Turkish Prime Minister: Greek Cyprus May Be Willing to Give Up Veto on EU Talks with Turkey

PJ Media ^ | 12-13-2015 | Michael van der Galien

[Michael van der Galien]

While "Syrian" refugees are flooding Europe -- in large part due to Turkey's policy aimed at letting them pass freely through the country and into Europe -- and Turkey is embroiled in an escalating crisis with Russia, the European Union seems to be willing to take Turkish accession talks further than ever before.

According to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, there are now "strong signals" that Greek Cyprus is willing to remove its veto on five negotiation chapters Ankara wants opened in order accelerate Turkey’s formal entry into the European Union; Turkey has been an associate member since 1963. "There is a new era and a window of opportunity," Davutoğlu said in a press conference last Friday. "I hope everyone will capitalize on this."

[From Wikipedia: "To accede to the EU, Turkey must successfully complete negotiations with the European Commission on 33 of the 35 chapters of the acquis communautaire, the total body of EU law. (Two chapters do not require negotiation.) Afterwards, the member states must unanimously agree on granting Turkey membership to the European Union.]

On November 29, the EU and Turkey already announced that new chapters would be opened next year. Until recently, however, Greek Cyprus blocked opening these chapters. If the small country takes its veto back, Turkey is closer to EU membership than ever before. DavutoÄŸlu:

"We will hopefully open Chapter 17 on Dec 14. This will be the second chapter opened in the last five years. At this pace, we can only conclude the accession process in the next century. But we are working as if we will open all chapters tomorrow and we will close all opened chapters in a short span of time."

[cloudmountain]

Nothing new here.
It's SO nice to have HUGE oceans between them and us. Imagine if we were closer...we'd have all the refugees walking in.

[Steve_Seattle]

Admitting Turkey to the EU - coupled with massive Muslim immigration into Europe - sounds like a recipe for a revival of the Ottoman Empire, loosely speaking. ten or twenty years, we might see a massive emigration of native Europeans to Canada, the US, and Australia.

[Psalm 144]

A Turkish official said it. It is a lie.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I can even imagine a time when the formerly Captive Nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are begging to go back into the embrace of Mother Russia because Russification, however horrifying, is slightly less horrifying than Islamification.