EU hypocritical towards Turkey

The Turkish Minister of Economics Zafer Çağlayan made critical remarks about the relationship between the EU and Turkey during a visit to Vienna on Tuesday, saying that the EU had behaved hypocritically towards Turkey, which had been waiting for over 50 years to become a member. The liberal-conservative daily Die Presse agrees but at the same time points to his government's lack of commitment to secularism: "To hold out the prospect of membership to a country for 50 years … only to use the unresolved Cyprus conflict as an excuse for delaying EU accession as long as possible is indeed deceitful. … [Turkey] has a right to fair treatment. Therefore it must be told quite frankly that strong xenophobic prejudices exist among Europeans that are hindering the country's accession. On the other hand there are also political reservations for which not the general mood in the EU but Prime Minister Erdoğan's pro-Islam government is responsible. Its strategy of slowly undermining secularism is widening the gap with Europe and its system of values."

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