Cultural and Political Dialogue between Turkey and the EU: Overcoming Difficulties, Fall 2005

The author addresses the potential problems of rejection of Turkey from the EU on cultural and religious grounds. He underlines the importance of dialogue between Turkey and the EU to overcome misunderstandings between the two sides.Furthermore, he calls for improved and effective political and cultural dialogue oriented to the future.Cultural differences have become, in the eyes of some, an impediment to Turkish accession to the EU. French sociologist Amaury de Riencourtmakes a clear distinction between culture and civilization. From his perspective, each culture engenders its own civilization. Cultureemphasizes the individual; civilization the society. He says, “Civilization represents the crystallization on a gigantic scale of the preceding culture’s deepest andgreatest thoughts and style. Civilization aims at the gradual standardization of increasingly large masses of men within a rigidly mechanical framework.” If this logic is correct, the world is increasingly becoming one civilization. Indeed, the author states that “the 20th century is the dramatic watershed separating the culture behind us from the civilization that lies ahead...” Please click here to read the text in full.