It's a European Thing; Turkey Finds EU Openly Hostile to Membership bid.(WORLD)(BRIEFING: MIDDLE EAST)

Byline: Andrew Borowiec,THE WASHINGTON TIMES

NICOSIA, Cyprus - The statement was blunt: Turkey is not a European country and its admission by the European Union would lead to that organization's demise.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, a former French president now in charge of drafting the EU's future constitution, made the statement 12 days ago, and it was more than a jolt.

It was a blow to Muslim Turkey's self-esteem and to its aspirations - an ominous portent in its relations with the European Union and its future role on the continent. In effect, it implied the possibility of this key ally's rejection by what one Turkish politician described as "a Christian club."

Turkey "has a different culture, a different approach, a different way of life. ... It is not a European country," Mr. Giscard said, adding that Turkey's capital, Ankara, "is not in Europe" and "95 percent of its population lives outside Europe."

[The boundaries of "Europe" as a cultural space have varied during history, but a common definition of its geographic limits is that Europe extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Russia's Ural Mountains, Ural River and the …

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Publication information: Article title: It's a European Thing; Turkey Finds EU Openly Hostile to Membership bid.(WORLD)(BRIEFING: MIDDLE EAST). Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: November 20, 2002. Page number: A15. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group.

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