Has Turkey Halted It's Move Towards EU?

The events in Turkey over the past year have suggested some within the country are second guessing their steady march to the west since 1950 when it's indigenous Democratic Party won an election. Turkey has had periods of instability where the military intruded into government via coups in 1960, 1971, 1980, 1997 whenever the elected government moved too far away from the military's preferred secular course. "Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy, enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union."
The Turkish Judiciary, which is independent of the government, has put on trial Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk accusing him of insulting his nation.
WaPo

An acclaimed Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk, has been charged with the "public denigrating of Turkish identity" and faces a possible prison sentence of three years. The charge stems from an interview that Pamuk gave to a Swiss newspaper in February in which he said certain topics were regarded as off-limits in Turkey. As examples, he listed the massacre of Armenians in 1915 and the ongoing war between Turkish security forces and Kurdish guerrillas as examples. "Thirty-thousand Kurds were killed here, 1 million Armenians as well. And almost no one talks about it," Pamuk told the newspaper, Tages-Anzeiger. "Therefore, I do."


Turkey considers the Armenian deaths a consequence of war, with severe casualties on both sides, while Armenians say the deaths constitute a genocide. Under Turkish law, people can be jailed for differing with the government's line on the deaths, as well as on the presence of Turkish troops in Cyprus, which Turkey invaded in 1974, and other "fundamental national interests."

Appearances as well as intolerance will help determine the EU's decision about the membership of Turkey. The Armenian issue is one primarily of appearances. There is however the issues of "collaboration regarding terrorism with Armenia and possibility that admission of Turkey to the EU might would lead inevitably to that of Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, and perhaps of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
The issue of the Kurd have taken a much more serious turn in recent years. The strength and independence of Iraqi Kurdistan with US support, has lead to a resurgence of including Turkish Kurdistan in a homeland for the Kurds, a move Ankara would go to war over.
Some have called the timing of the prosecution of Pamuk suspicious in view of European ministers discussing Turkey's application to membership in the EU. "The European Union has described the case as a litmus test of Turkey's eligibility to join, warning that it is Ankara - rather than Mr Pamuk - that is going on trial." Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused the European Union of interfering in Turkey's internal affairs. Yet in a move that seems to indicate an internal power struggle, the trial has been halted by an Istanbul judge said the case needed approval by the ministry of justice.
There are further signs of ambivalence within Turkey of move towards the west.
The Turkey Travel Planner

In November 2002 a new, more moderate neo-Islamist Justice and Development Party was given a majority of seats in Turkey's Grand National Assembly, and formed the first one-party, non-coalition government in decades. A large proportion of the vote for the new Justice and Development Party was seen as a protest against the old, ineffective, corrupt political parties rather than as a vote for Islamism. The new Justice and Development Party government vowed to govern in a strictly secular manner (though guided by the moral and ethical precepts of Islam), and to maintain Turkey's close and friendly relations with Europe, Israel and the USA.

However, Turkey has hardly settled it's internal debate. The Turkish government is proposing to ban alchohol in the city centers and create Europe" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article333246.ece">"drinking zones" in remote suburbs. Needless to say, secularists are enraged.
The independence ambition of Turkish Kurds also challenge the idea of democracy in Turkey. Kurdish leader Mahmoud Osman condemned recent statements by the Turkish Foreign Ministry about the non-recognition of the province of Kurdistan and its warning against playing with the future of Kirkuk, considering that they constitute interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and reflect Turkey’s fear from “the spread of democracy to its territory”.
Since the US invasion of Iraq, Turkey wonders if it's fortunes lie in the west when the most powerful western nation is stirring up trouble on it's borders to the east.
MEMRI

"Turkish-American relations have been in a process of erosion for a long time. The strategic partnership is long over. And after it ended, unfortunately no effort was made to redefine our relations. We [at ARI] decided to do that. […] With the aim of re-defining and strengthening the [bilateral] relations, we first had a round-table discussion […] and then as a delegation we spent a week in meetings in Washington.

Not surprisingly, Turkey has been approached by Russia who seeks to undermine Turkey's traditional role in NATO as a buttress towards them. Russia has been increasing military and technological consultations with Turkey.