SIMPLE BIGOTRY:

Continental Divides: Turkey faces an uphill struggle in its quest to join the European Union. If Washington really wants to help, it must first understand why Europeans are so touchy on the subject. (Geoffrey Wheatcroft, October 9, 2005, Boston Globe)

To grasp the intractability of the European-Turkish question, you have to remember just how long the unhappy and unconsummated flirtation has been going on. When ''talks about talks" first began between Turkey and what was then the European Economic Community, John Kennedy was in the White House and American teenagers had just discovered an English band called the Beatles.

Since then, there has been an exhausting switchback ride. While Europe widened, by acquiring new members, and ''deepened," by taking on more and more the appearance of a federation, Turkey's prospects rose and fell. They nosedived in 1974 when Turkey invaded and partitioned Cyprus and then again in 1980 when the military took power in a coup.

A cynic might wonder whether Europe didn't secretly view those events with a mixture of indignation and relief, since they allowed for endless delay. When parliamentary rule had been reestablished in 1989, the EU decided that Turkey was eligible to join, but not yet ready, and set further stringent conditions in terms of democracy and human rights. Then eight years ago, the EU agreed that East European applicants could join but Turkey could not because, in the words of Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, ''There is no comparison between Turkey and the 11 other applicants. No one is tortured in these countries." After that, Ankara froze relations, though they were resumed in 1999.

In all this, many Turks see a residual anti-Muslim prejudice. Either the EU ''will show political maturity and become a global power, or it will end up a Christian club," Erdogan said last week, and his party chairman Mehmet Dulger accused the Austrians of ''behaving as if it's 1683 and the Muslim Turks want to seize Vienna."

Both of these men evince a complete misunderstanding of Europe today, which has long since ceased to be a Christian anything, and where memories are much shorter than Dulger supposes. Many Europeans no doubt have a good deal of sympathy for the Turks, if only because Turkey has become the Ever-Loving Adelaide of European politics, endlessly strung along and never hearing the longed-for wedding bells.

And yet no one should underestimate the profound cultural as well as political and economic difficulties. Less important than ''Cross and Crescent" is Turkey's checkered record over militarism, human rights, the treatment of the Kurds, and its economy.

Yeah, one wonders what makes them think they're fit to even sit at the same table with Germans....

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 9, 2005 8:02 AM