Turkish reaction to the publication of the European Commission’s recent progress report on Turkey’s preparations for EU membership was, predictably, exaggerated and over-pessimistic. Equally predictable, the Cyprus issue aside, will be Turkey’s reaction to the inevitable decision of the December European Council in Copenhagen not to announce a firm date for the opening of the accession negotiations. Such predictable over-reaction is a pity. For what the European Union needs in Turkey is a reliable government with a stable parliamentary majority that can be a partner in reform, steadily building a broad popular consensus within Turkish society in favour of European integration. Exaggeration and distortion of Turkey’s Europe question are unhelpful, especially if calculated for reasons of populist nationalism.

The fact is that nationalists of any sort need not apply to join the European Union. Europe has had enough of nationalism. Ultra-nationalism of the Turkish type is particularly destructive of the model of European unification carefully nurtured in the West since 1945. Those who take the anti-European line in Ankara are entitled, of course, to do so. But they should not claim the mantle of the father of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal, in order to boost their credibility. Attaturk sought to emulate West European norms, albeit in a period of European history of which Westerners themselves have come to be ashamed. (This was Attaturk’s bad luck rather than bad judgement.) Today’s true Kemalists should stick faithfully to Attaturk’s path of internal reform based on Turkey’s European traditions. This means modernising Kemalism to reflect what has happened in Europe since the end of its fascist period.

Within the European Union citizens no longer exist to serve the state. Indeed the opposite is true. Europe’s colonies have been surrendered. Most Europeans have given up thinking of national sovereignty as either indivisible or absolute. Competences are devolved both inside EU member states to regional entities and also upwards to supranational authorities that are quickly gaining a constitutional order and legitimacy of their own. Fundamental rights have attained a central importance within the regime of the European Union because they help to protect the citizen from the possibility of abuse by the new, powerful central institutions. Promotion of fundamental rights is the creed of common European citizenship. In the European Union it is good manners not only to respect minorities and tolerate dissent but also to celebrate non-conformism.

None of this creates an easy pattern for Turkey to follow. Nevertheless, modernisation at home is essential before Turkey can be a serious candidate for EU membership. Political parties must become less clientilistic and more grounded in normal democratic ideology. Corruption must be stamped out. The military has to become more the servant of the state than its master. The administration of justice would benefit from less political interference. Fundamental rights must be respected not only in terms of constitutional and primary law but enjoyed by every citizen at grass-roots level. Turkey’s lively media must be subject to less strict state supervision. Intellectual and cultural life must be liberated.

These reforms are not unreasonable demands on Turkey’s political class. They are not just a catalogue imposed by the Brussels, but are necessary conditions in any case of Turkey’s social and economic advance. Turkey can only modernise itself on the basis of its centuries old European traditions. Eurasia offers nothing but folklore, poverty and instability.

Turkey has to turn wholeheartedly to Europe – and Europe must respond with a generosity of spirit and a seriousness of political will that it has not yet displayed. For the European Union the prize of Turkish membership is great indeed. To have integrated successfully Western liberal democracies with the formerly communist societies of Central and East Europe and then thereafter with the secular Moslem society of Turkey would be an achievement of truly historic importance.