Turkey’s accession to the E.U

Introduction:

Turkey is the one of the modern Muslim country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Majority of population in Turkey are Muslims, so it is rising as an important Muslim country. Turkey is a democratic, secular, constitutional republic having a rich cultural heritage, and for long time it has been center for Muslim Empires. Turkey is at crossroad of Europe and Asia which increase its geostrategic importance.

Turkey is integrating with Europe by becoming part of Organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD and OSCE. And it is also trying to become the part of European Union. To become the part of EU, willing Country needs to become first its associate member and in this regard Turkey gets associate membership of European Economic Community in 1959 and after 5 years for the mutual cooperation between EU and Turkey an agreement was signed between both stakeholders which is known as Ankara Agreement. So, Turkey was the first Muslim country who was trying to get access to EU (Morocco tried afterward), and no wonder it was at very strong position to become the permanent member of European Union. And if it becomes the part of EU the difference between Muslims and west can be reduced in a very good manner.

Application for membership:

On 14 April 1987 Turkey submit an application to become the formal and integral part of European Union. Mixed response from the European Union was given on two years later they approved the Turkish Membership but meanwhile they deferred it because of bad relations between Turkey and Greece on the Cyprus conflict which delayed the beginning of all negotiation.

On several occasions European Council approved Turkey as member but not formally, so in 2002 in Copenhagen a conference was conducted in thy set particular political criteria for Turkey, so if they will be fulfilling it European Union will be starting the negotiation with Turkey. Turkey was fulfilling the Copenhagen political criteria so, On December 16, 2004, Turkey’s bid to join the European Union was approved and formal accession negotiations were started from 3 October 2005.

Obstacles:

Turkey accession to European Union is obstacle by numerous domestic and foreign problems. The EU suspended the talks in eight out of the total of 35 policy areas. Cyprus, France, Austria and Denmark are clearly breezy about Turkish membership. Germany's governing Christian Democratic Union also thinks that Turkey should be offered a "privileged partnership" rather than full membership. But David Cameron backs Turkey to join EU and demand for Turkey’s full membership for European Union. UK and Scandinavian countries and the states which joined the EU in 2004 are broadly in favor of Turkey's candidacy.

 EU members have different kind of favors and reserves about giving membership to Turkey. For example Sweden is in great favor of giving Turkey a permanent membership of EU, according to the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt (2008), "the accession of Turkey would give the EU a decisive role for stability in the eastern part of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which is clearly in the strategic interest of Europe”. Meanwhile England is also biggest supporter of Turkey; while France opposed the Turkey’s entry to the European Union, they thought that Turkey is not fully in Europe, EU should first define the boundaries of Europe then they consider Turkey’s application because if EU will give accession to Turkey without looking at its boundaries, then many other countries which are looking for the membership will stand up for membership; as Morocco has already been rejected on geographical basis. Hence they said that Turkey has no place in Europe. Moreover in France, Austria and Germany because there are already too much Turkish immigrants in Germany and after becoming EU member people would freely roam about EU.

Conflict between Cyprus and Turkey

The major obstacle is conflict between Cyprus and Turkey, no wonder it is the only conflict which is if solved, Turkey would be given membership within a year. Because EU asked Turkey to open their sea ports and air ports for the traffic for the Cyprus-which is the member of European Union-. But the Turkey has rejected to-do so because EU is not taking any kind of step to end the Turkish Cypriot community's economic isolation. They day EU will take the step Turkey will open every kind routes of Cyprus. As we know that there are total 35 chapters on which negation has to be done due to this conflict EU has decided to suspend the talks in eight policy areas, known as chapters. It has also decided that none of the other 27 chapters can be signed off until Turkey opens its ports and airports to Cypriot ships and aircraft.

It is widely believed by the Turkish public that Cyprus conflict is only a lame excuse to delay the membership by European Union. United Nation also interferes in the Turkey-Greece conflict and asks the leaders of both -Turkish-Cypriot and the Greek-Cypriot- for the unification of the island. Despite leaders claims that there is a commitment to find a comprehensive solution, there are certain key issues on which nobody wants to compromise

European Union’s law requirements:

EU also said that Turkey is not bringing in the law as per European standards, so first they have to be improving their law standards and allow the general public to speak freely against the country and give them a freedom of speech.

