The long awaited green light for Turkey to begin EU membership talks has been decades in the making, yet all the rhetoric and consternation that surrounds this decision is perhaps emblematic of the struggle within Europe to retain and define its identity. Turkey also seeks its place in the world as the nexus between a primarily Christian Europe and the start of the Middle East and Asia. In many ways, some in Europe are still looking to the past as their perception of what Europe is, whereas Turkey is looking to the future of how they might evolve as a country and culture. Religion, identity, security, and the clash of cultures are all at play in the discourse over Turkey?s membership in the European Union in a way that is certainly not the norm for membership considerations for other EU candidate states.

It is perhaps a positive indicator of Europe?s willingness to ponder honestly its future by agreeing to open talks with Turkey despite the tensions and unease between Islam and Christianity, as well as anti-immigrant tensions in the European Union. It is ironic that this is something they simply would not consider before, when these tensions within European society were not endemic. European officials have also admitted, even those who oppose membership, that Turkey has made enormous strides in recent years on human rights and other issues that were preconditions for talks. Yet, one cannot help thinking that there is a double standard with consideration of EU membership.