Posted on 09/29/2005 6:17:44 PM PDT by longtermmemmory
The US (as an interested outside observer) has supported Turkish membership in the EU for a really long time. Turkish leadership said Turkey would support the US' liberation of Iraq, then the Turkish parliament turned 'em down, a major embarrassment to the leadership.
As someone noted above (sorry, I'm lazy and don't want to open another tab to check) the Turks may have thought that failure to support the US would be rewarded with the long-sought (long-promised) EU membership. The debate has intensified, primarily because integrating the backward nations of the old Warsaw Pact (including East Germany) has proved difficult (Turkish employment is 35 per cent agrarian); add to that the fears of the flood of Moslems into the EU (moreso than there is now, which is more than a million illegals a year by one estimate I dimly remember).
Euroweasel opposition to the liberation of Iraq (which was engineered by France and Germany, each of which had covert and probably illegal deals with Saddam which would only kick in after sanctions were lifted) has shown the fault lines of the EU.
"Sauce for the Goose." -- Spock, in "The Wrath of Khan"
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