No need for today's Turkey in the EU

Everyone would agree that the accession process with Turkey is a long open-ended process depending on Turkey's compliance with the EU's political, economic and acquis criteria. But in the face of growing opposition among EU member states to Turkey's membership, those in favour of Turkey's membership have started using emotional arguments.
Europe is said to have a ‘moral debt' to Turkey for its defence of Europe's security during the Cold War – as if Turkey during those years was not dominated by the military, which frequently interfered in the politics of the country with military coups. The military acted in its own interest. Should Europe be thankful for that?
Europe is said to need Turkey for its workforce, peacekeeping forces, energy security and the solution of the Middle East conflict. Really? A reformed Turkey can no doubt contribute to Europe. But Europe does not need a new member state with an unsolved conflict in its ‘south-east corner' – the conflict with Kurdish separatists. Turkey must share basic European values such as freedom of expression, the protection of minority rights and the solution of conflicts by peaceful means.
The European Commission is soon going to publish is annual progress report on Turkey. The report should send strong signals to Turkey about the priorities in the accession agenda and the sequencing of the negotiations.

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