Basically EU demand for removal of article 301 from their constitution because according to article 301 ( Censorship in Turkey, 13 September 2005) “a person who publicly insults the Turkish nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey, or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and two years" this basically kill the freedom of speech. So that’s why EU demands that this article should be null and void and that the expressions of thought and criticism on government shall not constitute as a crime.

Social and cultural difference:

This wouldn’t be the first time that a constructed Europe or European culture was used in order to support political interests. There is Social and cultural difference between EU members and Turkey because Turkey is the only Muslim country in Europe and Christians are in majority, mean while Turkey is not fully in Europe, which is the main reason why they consider Turkey as uncivilized. And it was not a long time ago when Europe was divided into ‘civilized’ and ‘‘uncivilized’’ parts during the Cold War era. That’s why European leaders are very much careful about their decision regarding enlargement of Europe. So all other states are afraid about the fact that it might harm their culture and norms, as Muslims are spreading all over the Europe. Europeanization is becoming increasingly a discriminatory concept. But this fact is very ridiculous because you cannot ban the entry of a country due the fact that they are Muslims. However by keeping this fact in your mind that they are not fully in Europe you can think off a point which is reasonable to restrict the entry of Turkey to EU.

EU’s internal concerns:

Turkey army is much stronger than some of other members of European Union. It is the second strongest army in NATO force meanwhile it is prospering more quickly than other EU members. So if it would be given membership of European Union it would one of most strongest stake holder and decision making country in the whole union so it is just like you are bringing another France and Germany. So the countries who have major influence over EU don’t wish the Turkey should be given accession to European Union especially Germany and France. Meanwhile good in Turkey are much cheaper as compare to other countries, after becoming the member of European Union Turkey will have accession to the European markets so then they will receive higher return from sale then before and their industrial production will increase and so Turkish economy will prosper a lot. And there will be huge capital inflows in Turkey due to which unemployment in Turkey will also decrease and at the end Turkey will have highest growth in history. Hence there is chance that within 5 to 10 years after accession Turkey will be the dominating power of Europe. So this fear did not allow other strong stake holders to support the Turkey for accession to European Union.

It is the responsibility of European Union to support its member country during crisis. And after accession Turkey will receive large amount of financial aid from Turkey which will increase its economy prosperity. And if Turkey will face financial crisis, Turkey could expect economic assistance from the EU, similar to what Ireland and Greece received after the 2008 financial crisis. One of the EU’s primary concerns is the economic situation of Europe today. Europe was heavily affected by the world-wide economic and financial crises as a whole. The packages that were designed to help Member States are widely regarded as temporary solution measures and the future of the Monetary Union is under discussion. In short, the EU is focused on its internal problems, rather than concentrating on other issues such as enlargement of union. Turkey accession matter is almost being put aside for the moment.

Islamization of Europe:

According to few analyst Turkey is too large and too Islamic to be a part of European Union. Islam is spreading all over the Europe that’s why all European countries in which majority is Christianity; they have a point of view that, as an Islamic country, Turkey wants a Turkish Europe, so they have fear they might lose their identity due to which they are no very serious regarding this matter. Countries like Germany, France have huge problem of immigration majority of Muslims are coming their around the world especially from Turkey, after the membership Turkish would easy go these countries and they will face a population problem. They want that Europe should be keep as Christian club.

No doubt Europe has Christian heritage, but it should not be a reason that they opposes the Turkey’s membership. No modern, religiously tolerant politician should oppose the membership of a country on the basis of religious differences. Criteria should not be biased, because if they will do so this will consider  that EU give the memberships to country by looking at their religion rather than looking at other main factors and there is huge religious discrimination in EU.

Arguments in Turkey’s favor

Turkey is the only Muslim country in the Europe which is very much eligible to become the part of European Union. It can decrease the differences between Europe and Muslim world and can be act as crossroad between Muslim world and Europe.  It will help to create an interconnection between the West and the Muslim world.

