Turkey, an economic country in becoming between heritage and future

Another main question that rose to priority in those years was the type of relation that would bind Turkey with the European Union. Obviously, the main problem was - and still is - the accession to Turkey to the EU. On this regard, Turkey pursues interests both political as well as economic, treated equally and with the same priority.
From the economic point of view, the first benefit, which Turkey could access to, were the various types of financial aid and, from this, springs all the other positive aspects. As an associated, Turkey would have ECU 375 million over five years which are divided into block grants, sectoral (poured especially in agriculture) and regional. In this way, the scales internal positive consequences would be many: foreign direct investments would be the most favorite; this will cause a net reduction in interest rates and, therefore, may also occur the end of inflation. More generally, there would be some improvements with regard to the long-awaited industrial competitiveness and modernization and the Turkish population could reach the same level of life of European countries.
From the political point of view, however, Turkey in joining the European Union would undermine the inside Islamic trends, expanding the western influence, which shows much more secular, modern and democratic aspects. Secondly, the same position of Turkey in the eyes of the world would be surely strengthened, particularly in relations with Greece, also weakening the notorious anti-Turkish Greek trend.

As far as the EU was concerned, it was maintained at an antagonistic position of Turkey, at times more hidden, in other occasions declared more openly. The main reason for this hostility was not related to economic reasons but to much higher order reasons. The European Union, in fact, complained about a lack of respect for human rights in the first place, as well as other factors of equal importance, such as the Kurdish problem or journalists issue (a real crackdown), as well as to relations with Greece and the island of Cyprus. Even if EU rejected Turkish in 1997, she did not show completely opposite but believed that Turkey should work on the points mentioned above in order to reach a correct positive level.
Some European Union member states took particular positions.
France, for instance, was by far the country most in favor about Turkey’s admission. The main reason for this position is related to strategic reasons, therefore also purely geographical, and, accordingly, cheap. The geographical location of Turkey would put an opening to the East Union. This would mean that in trade there could be an important outlet to the south just as in the North, the role played in this case from Germany. From a purely economic point of view and the close relations between the two nations, France was also well the second foreign investor in Turkey and the number of French companies in the country had increased from seven in 1989 to 150 in 1997. A single question remained still thorny and regarded the Armenians. In France there was an influential Armenian community that wanted, indeed demanded, that Turkey would recognize the genocide.

The Greece position was the exact opposite of France one. Greece was admitted to the European Union in 1981 and its attitude was diversified before and after, making its entrance a real watershed. In the past, Greece considered Turkey the same his sorcerer but later adopted a very hostile policy that influenced the Commission by means of its right of veto. One of the most tragic consequences of this behavior has been poured on the economic front and led to block all financial protocols by the Greek government. Greece will then show how the anti-Turkey par excellence not sparing warlike confrontations in the area also with regard to the controversial issue of Cyprus.
Similarly to Greece, Germany was against the Turkey’s admission in the EU in spite of having a high number of immigrants of Turkish origin, of whom very many Kurds. Its opposition was the most important compared to Greece from the point of view of the influence towards other member countries. From an economic point of view, over the years, the German government had on several occasions stressed the embargo on sales of arms to Turkey despite being the first economic and trade partner of her: she received 22.5% of Turkish exports, while 18% of Turkish imports from Germany. Other issues of various kinds contributed to endorse the position of Germany, first of all the failure to respect the human rights, but also the repression against the Kurds and the so-called "Islamic character" of Turkey regarded by Germany as an insurmountable obstacle.