ISTANBUL: A controversial public dismissal of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union has rejuvenated the flagging Turkish effort to get in, with leaders here condemning the notion of Europe as a “Christian club” to strengthen their case for admitting this Muslim nation.

The new chapter in Turkey’s long quest began two weeks ago. Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who heads a commission seeking to write a European constitution, warned in a newspaper interview that admitting Turkey would “be the end of the European Union.” Turkish officials reacted by summoning a larger threat, a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and Christendom, implying chances for the clash would intensify if Europe cuts out Turkey on the basis of its Muslim faith.

“The end of the world is more important than the end of Europe,” said a Greek analyst.

He spoke admiringly of Turkey’s effort to turn to its advantage the “cultural issues” that have held back its long- pending application for full EU membership.

Turkey, which in 1999 became an official candidate “destined” to join the union, is not among the 10 mostly former Communist states that will receive formal dates to begin the membership process at an EU summit-conference scheduled for Dec. 13 in Copenhagen. It has not even received the encouragement accorded two other candidates, Romania and Bulgaria.

But as a secular republic founded on the notion that its future lay to the West, Turkey remains ardent about its EU candidacy. Membership in the EU was the first priority of the Justice and Development Party that assumed power this week in Ankara, the Turkish capital. The party chairman immediately set off on a tour of all 15 EU states to urge positive action at Copenhagen.

“Turkey’s membership will facilitate harmony between civilizations and prevent any clash,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Justice and Development chairman, in Madrid.

“If the results are negative,” Erdogan said in Brussels the next day, “it will create the provocative thought of the EU as a club of Christian countries.”

EU officials and independent analysts emphasize that the onus remains on Turkey’s slow-moving establishment to meet requirements for membership. Turkey, a nation of 67 million that both physically and historically bridges Europe and Asia, has yet to enact several crucial reforms, including laws barring torture and the lifting of restrictions on political speech.

The fate of Cyprus also looms large. The island, divided between Turkey and Greece, is slated to join the EU in the next expansion, but absent a reunification agreement, the quarter of its territory protected by Turkey will be left out. If a settlement is reached, however, Turkey’s path into the EU will become smoother, officials said.

But by saying publicly what many Turkey skeptics had been saying privately — that Turkey has “a different culture, a different way of life,” phrases widely decoded here as “a different religion” — Giscard altered the tenor of the run-up to Copenhagen, according to EU officials, foreign diplomats and independent analysts.

“There is a strong belief in the EU that theirs is the geography of the Christian people,” said Ferai Tinc, a foreign affairs specialist at Hurriyet, a Turkish daily newspaper. “Turkey profits from this discussion on how much Europe will take into consideration the clash of civilizations.”

Turkish advocates were heartened to find that Giscard’s remarks shifted public focus from what Turkey has done to what Turkey is, transforming the debate to include matters of religion and “othernessess” that had been left unsaid precisely because they are so sensitive in a Europe already more ethnically diverse. Le Monde, the French newspaper to which Giscard spoke, declared that the former president “threw a paving stone” into the pond of political correctness.

“Paradoxically, it has helped very much the Turkish cause, because the response has been quite strong in not going along with Mr. Giscard d’Estaing,” said one EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A US official in Brussels agreed.

“It kind of reinforced from all kinds of quarters that whatever Valery Giscard d’Estaing may think, there are a lot of Europeans who think differently,” the official said.

The Bush administration has been lobbying the EU intensely to embrace Turkey. The longtime NATO member is being asked to play a strong supporting role in any war against neighbouring Iraq. But US officials also long have held up Turkey as a model of a Western-looking Muslim democracy.

Among the Europeans rushing to repudiate Giscard’s remarks was France’s representative to the Convention on the Future of Europe, the body charged with writing the constitution that is headed by Giscard. “Europe is not a Christian club,” said Pierre Moscovici, a former minister for European affairs. “It should not have hidden criteria.”

The matter of faith was underlined for many Turks by Giscard’s visit to the Vatican to ask the advice of Pope John Paul II on the European charter. But the Turkish government did its part as well, mentioning religion at every stop on Erdogan’s European tour.

At the first stop, Rome, Erdogan was warmly received by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, harshly criticized a year ago for calling Christian civilization superior to its Muslim counterpart. The victorious party leader, whose organization has its roots in Turkey’s political Islam movement, also visited Athens, Madrid, London, Dublin and Brussels.

All but one government vowed to support Turkey’s plea for a firm date to begin the negotiations that lead inexorably to EU membership. Erdogan said the country, which he did not name, promised the next best thing, a “date for a date.” —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post