish high schools in Germany? We are working towards establishing a German University in Turkey at the moment. Why shouldn't there be a Turkish university in Germany as well?" Erdogan asked in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit. The cultural issues between Europe and Turkey is the hidden crux behind all the political wrangling: More than 4 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany, many of them in the third and fourth generation. Merkel, like most Germans, believes they should be integrated into mainstream German society. Erdogan, on the other hand, appears to want this minority to keep its "Turkishness." Merkel is quoted in a radio interview as saying "We want people who have been living with us for many years to integrate," she said. "That means take part in their society's successes, in working life, in family life; that means naturally that they can speak German, and respect German law." "In another potential point of discord, Merkel reiterated her opposition to Turkey becoming a full member of the European Union, saying, "my opinion has not changed and we need a privileged partnership" with Ankara. Germany's objections that the sizeable mainly Muslim country is not fit for membership are backed by another EU heavyweight, France, but Ankara categorically rejects any other alternatives. " Those who wish to see Turkey in the EU say that to disallow the nation could lead them away from western values and have them lead towards the muslim world. So should Turkey who is one of Germany's major trading partners have a chance to dictate to the EU the criteria for membership?
