46 years after first applying for European Union membership and three weeks after the
start of a ten to fifteen year long negotiation-process the minarets in Istanbul are calling. As
the sun sets and the imam concludes prayer, the poor begin to gather in lines for free Ramadan
dinners and families begin their daily feast.

In the Uskudar neighbourhood, the Aladag family has just finished a large Ramadan
dinner, consisting of several kebab-dishes and grilled vegetables. Over chai tea and short
snacks, we start conversation about the EU.

Joining the EU will create higher standards with better working hours and wages,
Aladag says, more opportunities for his unborn children.
Soon he will be married but there are few pictures of his fianc\u00e9e in the house and the most
prevalent photo is one of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister and head of the Islamist
based Justice and Development Party.
After his fathers death ten years ago he inherited the apartment where he now lives with his
sister Reyhan (30) and mother Havva (48). When he marries next spring, he will move to
another apartment in the neighbourhood with his wife.

The 28 year old describes himself as a conservative person who believes in traditional
religious values like covered women and attends the mosque regularly.
Being a conservative, Huseyin hopes the many state governed companies, like Turkish
Airlines, will privatise in the run up to the EU. The Turkish government has taken steps
towards privatization of industry in recent years, selling various government controlled
industries to private firms and investors.

A smaller government with changed police laws and more respect for human rights,
Aladag says, are good signs of change.
\u201cIn 10 years if the EU rejects us, democracy will continue. Economy and human rights are
problems but they are solved quicker with the European Union,\u201d Huseyin says.

Huseyin thinks the rest of Europe can learn something about family values from
Turkey, like caring for the elderly and helping each other out. However there are pieces of
Turkish culture he hopes will disappear in a more \u201cEuropean\u201d Turkey.
\u201cAccording to the old customs you are not allowed to cut your toenails in the night and not
allowed to marry between festivities. In some places they still sacrifice goats.\u201d
The family appreciates the prime minister\u2019s attempt to bring Turkey into the EU. Like the
women of the Aladag family, the prime minister\u2019s wife covered by a headscarf.

\u201cWhat I hope the most is that I will be able to walk around in closed dressing. I am lucky, the bank I work in is conservative so I am allowed to wear my headscarf at work,\u201d Reyhan says referring to the prohibition of headscarves in Turkish Universities as well as for state employees.

The whole family is pro European Union, but the mother Havva Aladag has some concerns.
She is afraid that Turkey will be too modernized and that the new generations will forget their
religious roots and traditions.

\u201cI do not agree with my mother. We will not loose our religion. This is just a part of a big
development where education and human rights are in progress of getting better,\u201d Reyhan
argues.
At midnight the family goes to bed. It is just five hours until they have to get up again to eat
their morning meal before sunrise.

We meet him in the mosque just after the many hundreds of mosque attendees have
rushed home after prayer to get ready for Ramadan meals. Dr. Namli has a PhD in Sufism.
\u201cEurope thinks every Muslim is like Osama bin Laden,\u201d said the imam. \u201cIn Turkey

schools were opened called the Faculty of Divinity to \u201creform\u201d Islam.
Turkey, Namli says, will not be the only one to gain from EU membership.
\u201cIf Europe wants to be a big community,\u201d Namli says \u201cit will accept Turkey and all

not be as much as Turkey gives.\u201d
Europe can learn lessons from Turkey he says on religious tolerance.
\u201cWe have experience with living with other religions. In the Ottoman Empire we lived

As Namli reflects on the future his ten year old son is playing with the window shades.
A stripe of sun floods in to the imam\u2019s small office. Turkey is changing, Namli says, a fact
that is evident in its young and growing population. The Turkish State Statistic Institute
reports that 26% of Turkey\u2019s population is 14 and under. The current work force of 25 million
will double by 2020, around the time Turkey will join the union if it is to join.

One of the young and educated is Yafes Doski, a 25-year-old studying medicine in the
south-eastern Turkish city of Diyabakir. Kurds, like Yafes, make up 20% of Turkey\u2019s
population, nearly 14 million people. Himself Kurdish, he considers his town and the land
surrounding to be Kurdistan. On the wall in his room is a picture of Kurt Cobain, one of his
favorite musicians. Across from the poster sits a modest bust of a Native American in
headdress. He respects the Native Americans he says for how they fought bravely for their
land.

He thinks the PKK, a Kurdish paramilitary force (the largest armed opposition group
in Turkey according to Amnesty International), assisted in getting Kurds human rights. The
Turkish government in its endeavour to become a more open society for EU membership
eased restrictions on Kurdish people\u2019s rights as well. Over 35, 000 people are estimated to
have died during conflict between the Turkish government and PKK forces between 1984 and
the late 90s. A ceasefire, which held for over six years, was called off by the PKK in June
2004.