Does anyone really believe that Turkey is a suitable candidate for the EU?

Answer 1

its probably no worse a contender than Bulgaria, Hungary, Roumania, Malta.. or for that matter any of the other ex Iron curtain countries that joined at the same tiem as Poland

Answer 2

There are a number of economic and human rights obstacles that have created a huge impasse at the moment. It's difficult to see Turkey joining in the near future.

Whether it's a suitable depends on your definition of of suitability. The EU has historically been about developing a moral and economic consensus, and so Turkeys attitude to those points is key.

Importantly, the government is quite secular at the moment. If the more radical opposition were to come to power, I think that opposition to Turkey's entrance would get stronger.

If anyone is interested, The Economist magazine usually has good coverage of this subject.

Answer 3

I believe the United States is pressing the European Union to admit Turkey to prevent it going the same way as other Middle Eastern countries. Perhaps that explains why Blair is in favour.

Turkish entry to the EU would cause such unrest for instance in France that it is difficult to see it happening any time soon. There are also more principled obstacles to Turkish entry than immigration. These include Turkish support for the illegal regime in Northern Cyprus, which apart from its legal status has been a haven for serious criminals, and Turkey's appalling human rights record. Turkish Government attempts to address human issues appear to be at best ineffective. And they really must acknowledge, and that includes the people generally as well as the government, the genocide Turkey perpetrated against the Armenians.

At the end of the First World War, nearly twenty per cent of Turkey's population were non-Muslim, including about half of the population of Constantinople, i.e. Istanbul. Now it is 1 percent of the Turkish population. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks were expelled (as were a smaller number of Turks from Greece). One of your other respondents sugested that if Turkey joined Birtish people would buy up property, but given Turkey's history could any Greek, or other EU national, settle safely in Turkey? I suspect not, but that is an essential requirement of Turkish membership of the EU.

I think that just about everybody outside Turkey sees the force of these problems.

As the world moves towards continental economic blocks, the natural place for Turkey is in a Middle Eastern block along with countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Iraq. This of course raises huge issues because of the various conflicts in the Middle East, but they need to be faced head-on rather than let non-European countries (and I am not only thinking of Turkey) pretend they are in Europe.

To my mind a prior problem to the relationship of Turkey to the EU is tidying up the entry of all the former Yugoslav states, including Serbia and Bosnia.

Answer 4

Sure their are ..why shouldn't they be ..
When Yugoslavia .Roumania ..Bulgaria..Hungaria ..Poland.
and many more country's who are much poorer and have much more needs to be able to reach the standards of the EU are accepted ..Why not Turkey .
Yugoslavia's country which has disgraced Europa who killed its own people by the 1000's only few years a go..can be suitable ..
More than half of the country's who are in the EU..can offer no where near what Turkey can offer. even combining them together ...Turkey is far richer then 80% of the EU members ..a vast country fertile rich in every way...Turkey hasn't been explored yet.. Population of 75 million ..work force of over 40 million
young Turks ready and willing to work and feed the EU member country's..
Un like those member country's including UK..who in 10 years time will loose there workforce to old aged pensioners ..who will feed these people who would contribute towards their pensions .
Turkey is not only suitable ..Turkey is a MUST

Answer 5

Turkey needs to sort out a few things first. Mostly the Turkish Government do not seem to allow the usual criticism which we tolerate here in the West. Turkey has a big problem in that it is mainly a Muslim country and most Europeans do not think Turkey is part of Europe.

Actually, historically anyway, Turkey was part of Europe in that it was part of the Roman Empire. Homer came from Turkey, so rubbing out any connection between Turkey and Europe is a waste of time.

If the Turks can smarten up their approach to freedom of speech and stop arresting authors for writing trashy books about the gov and journalists from writing columns of waffle about how crap the prime minister is, then we might be getting somewhere. Turkey has a very long way to go if it wants to satisfy Europe.

The British probably don't give a damn what the Turks get up to and want them in wholesale without further delay. We want to buy land and property there and set up huge resorts of tower block hotels for the masses back in England who want to flood in for their holidays. Turkey, as far as tourism is concerned is a major destination but for the most part is under developed. That's where Brit money comes in and anyone else who wants a share.

Answer 6

Depends on your criteria really.

If the E.U should be a White christian club, then, clearly, no.

If you think it should be a cultural thing, then yes, indeed, culturally, Ankara is closer to Paris that Sofia. Added to that it was a NATO ally when many of the new EU nations were NATO enemies.

At the moment their is an 'Islamist' government in power in Turkey and are more than capable of seperating the church and the state. If Turkeys entry were to be denied, after all the hoops they have jumped through to get this far, E.U/Eastern relations would strain seriously.

Answer 7

Well can you imagine the Leadership of Europe sitting in Istanbul when the rotating presidency hits Turkey?

Good grief, no I do not think Turkey is really part of the EU but they are somewhat moderate in so far as Islamic nations go.

Answer 8

Yes! We are already seeing Turks in the workforce in Europe, and they are, in essence secularily European.

The government's violations wont be an issue since if they join the EU they commit to stop any human rights violations and cannot go down a path of oppression of its own peoples or implement sharia law.

I think it would be a welcome change for the politicians to go to Ankara- at least it is warm. After all, they all came to far-away Finland too.

In fact, when Turkey joins EU will gain ultimate political power in the Middle East as it is in the position to control all of its economy.

We will with the "Friendly Neighbour" policy steer our neighbours to a path of democracy and economic freedoms with our powerful economic incentives. I look forward for Turkey joining... In perhaps 2015. Earlier if Turkey cooperates better.

Answer 9

no, it is yet one more country that allows it religious leaders to be it's civil leaders at the expense of it's peoples freedom. Americans in the U.S. should be afraid of this happening as it signal a strenthening of these extremists in europe. Even if you feel you don't have a problem with Islam you have to admit that the extremists of Islam pose a threat not only to the security of this nation (the U.S.) but a threat to your personal safety if you are not a follower of Islam by their interpretation of it's tenets and laws.

Answer 10

Quite frankly North Korea could enter the EU and it wouldn't make a difference.