Turks living in Europe rarely feel European

It looks like Turkey, sounds like Turkey and smells like Turkey but it's actually in Berlin.

The bustling district with Mediterranean flair is known as "Little Istanbul" and lies in the heart of Germany, just south of the government quarter.

What may seem like a foreign world to most Germans has been the home to 200,000 Turks for four decades, making Berlin one of the world's largest Turkish communities after Istanbul.

Turks may bring their big families, national customs and spicy foods to Berlin and other European cities - and they may be hoping European Union leaders decide to start entry talks with Turkey tomorrow - but few Turks say they feel "European".

"I feel Turkish, not European and not German," said Seyhan Onel, 34, a travel agent who moved to Berlin 16 years ago, in her office near the "Orient Express", the U-1 metro line that runs through the city's Turk-dominated Kreuzberg district.

"The European mentality is so different," she added. "Turks love children and big families. Germans are cold and they're too selfish to have children because they'd have to give something up. Turks are much friendlier and warmer than most Europeans."

The sentiment is not limited to Germany, where some 2.5 million Turks live. In London, restaurant owner Selim Yatman, who was born in Britain, doubts the EU will ever admit Turkey. "We definitely don't have the same culture," Mr Yatman said. "About 95 per cent of Turks are Muslim and the EU is a Christian group. Joining the EU would be like selling our country. We may have economic benefits but we have a very different culture."

Sevim Turkerkman, from London's Turkish Advisory and Welfare Centre, added: "I don't really feel European. I have my own culture, my own language, my own religion. Europe is a totally different culture."

It's easy to see the differences in Kreuzberg, a low-rent section of decaying turn-of-the-century buildings where the air is full of garlic aromas and spices even on a cold December day.

Signs in Turkish are everywhere. There are mosques rather than churches and tea shops filled with men smoking pipes. Many women wear the Muslim headscarf and long dresses and coats.

Many of the Turks who come here are from the southeast of Turkey; far poorer than the west, more religiously conservative. These Anatolian Turks, rather than the Europeanised, often better educated Turks of cities like Istanbul or Izmir, tend to colour the picture of Turkey here.

"I'm happy staying in my own culture while living here in Berlin," said Naime Gultepe, 18, wearing a headscarf. She was born in Berlin and works at her family's fruits and nuts store. Her mother came to Berlin 25 years ago but doesn't speak German.

"My world is a mixture of German and Turkish," Ms Gultepe said in flawless German. "But my mother doesn't speak German. She doesn't feel European."

Yet Ms Gultepe's mother feels at home in Kreuzberg, where there are Turkish travel agents, doner kebab shops, fruit stands, and grocers. Turks make up 40 per cent of the local population.

"What's the big hang-up about whether we're 'European'," said merchant Erdogan Tung, 30. "I thought the EU was supposed to be about tearing down barriers. We're all human beings even if we speak different languages and have different cultures."