Is Turkey "European," and Does it Really Matter? A Consideration in Light of Recent Empirical Data.

In the run-up to the European Union's "big-bang" enlargement of 2004, there was significant debate about the cultural unity of Europe. Popular and scholarly observers routinely suggested that a cultural chasm separated cosmopolitan and post-religious western Europeans from provincial and devout eastern Europeans. The east-west cultural divide portended a dark future for the EU. On this view, westerners and easterners in an enlarged EU would have a hard time understanding each other (literally and figuratively) and east Europeans would have a hard time availing themselves of the perquisites (e.g., free movement, increased educational opportunity) of membership.David Laitin (2002) framed an ambitious empirical analysis of culture and politics in the enlarging EU against the backdrop of this debate. His findings cut against the prevailing wisdom: both westerners and easterners, he found, participated in an emerging pan-European cosmopolitan culture. Rather than precluding mobility and political consensus after 2004, he suggested, culture might encourage east European mobility and promote compromise between incumbent member states and new member states.The purpose of the current paper is to utilize Laitin's conceptual framework to test more contemporary assertions of cultural difference in Europe. Today, assertions of Turkish otherness are even more common than assertions of eastern otherness were before 2004. This common view suggests that Turks are from Venus, while Europeans are from Mars. But might empirical comparison of Turkish and incumbent culture undercut this conventional wisdom, just as Laitin's analysis undercut the east-west conventional wisdom? And what are the political implications of cultural (non)overlaps between Turks and citizens of the EU-27? The paper analyzes updated data on language use, religion, and popular culture in EU member-states and Turkey to address these questions. It suggests that Laitin's pan-European cosmopolitan culture is deepening within the EU-27 but that most Turkish citizens remain outside of this culture. This time around, the conventional wisdom is generally supported rather than challenged. The paper's findings raise concerns about the prospects for cooperation in an EU that includes Turkey and questions the extent to which Turkish Eurocitizens would be able to take advantage of the opportunities opened by EU membership. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]