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Turkish EU Entry Would Be End of Europe-Giscard
reuters.com ^ | November 08, 2002 07:34 AM ET | Reuters

Posted on 11/08/2002 4:16:46 PM PST by Destro

Turkish EU Entry Would Be End of Europe-Giscard

November 08, 2002 07:34 AM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - The head of Europe's constitutional Convention was quoted on Friday as saying Turkey was not a European country and its entry into the EU would be "the end of the European Union."

Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, president of the Convention on the Future of Europe, told the newspaper Le Monde that those who backed Ankara's candidacy were "the adversaries of the European Union."

The European Commission swiftly dissociated itself from the comments, which heightened controversy within the 15-nation bloc over the EU's eventual borders once it concludes accession talks with 10 mainly east European candidates next month.

Alluding obliquely to its Muslim population and high birth rate, Giscard said Turkey had "a different culture, a different approach, a different way of life" and its demographic dynamism would make it the biggest EU member state.

"Its capital is not in Europe, 95 percent of its population live outside Europe, it is not a European country," he said.

Admitting Turkey would go "outside the continent" and prompt demands to admit other Middle Eastern and North African states, starting with Morocco.

Asked what the effect would be, he said: "In my opinion, it would be the end of the European Union."

A European Commission spokesman said the comments were Giscard's private opinion and the EU executive saw no reason to call into question Turkey's candidacy.

COMMISSION SAYS STRATEGY UNCHANGED

Officially recognized as a candidate for membership in 1999, Turkey is pressing for a date to begin accession talks when EU leaders hold a summit in Copenhagen next month to wrap up the next phase of enlargement.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of Turkey's newly elected Justice and Development Party (AKP), is to visit historic rival and fellow NATO member Greece on November 18 to discuss EU matters.

Brussels has so far refused to open negotiations with Ankara because its human rights record does not meet EU criteria.

Commission spokesman Jean-Christophe Filori said EU leaders had set a strategy for Turkey's candidacy in 1999 and "as long as this same strategy isn't called into question by the heads of state and government, it remains in force."

He said the strategy had been successful in prompting democratic and human rights reforms, citing laws passed in August abolishing the death penalty in peacetime and authorizing private broadcasting and education in the Kurdish language.

Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said this week that if the AKP wanted to show it was serious about speeding up Turkey's EU bid, it should start by stamping out torture, freeing all political prisoners and bringing torturers to justice.

Giscard's comments reflected in blunt language what many EU politicians whisper privately, but they come at a particularly delicate time when Brussels needs Turkey's cooperation to try to solve several problems related to enlargement.

It is seeking Ankara's support for a U.N.-brokered effort to resolve the division of Cyprus before the country joins the bloc in 2004, and it needs Turkish assent to arrangements giving Europe's embryonic rapid reaction force access to NATO military planning and assets for EU crisis management operations.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: balkans; eu; turkey
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To: Savage Beast
Don't have a clue about those two.

Sweden and norway would have an easier time of it since you have to cross a body of water to get there from europe. I would suspect that there would be strong public support in denmark to seal the borders and kick the illegals out, but I doubt it with the dutch. They are hopeless.
61 posted on 11/09/2002 4:36:20 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: mamelukesabre
Thor Hyerdal is the fellow who built a balsa raft called the Kon Tiki, sailed it to Easter Island from Ecuador (or Chile), and filmed the trip.

There's lots of stuff on the net about him.

To thin down the posts a bit go to www.google.com and search for Thor Hyerdal Ferdom. Mr. Ferdon worked with him for many years on his most entertaining stuff.

62 posted on 11/09/2002 5:33:25 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: mamelukesabre
"Ferdon", not "Ferdom".

Intriguingly when I backed up through the cache, there was no "m" in the name.

63 posted on 11/09/2002 5:35:46 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah; mamelukesabre; Phillip Augustus
The Turks speak an Altaic language. They are not Indo-European speakers and belong to the Mongoloid family of peoples (even with intermixing by forced rapes of the conquered).

In addition the Galatians were always a minority in Galatia to begin with and even more so when the Romans expanded the area for administration purposes while keeping the name. By the Christian Byzantine era there was an almost complete assimilation into the Hellenistic culture of Anatolia. In fact the Christian natives of Galatia maintained their Hellenistic/Byzantine culture right up until the 1920s. The Celts were never large enough a population to have an impact on the DNA inheritance of other peoples especially almost 1,000 years after a small number of them arrived in Anatolia. Their "Celtic" culture long since vanished by Christian Roman times. Native artificats from the region indicate a complete Hellenistic culture and langauge.

