Turkey and the European Union

Turkey and European Union

When life ends, cells begin to separate, decompose, decay, and smell. When life is at the very beginning, cells start to multiply, differ and merge to one unity - one living body. It is perhaps one of the basic principles in the entire universe. Whatever political system people try to develop it fails after time if the system is far from basic universal principles. Therefore, the system that binds countries and nationalities in one unity is on the right track. The schedule to create the European Union is old a half century.

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic community of twenty-seven member states with supranational and intergovernmental features, primarily located in Europe. It traces its origins to the European Economic Community (EEC) formed in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome between six European countries. Since then the EU has grown in size through the accession of new member states and has increased its powers by the addition of new policy areas to its remit. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty established the current legal framework.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union )

Therefore more and more countries are becoming EU member states or candidates. It is big responsibility for EU government to monitor, control, and make decisions for such large piece of the world. Currently, the most problematic country applying to join EU is Turkey. Although many Europeans firmly protest against joining Turkey, doing so would bring many advantages to both EU and Turkey since Turkish economics is very quickly growing. Turkey in EU would create new economic and trade strategies and mutually improve prejudice and moral deficiencies in all cultures.

Economy in Turkey was transforming over twenty years. While they were active in macroeconomics and oriented to international business, Turkey has developed most economic sectors. Despite Turkey has encountered some obstacles, its economy has become flexible to fluctuation in the world. Europe should admire Turkey for its ability to renew its economics. They experienced two significant crises since the World War II. In November 2000 and February 2001 when debt to GNP ratio almost doubled within the year, economic activity decreased and unemployment increased. However, during last years Turkey was able to make a huge step in economic growth. They focused mainly on financial markets and banking sector. They put their effort in supporting a sustainable development of macro-economic balances, stabilizing the money and foreign exchange markets, and restructuring the banking sector. Reforming process included privatization, social security and agriculture, telecommunication sectors and energy, and many parts of public sector that include public financial management. From 1993 to 2002 economic growth culminated about 2, 8 percent on average. In 2003 economic growth reached to 5, 9 % and in 2004 it raises to 9, 9 %.

This growth level was the peak of the growing, but Turkey still monitors economic growth about 5-6 percent on average (Turkish Embassy, n.d.). Considering that many other much smaller countries have had long-term difficulties to cope with inflation and economic stabilization, Turkey showed their excellent capability in economic policy to survive in the competitive world which is one of the basic requirements for becoming a credible member of the European Union. Turkey is also placed in very good strategic location between Europe and Asia. This land is one of the most important key points that require infrastructure to develop transportation and communication. This area will also be attractive to energy suppliers. This could develop business connecting Europe with Turkey, Turkey with Central Asia, and Black Sea Economic Cooperation countries. Thus Turkey could become a crucial bridge between Europe and the biggest continent all over the world (Turkish Embassy, n.d.). Moreover, structural changes in economic area that Turkey has passed will be suitable for foreign investment. Therefore, if the international trade within the EU penetrates Turkey even more in future, it will cause a positive effect on economics between EU and Turkey. That would certainly work because Turkey experienced its most significant growth in foreign trade just after neglecting its import substitution policies.

It is worth to point out the fact that Turkish GNP increased by more than 50% after they opened new markets within the wide range that covers countries from the far Asia to Latin America. Turkish external trade volume has increased by more than 160 billion dollars in 2004. The overall GNP was 301 billion dollars in the same year. Another interesting point is the fact that Turkey earned about 2, 9 billion dollars in 1980 and 63 billion dollars in 2004.Turkey has also decided to take advantage of their location to make business with energy. Besides having strategic place they possess natural resources of oil and gas. They plane to start with a great water project consisted of 22 dams, many irrigation networks, and 19 hydroelectric power plants situated inside and outside their country. It is considered to be one of the 9 biggest projects in the world. It is called the Southeastern Anatolian Project. It will control 28% water potential in Turkey and irrigate 17 000 square kilometers of ground which will create 50% of more arable land. 22 water power plants in the project will supposed to produce 27 billion kw/h of electric power (Turkish Embassy, n.d.). Those power plants could use their quantity of electric energy to supply plenty of new big factories.

Irrigation networks could help to produce more agriculture products and create many new work opportunities in EU. On the other hand, Muslims were often accused of breaching human rights or freedom of speech. In some cases they can embody real threat. They use to diffuse fear among common people. Huge amount of Muslims behave really dogmatic and fanatical in their belief. Certain Muslim obsession intrudes people's freedom. People might have fear to freely express their opinion or openly say what they do not like about Muslims. It is unforgivable when someone in his or her faith kills human beings. For example, in November 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam by Muslims because of his movie about violence against women in Islamic society (BBC, 204). The film, based on reality, portrayed dark aspects of Muslim manners in their community. The script of this movie named Submission was written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Theo Van Gogh. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a 34 year-old woman who abandoned her Islamic faith.

She did not mean to offense Islamic people, but to get others to pay attention to what Islamic women have to face. She wanted to disclose this