Turkey's accession in the European Union is a thorny issue since the country applied for its adhesion in the Economic European Community in 1987, even though it first did in 1959. The problem is that the mere fact of opening membership talks with Turkey aroused great reserve among the opponents. The first question which has to be asked is: What « enter the European Union » really means? A clear definition of it would enable an accession, or on the contrary, a non-adhesion of Turkey justified by every piece of answer displaying the European's values and principles. Unfortunately, it is not so simple and the Turkish’s case implied many endless debates. How to place Turkey into a political and social framework of Europe?
This essay will bring out the proponent’s and opponent’s arguments, asking different people what are their opinions, each of them representing a category.
We know that public opinion in European Union countries generally opposes Turkish membership, but the views of the concerned people on the other side of the Aegean Sea would be interesting to know as well. Germany’s case has also to be considered, as the state already encloses 2.5 million of Turks inside its borders following a great need of working force in the sixties. Therefore, I asked European citizens and Turkish people what were their thoughts about the subject, and there surprisingly were many diverse arguments. To resume, answers cannot be divided in categories of people (European politics, European citizens, Turkish politics or Turkish citizens) but only in proponents and opponents.
Among the people living in Turkey, the opponents said they could stand apart from Europe and that they should better getting close with Africa and Asia. These reactions may be in response to the result of the European's referendum -clearly “no”- made in 2004. They feel Turkey needs approving for having fought on Europe's side during history. A German's opponent living in Duisburg finds that Turkish families