Posted on 06/26/2004 7:28:17 PM PDT by MegaSilver
US President George W Bush urged the European Union to open membership talks with Turkey, saying it met standards for joining the continent-wide club.
Speaking to reporters after an EU-US summit at Dromoland Castle in western Ireland, Bush said Turkey was a "proud nation that successfully blends a European identity with Islamic traditions".
"Turkey meets the EU standards for membership," he said. "The EU should begin talks that will lead to full membership for the Republic of Turkey."
Bush headed to Turkey after the meetings. There he will attend a NATO summit and hold bilateral talks with Turkish leaders, where the issue is expected to come up again.
Bush has long urged Europe to open its doors to Turkey, which the United States wants to keep as a key ally, especially after the war in Iraq.
US pressure was a big factor in the decision by EU leaders at their 2002 summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, to give Turkey an answer by the end of this year on whether talks on its possible membership could begin.
Bush congratulated the 25-nation EU for its expansion by 10 new, mostly Eastern European, former Soviet-bloc states last month.
"It's an historic achievement. You are erasing the last traces of the Iron Curtain, and creating a new beginning for the continent," Bush said, adding that Turkey's addition would be the natural way forward for the EU.
While neither European Commission President Romano Prodi nor Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern responded to Bush's comments, the issue of negotiations with Turkey is contentious in EU circles.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verhuegen said last week that Turkey's accession "is not for tomorrow", saying the bloc was not yet ready.
EU leaders are to decide at their December summit in Brussels whether Turkey has met democratic and human rights standards that have been set as a condition for starting membership talks – a major policy goal of successive Turkish governments.
EU officials have praised reforms undertaken by Ankara to meet those criteria, but said further efforts were needed.
The European Commission will present a final assessment report ahead of the summit giving its analysis of whether Turkey has reformed enough.
The EU is still concerned that Turkey isn't doing enough to stamp out police use of torture in jails, harassment of human rights activists and violations of the rights of non-Muslim minorities.
The EU also wants proof that recent reforms – including the removal of military members from boards making university appointments, opening up military spending to more public scrutiny, and providing for gender equality – are fully implemented.
Welcoming an Asian Muslim country into the European Union is the natural way forward?!
I would hold this out as carrot while hiding, but not well, the stick of a Kurdistan.
A foul insult to the memory of Leonidas.
Well, the Muslimbit I'll go along with, but there is no clear demarcation between European and Asian -- the Mediterranean was one "continent" until the advent ofIslam. And racially, Turks are mostly caucasian, with the Kurds and Iranis being Aryans (or rather über -Aryans)
I don't think Turkey should be in the EU, because it isn't in Europe. But I do find it extremely amusing that Bush is giving the Euroswine this free advice. It exposes their hypocrisy to have a guy they think of as a Texas cowboy telling them they should be more multicultural and openminded.
I think Bush should think twice about what it is that is difficult for Europe to swallaw in allowing Turkey in, and get more than just verbal assurances that these items are corrected. Free speach, free religion, free assembly, etc. all should be in Turkey's constitution, with full removal of any preferencial treatment of one faith over another, before being admitted to the EU.
1453. That's when Constantinople, the crown jewel of Eastern Christianity, fell to the Ottomans. The grandest church in the Empire became a mosque.
Somthing of interest about that incident. The Byzantine Empire had been greatly reduced in size and influence, so its troops were outnumbered 20 to 1, yet they held out against their assailants for seven weeks. The lesson here is that Muslims, clinging as they do to a religion which is inherently culturally and technologically stagnant--propped up only when the West allows it to be propped up--are easy to hold out against, even to defeat, against seemingly overwhelming odds. You just have to actually FIGHT.
EU should also allow Congo, Sudan, and Zimbabwe in.
What is Bush smoking?
Europe is more a reflection of human culture than physical geography. In that sense, Russia might well fit in; Turkey would definitely NOT.
His logic is something like this: We're fighting a war on terror. We need closer relationships with the Muslim world to win. This can be helped by allowing Turkey into the EU.
It's an understandable way of looking at the picture, but it is also a grossly oversimplified one.
Didn't the Greeks have a shot at retaking it too back in the early 1900s? Its a shame that it now bears a different name.
I was thinking there was an earlier moment, perhaps during the last days of WWI where the Greeks could have overrun Constantinople but they were basically told not to by the greater Western powers. Maybe I'm way off. I'll look it up sometime.
Contiguous? Does EU still rely on donkey carts? What did they do when Africa was colonized, use lost technology?
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