"Turkey is founded upon Islam ... Thus the entry of Turkey into the EU would be anti-historical."

According to a report from CNN, the foreign ministry of Turkey said last Thursday it had invited Pope Benedict to make an official visit to the country in 2006. It is believed to be an attempt to gain the Pope’s support for the membership in EU.

On Sept. 23, an Istanbul court's decision to block a conference on the World War I massacre of Armenians embarrassed Turkey at a sensitive moment and angered EU states less than two weeks before the planned start of EU entry talks on Oct. 3, Reuters reported.

Turkey is alleged of carrying out a systematic genocide against Armenians in 1915 in an attempt to eliminate them and create a homogeneous Turkish state. Turkey has always denied the claim of killing the Armenians and said they were victims of a partisan conflict that also claimed thousands of Turkish lives.

The Armenian people had lived in the Turkey homeland for nearly 3000 years and were traditionally Christian.

"The absence of legal motivations and the (timing) of this decision a day before the conference looks like yet another provocation," Krisztina Nagy, the EU executive's spokeswoman for enlargement, said to Reuters on Friday.

Meanwhile, those supporting Turkey’s EU membership believe that the predominantly Muslim nation in the EU can become a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, therefore spreading stability and security, and promoting dialogue with the Islamic world.

Turkey has been waiting for the accession talk with the EU for 40 years since Ankara first signed an association deal in 1963. Last December, the 25-member bloc finally approved the talk, which is scheduled on Oct. 3, 2005.

Eunice Or
Christian Today Correspondent