And as we Turkey is growing quickly and its young generation is well educated, so it will help European Union in controlling the increasing population problem and other modern day problems.

Turkey is moving toward modernization and after the membership the Turks will have access to European markets without having nationality of the country, which will help them in increasing their exposure and it will act like a catalyst in modernization of Turkey.

Meanwhile there is discrimination against Kurds who constitute for about 20% of Turkey’s population. This membership will end up this discrimination.

Future and Progress

Till now only 13 different areas of negotiation-they are usually called as chapters-have been completed. Turkey's EU negotiations have been outshined by apprehension about freedom of speech and democracy in Turkey as military has civil control, treatment of religious minorities such as Kurds, women's and children's rights and the most major one conflict with Cyprus. That’s why European Union is demanding for the democracy, human rights, underlining the need for deeper judicial reform.

Due to which Turkey is now working for the civil rights of Kurds. Meanwhile they are seriously working out for democracy and recently they have conducted a referendum, which gave the ruling AK Party the go-ahead to change the military-era constitution and bring it more into line with EU norms.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel both are still not in favor to give full membership to Turkey, rather they as for partnership between EU and Turkey. Basically French is the one who is personally against the Turkey because he now if Turkey will enter the Union their influence will be reduced. And German Chancellor is against the Turkey because there are already too many Muslim in the Germany, and they have fear that after membership Muslim majority will increase and hence it they have strong fear of Islamization of Germany not only Germany but of whole Europe.

The UK Foreign Office says it expects Turkey to be ready for membership "in a decade or so". The earliest date on which Turkey can be given accession to EU is somewhere in 2013. So they are trying to follow all of instructions of EU by 2013. But the EU has refused that they can give accession to Turkey by 2013 they said the earliest date is somewhere in 2021. So for the Turkey negotiations are getting longer and longer. Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister has said that they will freeze their relations with EU if Cyprus conflict will not be sort out by the July of this year.

From the half year negotiations Turkey is unable to be a part of European Union. Nobody can perfectly predict about final date of accession of Turkey to EU. Moreover up to somehow Turkey is also holds a firm reason that Turkey is not fully in Europe, it is a part Asia. Finally we can just say that this is modern era anything is possible, any event can turn around the Turkey as a permanent member of EU.

Cost Minimizing Policy for Industry

Industry is the backbone of any economy, our local industry is now-a-days suffering by high costs problem. Core reasons behind this problem are high petrol, gas and electricity prices, which are input cost for majority of industry. Due to this production costs are very higher and hence their products are very expensive as compare to international market. This not only affects their sales but also increases the price level which act as catalyst for cost-push inflation. This also discourages foreign investment especially in industrial sector because when input costs are higher not firm would like to enter in the market because it may possible that that unable to recover the costs.

So, we need to focus on cost minimizing policy of particular industry i.e. how a firm in an industry can minimize its costs and how Government can give them certain incentives to SME and MNCs so that both domestic and foreign investors can be encouraged. This can be done by doing research in every industry and by giving them a particular policy. Although it would be expensive; but it will be beneficial in long run for economy. It will not only decrease the inflation but also decrease the unemployment, so as a result overall economy will improve.

Biased Media

A quarter of the world consists of young people between the ages of 10-14 years. Of these 86 percent, live in developing countries. Pakistan currently has the largest group of young people in its history (25 million aged 15-24) and subsequent cohorts are projected to be even larger. This is experimenting now technologies and is mostly influential by the media. TV is the most accessible media form. In Pakistan, the coverage of TV is between 87-90pc. The average Pakistani youth is the most passionate consumer of entertaining TV programs. Besides, TV has become the main target for pressure groups and NGO`s concerned with human rights in the media.

Nowadays, the media has emerged as the essential player in granting priority to the issue of any origin. The ruling elite of Pakistan, like elsewhere, are also aware that information is power. Therefore, their prime objective is to keep the illiterate and unemployed youth powerless through controlling the state media as well. Their general attitude towards the media is obviously dictating and opposing. The net impact of this desire to control the right to information is that educated individuals are not instructed with development issues and contemporary debates. So our youth is less aware about current problems and crisis. More over young ladies and children are more concerned about TV dramas and shows.

