DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./TURKEY: LAST SUNDAYS ELECTIONS IN TURKEY HAVE ALMOST GUARANTEED THAT TURKEY WILL BECOME A MEMBER OF THE E.U.

Democratic Muslim nation in EU? Yes!
By Simon Scott Plummer

Following this week's Turkish general election, David Miliband spoke of "reaching out" to the victor, the moderate Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The Foreign Secretary's choice of verb is a measure of Europe's estrangement from a country which joined Nato in 1952, became an associate member of the European Community in 1963 and has been negotiating for full EU membership since 2005.

"Reaching out" suggests extending the hand of friendship to a pariah. In fact, Turkey has just conducted a democratic exercise which has trumped a none-too-subtle threat of intervention from the military.

That should be lauded by the EU. Yet Mr Miliband's exhortation reflects the fact that Britain is almost alone in pressing Turkey's case for membership. Elsewhere, attitudes vary from tepid, as in the Netherlands, to frigid, as in France.

Europe's failure to appreciate Turkey's strategic importance is depressingly familiar. It was demonstrated ten years ago by Jacques Poos, then foreign minister of Luxembourg, and is evident today in the hostility of Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president.

A democratic Muslim country with a dynamic economy should be welcomed by a continent faced with the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. Instead, with few exceptions, EU politicians have allowed this danger to colour their electorates' view of the AKP, which has Islamic roots but has proved its loyalty to Turkey's secular constitution during five years in power.

Rather than conjuring fears of a second Iran, the party's advance should be seen as part of a long evolution from the one-party state created by Kemal Ataturk, the army commander who founded the modern republic of Turkey in 1923.

A multi-party system was introduced in the 1940s but was harassed by the military, which deposed four elected governments, the last in 1997, and executed a former prime minister, Adnan Menderes, after its first intervention.

The origins of the AKP's ascendancy go back to the prime ministership, then presidency, of Turgut Ozal in the decade from 1983. He both liberalised the economy and reduced the military's role in day-to-day politics.

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