Turkey in the EU

[Starman]

European leaders are tip-toeing towards a compromise allowing Turkey to join the EU - after 40 years of asking.

Heads of state have agreed to begin talks next October but with conditions.

A key one is a requirement that Turkey ultimately recognises the sovereignty of the Greek Cypriot government which rules two-thirds of the island. ..."

What do people think about that? and what about the other new members? any other countries you think should be allowed to join or not?

[saricizmeli]

Turkish application helps to improve the standards here in the process though she should back out or freeze the application at the first comprimising request.

I believe the membership will mean less benefit for Turks and more menefit for EU as there won't be any equal footing in the arena. Forexample Turkey is not as influential/powerful as UK so that she cannot have her own rules like not using the Euro etc.

Turkey has been dancing to the EU's tune for years in an effort to become accepted as a member. She has made concessions and the EU has returned nothing. In my opinion, the longer this drags out the greater the chance the standards will improve for the people here. That is a big plus.

Having watched the EU evolve, Turkey should rather has the independence and the dignity by not giving out the ropes. EU is and will be demanding so many things in the areas where they don't fulfill the same in their own turf at all. If that is not hypocracy, then what would that be?

Let's work to improve the standards here without being ruled by EU. (Sure our economy is ruled by the USA but that's another topic I guess)

[Starman]

If we look at Spain, Greece and Portugal and see how much general peoples lives have improved in the past 15 yrs, lets hope the same effect will happen to Turkey. Although poverty can never be wiped out it is a step in the right direction.
What amazed me was the press coverage of Turkey and the cyprus question and human rights but nobody mentioned anything about Croatia. They got a date too but they are still harbouring war criminals and it wasnt even 10 yrs ago when they were going around slaughtering serbs and bosnians.

[charly]

I'm interested to see the effects of economic reforms being brought in to combat under-the-table earnings, improvements in the general education level and human rights/anti-corruption actions.

Perhaps the whole EU vehicle has been a mobiliser for positive change here but from what people say, it has happened pretty quickly.

[saricizmeli]

What do you think about the following EU "Reasons" and Turkish Responses?

Turkey is geographically not part of Europe


You have a point there.

But then again is Cyprus considered to be geographically a part of Europe?

The obvious answer must be "Yes" as it is already a member of the European Union.

But Cyprus is further east than half of Turkey.

To avoid further complicating things suffice to say that if the excuse given above was a valid one, today Cyprus would not be a member of the European Union.

Coming to our main point, actually only around 5 % of Turkish land is in Europe. However, despite this small land share, mainland Turkey still has a higher population in Europe (around 11 million), than Greece (around 10.6 million), and Belgium (around 10.3 million).

As a conclusion, it is true that most of Turkish soil is not in Europe, but if population on European soil is the determining factor, then Turkey has more Europeans than Belgium and Greece. Besides, as it is suggested in an article published in the Herald Tribune, from a geographical point of view, Europe is not even a continent.

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Turkey has an unstable economic environment

And who said Turkey should be in the European Union before stabilizing her economic situation?

We all know that at best, it won't happen for the next 10 to 15 years, which is a long time for the country to sort out its issues.

By the way, according to an annex on the 42nd page of a report by the Delegation of the European Commission, Turkey has the highest GDP growth among the newcomers to the European Union.

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There are several serious human rights violations within Turkey

Yes, you are completely right.

This is an area where there is still ample room for improvement. There is no question about it.

However you might still want to read the following which is useful in putting things into perspective.

Did you know that according to International Human Rights Court statistics Italy has worse human rights record than Turkey.

Actually Turkey shares the ``honor`` of being the second worst country with a poor human rights record with France. Please see page 32 of this recent European Court Of Human Rights report.

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Turkey should not join the EU before settling the Cyprus issue

Are you sure?

Because as far as we remember, it was seventy-five percent of the Greek Cypriots who rejected Mr. Annan’s resolution plan to reunite the island.

On the other hand sixty-five percent of Turkish Cypriots supported unification during the same referendum in April 2004.

As a result, the international community has decided to reward Northern Cyprus' constructive approach by gradually reducing its international isolation.

[Starman]

I agree with everything you say but Turkey should till at least regognise Cyprus. You cant just marry into a family and refuse to acknowlege the mother-in-law although it would be nice if you could.

[justforfun]

recognizing cyprus is a much bigger issue with potentially very serious repercussions...it doesn't look like a biggie, but it is one