I also just saw a report on Greek TV about the collapse of Turkey membership. It was described as a diplomatic "thriller". Jack Straw was very animated in his statement. The proponents of EU membership were wearing their disapointment and ANGER on the outside.
Thought you might find this interesting ping.
HARRIS? Whodat?
I have always suspected that there is a motivation behind this policy of support that is not obvious to the public eye. That, I suppose, is unavoidable in matters of state but it is extremely irritating in a free society and I don't think it's too much to ask the Bush administration for an explanation. That had better not be that the State Department is creating an independent foreign policy...again.
It was the Germans who were Turkey's biggest ally in their bid for EU membership. Largely borne out of a "drug deal" for Turkish withdrawal of support for the Iraq campaign. Unfortunately for Turkey, the "want to be" big boy Schroeder is on his way out, as a consequence the Turks can see their hopes of this EU membership fade away with his loss of power.
The French will say nothing to make their new buddy Schroeder look bad (In diplomatic circles). The huge gap between French and German positions on Turkey were conveniently downplayed in France and Germany. While Turkish EU membership was and remains a big issue, the name Schroeder rarely got used in a negative context in conjunction to this issue. But what can one expect from a largely state run media in both respective countries?
The idiots in this deal will be the Turks! Gambling on EU membership they declined several BILLION in US grants and loans. Now the Turks with little to say in Iraq (Where they want influence), with no aid from the US will also end up getting some crumbs thrown at them from the EU. For the Turks it has become a loose-loose situation!
This of course is not what we want. If the Germans want to make promises to Turkey to screw us over, they should pay the price. From a US perspective, we need to push for Turkish EU membership. They deserve it! But there is another perspective here at work. Most of the EU is playing the denial game that there is an Islamic threat. Its a game where they in reality dont want to pay the price, yet benefit from our actions in (Iraq, Iran, Sinai, Niger, Sudan, Republic of Georgia, Thailand, Indonesia etc). Let the Americans deplete their resources fighting the battles all over the planet while we build our Pan-European dream with a Franco-German alliance in its heart. This ties into the larger picture in that having Turkey join the EU will be a blow to the Islamic threat. It will undermine them (The Islamist) in the long run. Turkey will end up more aligned with the West and a large Muslim nation is now within the system which AQ and others oppose. Getting Turkey into the EU is to our benefit in this global war against terror.
The US needs to take all diplomatic efforts possible to have Turkey join the EU. For us this is a win-win situation and since the Schroeder-Chirac team decided to make Iraq and the larger global war on terror a zero-sum game, it is only fitting that we now push the Turkish position.
Red6
Austria delays Turkey's EU bid
PM - Monday, 3 October , 2005 18:51:49
Reporter: Jennifer Macey
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1473721.htm
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"