the turkish and greek cypriot leaders have reached a peace deal. this really looks promising, and oddly appropriate for valentines day (plus my wife and i went to turkey for our honeymoon). the breakthrough only really happened because turkey pressured the turkish cypriot leader to compromise. cyprus is scheduled to join the EU in its next round of expansion. if unification did not happen in time, only the greek side would become part of the EU. with a united turkish-greek cyprus in the EU, turkey hopes it will increase its chances of being admitted in future rounds.
i am not a european, and thus to some extent i don't think i should really have a say in who is a member of the EU. but being an opinionated person, i can't resist mentioning that admitting turkey would be a really good idea. like it or not, the turks have been part of europe for almost a millenia--they certainly have influenced european politics just like any other nation on the continent. there have been turks in europe almost as long as there have been hungarians (who are distant cousins of turks, in fact, and invaded from central asia just before the year 1000). the only reason turks face more resistance to membership is because, unlike hungarians, turks never converted to christianity.
but admitting turkey to the EU would demonstrate that the EU is not just a club of christian nations, and placing turkey under the ambit of the european human rights courts would do a lot to improve the situation in the country. each turkish government, even the present islamists-leaning one, seems committed to do whatever it takes to get into the EU. they have lifted restrictions on kurds, unbanned the use of the kurdish language, and eliminated the death penalty. these were all hard choices for a turkish leader to make, but they did in anyway, demonstrating their commitment to win europe over. european leaders, however, keep giving mixed signals about whether they will ever let turkey in, and adding new pre-conditions for turkish membership. resolving the cyprus issue was just such a condition. hopefully, with the cyprus problem resolved and with a half-muslim country admitted to europe, europe will finally get serious and give turkey a chance to join.