Language and attitude

There is something or some medium in which we express our reaction, our feelings, our wants, and our expression to other person to society that is called as language. Or you can say it is a set of prearranged signals that both sender and receiver know and usually use these signal to communication. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Word language is basically have different definitions it may also be defined as a specific linguistic system.

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It basically focuses on three domains of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context. The study of language meaning is affiliated with how language shows a logical structures and real-world references to convey a purposeful meaning, as well as how meaning is inferred from words and concepts and how meaning is inferred from context in short it usually emphasized on sense of word and grammar behind that word.

Now the language context is basically concerned with evolution of a particular language and focuses on the origin and development of language. It’s sometime impossible to know how and from where the language was started because the languages are spoken since evolution of men. So practically its impossible to make a perfect story about the evolution of language however you can make a particular guess that about 1000B.C this language was started becoming common in people. Today if you wish to introduce a new language that’s literally impossible, because it take research of thousand years to generate a proper and logical grammar of a language.

There are just about 3000–6000 languages that are spoken by humans today. Every language has its own grammar, way of writing etc and has some uniqueness in it.  For example “Urdu” it is a language which we use in our general conversation. And other language is Arabic both are written in same pattern but both of these have different grammar and some time same word are pronounced differently.

Language benefits us in many different ways it helps us to pass on and develop technologies, It helps us to coordinate activities, we can communicate knowledge about relevant aspects of the environment.

Human languages are often referred as natural languages. Actually language has great impact of environment on it. For example if a person he is from England he will speak English  meanwhile a person who is from United States  he will also speak the English but there will be different in their accent, a person from states will mostly use slang words and will speak very informal words. Whereas a person from England will very speak formal words and try to avoid slang words, so environment do matter. A baby born usually learns the language which her mother speaks. If baby is born in Pakistan but her mother speaks English, so her mother tongue will be English and despite he is Pakistani he will speak English This shows the impact of environment on language. . Language is passed on from one generation to the next. Many factors affect how language will change from generation to generation. What people talk about? Who talks to whom? How often?

Now when you speak out something, for example you are speaking something that’s really delight full, your body will also express these expressions which is called as your body language. There are two types of signals one is informative signals -signals which you have not intentionally sent- i.e. body language, and other is Communicative signals -you use intentionally to communicate something. A person initially learn the basic a, b, c then he usually attach words to form a particular words, for instance now he combine these different alphabets to form a particular word for example “car”, “bat” etc.

Now we will look at language attitude. It tells how a group of people or how a society is responding to the particular language learning. World is getting advanced day by day and English which is a international language, its learning is getting important day by day. For student who is not good in English, when he will enters the professional life he might face problem in job seeking as he have bad communication skills in English. On the other hand a person having good English skills might not face such problems. So our learning attitude toward English is increasing. Hence we can say that learning attitude and better job both are positively correlated. It shows that more good learning attitude you have more chance of better job you have.

It is a good thing that you have language learning attitude toward other languages because Sir Syed Ahamd Khan who was great scholar he said we should learn the other languages in order to cope with different problems and because it then and only possible that we can compete with world when we know their language, but one should never forget his/her language because mother tongue might be you national language and you language is actually your identity. And if you have no sort of grip on it than its mean you have lose your national identity.

Society in which you are living you have to follow its norms and social values. But in order to survive in that society you have to learn its language, because it just act as blood of your society. Just like accounting in business without which you won’t be able to calculate the profit and loss of your business or in simple term accounting act as language of business which interpret the different condition of business.

So we can conclude that language play an important role in our life, it effect almost every part of our life. It is basically responsible for our body language and for our verbal communication.

Social Facilitation:

Social facilitation means that people perform better in groups rather than individually. In short we can say that when people are being observed or when they feel that are to be evaluate by any viewer the work hard and try to do their best.

