BERLIN, 4 September 2003 — Turkey’s prime minister challenged European Union nations yesterday to admit his country to what so far has been a Christian club, saying that democratic reforms were well underway and “we will be a model for the Muslim world.”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Berlin that Turkey was undergoing an “enormous transformation process” as part of its EU bid — changes that include abolition of the death penalty.
“We will be a model for the Muslim world,” Erdogan said in a speech at a foundation close to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democratic Party. “We will provide an example for 1 1/2 billion people in the world that the European Union is not a Christian club.”
Turkey, a secular Muslim country and NATO member, hopes to start membership talks with the EU at the end of next year. But the bloc has demanded Turkey first curtail the military’s influence and press ahead with democratic reforms.
Erdogan also urged Germany to lift restrictions on arms exports to his country, pointing to the “revolutionary changes” that Turkey has made, the Handelsblatt newspaper quoted him as saying.
Schroeder assured Erdogan of his government’s support Tuesday and praised reforms under way in Turkey. But opposition conservatives insisted that admitting Turkey would overburden the EU culturally and economically, echoing reservations held by opponents in a number of other European countries.
“In view of all the new members (joining in 2004), the financial effects and the economic differences, I don’t see that the European Union has the capacity” to admit Turkey, Angela Merkel, the leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, said after meeting with Erdogan. The Turkish leader, however, said he still hoped for a change of heart.
Adding to cultural and economic concerns, human rights activists have accused Turkey of torturing prisoners and other abuses.
But, Erdogan insisted in his speech, “the values that Turkey has dedicated itself to are the values that form the basis of Western democracy.”
In a sign of that confidence, he urged Germany to lift restrictions on arms exports to Turkey, arguing they no longer make sense in the light of his government’s reform policies.
“There is no longer any need for restrictions,” the Handelsblatt business daily quoted him as saying yesterday.
The German government in 2000 issued guidelines linking arms exports to human rights considerations following a political debate over whether a German arms maker should be allowed to deliver tanks to Turkey. The government says it has no current plans to change its stance.
