Will the EU stay true to its own principles?

The EU lost credibility in 2004 for most Turks when it admitted Cyprus (meaning Greek Cyprus) as a full member, despite the overwhelming rejection by Greek Cypriots of the so called "Annan Plan," which was the best blueprint-regardless of its shortcomings—for a solution to this problem until then.

Cyprus under this arrangement would join the EU as a unified country and the advantage of membership would bring the estranged sides closer, as they lived in separate communities but under one flag and one administration based on democratic power sharing.

The plan was also supported by the EU, which worked hard to make it succeed. That was not to be, though; but not because of the supposedly "intransigent Turkish Cypriots," who overwhelmingly supported the plan in a referendum, but because the Greek Cypriots decided they wanted nothing to do with it.

Neither were they afraid that this would prevent EU membership and were justified in this belief. Although it had scuttled the chance for a solution, the Greek Cypriot side was still admitted as a full EU member.

The whole debacle forced Günter Verheugen, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement who had pushed hard for the Annan Plan to work, to deliver an angry address to the European Parliament castigating the Greek Cypriots.

Even in the eyes of pro-western Turkish liberals, though, the EU emerged then as an unprincipled and unreliable union supposedly built on high principles, but in fact was motivated only by hard-core material interests, phobias and prejudices.

This became clearer after Germany and France revealed their true positions regarding EU membership for Turkey. Maintaining membership talks was nevertheless a necessary pretense required by practical considerations. ...