Vatican signals support for Turkey EU bid

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Vatican signals support for Turkey EU bid
31.05.2007 - 09:32 CET | By Lucia Kubosova
The Vatican has indicated it supports Turkish EU accession and acknowledged Ankara's progress toward democracy at a time when clouds of doubt are gathering over Turkey enlargement inside the EU itself.

In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa, published on Wednesday (30 May), the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that if "fundamental rules of cohabitation" are respected, building together a common future is possible "also with [Turkey's] entry in Europe."


"Turkey has come a long way and is still progressing. I mean there are evolutions. There are obviously very different positions. But it is possible to build a mutual dialogue within a framework of individuals, populations and governments who respect the fundamental rules of living together," he said.

The comments represent a shift in the Vatican's position, which had previously opposed Turkey's EU entry on the basis the country's cultural roots are too different from those of mainland Europe.

Cardinal Bertone made his comments shortly before the world's leading Orthodox prelate, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, spoke out against the discrimination of Christians in Turkey, Italian media say.

Religious minorities in the overwhelmingly Muslim country have developed high hopes that religious freedoms would increase under EU pressure as Turkey went through long negotiations to join the European Union club.

But in April three Christian publishers were murdered by radicals while a Cyprus-related freeze on EU accession talks and the advent of French president Sarkozy - who opposes Turkey's EU entry - have seen Brussels' pro-reform influence wane.

The Vatican itself does not have a clear record in its position on Turkey's possible EU membership.

Prior to his selection as Pope Benedict XVI, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed concerns over the prospect, suggesting that, historically, Turkey has never been part of Europe.

During his trip to Turkey last November, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that the Pope told him in a private conversation that he did support Ankara's EU membership, however.

At the time, Vatican officials did not directly confirm the reports but admitted that they view the country's European path "favourably."

Vatican signals support for Turkey EU bid

[Shammu]

VATICAN: SECRETARY OF STATE POSITIVE ABOUT TURKEY JOINING THE EU
   


Vatican City, 30 May (AKI) - The Vatican's secretary of state - the equivalent of a prime minister - indicated that the Holy See is in favour of Turkey joining the EU in an interview to Turin-daily La Stampa published on Wednesday. Responding to a question on whether Turkey, which is grappling with a resurgence of Islamist identity, should join secular Europe, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone acknowledged a "contradiction" between the country and the Union but stressed that if "fundamental rules of cohabitation" are respected, dialogue and building together a common future is possible "also with [Turkey's] entry in Europe."

"Turkey is a country described as secular; in Europe, secularism is exalted not as mere secularity, but as a lay belief system and in the name of this secularism all reference to Jewish-Christian roots is refused" in a European constitution, said Bertone.

"Turkey however, has come a long way and is still progressing. I mean there are evolutions; there are obviously very different positions, but within a framework of individuals, populations and governments who respect fundamental rules of common living, it is possible to dialogue and to build together a common resource on a European and worldwide level," the secretary of state told La Stampa.

To a subsequent question on whether he also implied that this could be achieved with Turkey's EU membership, he responded: "Also with the entrance into Europe."

Last November, Pope Benedict in a surprise move began his historical trip to majority Muslim Turkey by expressing his support for the country's bid to join the European Union.

The pope reportedly told Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyp Erdogan that the Vatican desires Turkey's membership in the EU during private talks between the two - a stance later confirmed by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi who said that "the Vatican doesn't get involved in politics, but we see favourably Turkey’s path toward the European Union."

The pope's announcement, a reversal of the position he had expressed two years before while a powerful Roman Catholic Cardinal, helped defuse much of the tension with the Islamic world that had been generated after comments he made earlier last year interpreted as linking Islam to violence.

VATICAN: SECRETARY OF STATE POSITIVE ABOUT TURKEY JOINING THE EU