Now we will analyze the articles for the further explanation of this theory.  Article “Social Facilitation” which was written by Robert B. Zajonc  in this article he initially tells that prime example or the person who initiated the research on the social facilitation was Norman Tripplet. The idea that social evaluation has effect on performance was initially best illustrate by the psychologist Norman Triplett. He noticed the same behavior in cyclists. Triplett scoured the records of the 'League of American Wheelmen' and found that racing cyclists rode faster when paced or in competition. Analyzing the results of many races he found that, on average, cyclists with a pacemaker covered each mile about 5 seconds quicker than those without. He suspected it was more than just the purely physical effect of slipstreaming behind another cyclist, that the effect was also psychological (the mere presence of other people).

To test his feeling Triplett (1898) set children winding a thread on a reel, sometimes on their own and sometimes against others. What he found confirmed his theory: the children went faster when in competition. While interesting, though, the finding that people work faster in competition is hardly ground-breaking.

This tendency for people to perform simple tasks better when in the presence of others was called social facilitation.

On the other hand some people may perform worse when working in a group or when they feel that other are observing them. If we go back and once again look upon the experiment that was made by Tripllet. Children were given a task to operate a rod with reel on them for catching the fish, either in the presence of others or alone. Some children performed better alone, some others performed better with people watching. This showed that while some individuals were positively affected by the presence of others, some individuals were also negatively affected, yielding a decrease in performance. This negative effect on performance seemed to be in direct opposition to the other findings of Triplett but social psychologist Robert Zajonc made the connection between them by doing experiment.

In this experiment he initially trained the subject so that he becomes stable then afterward he was asked the subject to perform a task alone and then in presence of four to eight students they were asked to observe the subject quietly and attentively. He observe that when he was performing in front of group his performance was much greater and better then before here comes the a very big factor which increases our provocation that is Evaluation Apprehension-fear of being judged by other- can increase arousal because he was feared that students standing around him are actually judging them and he might be evaluate by them and this psychological factors lead to a greater performance than before. And the self-consciousness he feel when being evaluated can interfere even with behaviors he perform automatically.

Actually social facilitation only apply to simple task it has opposite results for complex task for example if a person is writing a novel and he feels that someone start observing him he will also encourages and tend to work hard but writing a novel demands more intentions and concentration as his intentions are diverted he would be able to perform better this is called as social interference.

In this article he demonstrates both effects in a very good way by doing experiment on cockroaches. He created two mazes, one easy, one hard. Behind the maze walls were other cockroaches, and sometimes the walls were glass, so that the other cockroaches could watch and other times they were covered with paper, so that they couldn’t watch.

So with the easy maze, a cockroach ran the maze faster when it could see other cockroaches—social facilitation. With the hard maze, a cockroach ran slower with others watching—social interference. So by doing different experiments he proved the presence of other do increase our performance.

Psychological Differences Between Male and Female

1-Men are better at orientating objects
Male are better in mathematics where as female are usually weak in digits related subjects, male generally tend to perform better at reading maps, spatially related tasks etc and female are not enough efficient in them.
2-Women are better at communicating
Female have advantage over male counterpart in solving problems and communicating as they are more presentable.
3-Male and Female process information at different ratesThe male brain process the thoughts at slower rate as compared to female because the speed of transmission of all nerve signals  is comparatively faster in female then male.
4-Male in blue 
It usually starts with something small, such as a simple blue blanket or various other masculine-type color schemes and themes.
5-Pretty in pink 
Like males beginning their socialization in blue, females are traditionally gender socialized in pink. Usually females are more attractive to pink colors.
6-Men speak logic
Men often use logic when engaging in conversation. There is a lot of discussion on how much of this is nature and how much is nurture, but males generally have been taught (since childhood) not to openly express emotion.
7-Women speak emotion
Females speak from more of an emotional perspective. This is partially due to brain chemistry but also social learning. There is a stereotypical idea of females within the general public that has made it easier for female to openly cry, sympathize, laugh etc. without feeling judged or vulnerable like their male counterpart might feel in a similar situation.
8-Reaction to stress
Men have been known to take a 'fight or flight' approach to dealing with stress . Female, however, have been tend-and-befriend, namely, creating and joining social groups for support and resources.Females are generally more open to expressing their emotions and communicating with others to resolve various stressful situations whereas males seem to prefer to deal with things on their own.