Recent DNA tests show no major DNA similarity with European populations among Turks.

muawiyah's statements about "Celtic Turks" is romantic garbage and as much fiction as Star Trek is. His posts were a great waste of time over nonsense.

64 posted on 11/09/2002 6:30:52 PM PST by Destro
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To: Destro
Thanks for the information. It confirms what I instinctively realized, namely that Turks are not Europeans and really have no business in the EU. I further don't believe they should be part of any immigration to European nations, at least not in large quantities. Turkey for Turks, Europe for Europeans.
65 posted on 11/09/2002 6:43:08 PM PST by Phillip Augustus
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To: Destro
The Turks, Estonians, Finns, Hungarians and Koreans speak languages in the Uralic-Altaic family.

Turks, Estonians, Finns, Hungarians, Koreans, Irish, Scotts, Chinese, Japanese, Nilotics, etc. IN THE USA speak the language of trade called English.

Turkish is a very widespread trade language, as is English. Speaking either says nothing about your ethnic heritage.

66 posted on 11/10/2002 7:19:33 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: Phillip Augustus
The Turks are as European as any of the current populations in Europe with the exception of the Albanians and Basques.

Most Turks look as European as most Europeans anyway.

67 posted on 11/10/2002 7:22:04 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah; Phillip Augustus
I laugh at muawiyah. And here I was taught that the Basques and maybe the Albanians were around before the Indo-European peoples migrated to Europe.
68 posted on 11/10/2002 10:26:31 AM PST by Destro
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To: muawiyah
I don't think so.
69 posted on 11/10/2002 10:48:42 AM PST by Phillip Augustus
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To: Destro
Funny how Eurotrash backstab musims while claiming it is US foreign policy that is making the Iraqis starve.
70 posted on 11/10/2002 11:20:11 AM PST by lavaroise
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To: Destro
I was also taught that the Basques and the Albanians reached Western and Central Europe before any of the Indo-Europeans.

As I said, the Turks are as European as all the other Europeans except for the Albanians and the Basques.

All those "other Europeans" are marginally civilized Scythians, just like the Turks, who have come in and conquered the original populations. There are also Turks living in Turkey in Europe.

A large part of the Turkish population consists of Indo-Europeans. For example there are the Kurds.

71 posted on 11/10/2002 2:04:55 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
Kurds are not Turks.
72 posted on 11/10/2002 5:29:35 PM PST by Destro
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To: Destro
That's one of the European demands on the Turks - that they treat the Kurds the same as if they were Turks.

I suspect those guys know what they are talking about.

Anyway, from the correct American point of view, these guys are all the same thing, all of 'em, and the only real difference between Europe and India is, for instance, the toilets. Europeans believe theirs work. The Turks are more fatalistic. They know theirs don't, and they don't much care!

It is time for strict neutrality in this, but with a recognition that the Europeans are bigots.

73 posted on 11/10/2002 6:07:22 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
The "West" pretty nearly started in Turkey. The imposition of the Turkish "trade language" did not alter the fundamental character of the nation,

Wow, hallucinating in public... Greece is Turkey... or Turkey is grease?
74 posted on 03/14/2003 6:17:52 PM PST by singsong
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To: Phillip Augustus
"Turkey is indeed an ally, but it is not Western; it is neither European, nor Christian. It is Asian and Islamic."

ALL the Indo-European languages have their roots in the area that is now the country of Turkey.

75 posted on 03/14/2003 6:45:08 PM PST by blam
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To: Destro
When will Turkey realize it can't get in to the EU, and decide to make its way forward as friends with America, Israel and a democratic Iraq?
76 posted on 03/14/2003 6:46:36 PM PST by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: blam
ALL the Indo-European languages have their roots in the area that is now the country of Turkey.

But the Turks conquered that area not so long ago. So the Turks don't really belong there. They are Mongols by origin.
77 posted on 03/14/2003 6:56:35 PM PST by singsong
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To: singsong
"But the Turks conquered that area not so long ago. So the Turks don't really belong there. They are Mongols by origin."

It's a very complicated area of the world that goes back 10,000 years. Remember that the Black Sea flooded in 5,600BC. (That was probably Noah's flood and I believe Noah was a proto-Celtic. So...) Who belongs there is hard to say.

78 posted on 03/14/2003 7:10:53 PM PST by blam
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To: Destro
sounds like a french bigot to me....
79 posted on 03/14/2003 7:12:49 PM PST by The Wizard (Demonrats are enemies of America)
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To: blam
It's a very complicated area of the world that goes back 10,000 years. Remember that the Black Sea flooded in 5,600BC. (That was probably Noah's flood and I believe Noah was a proto-Celtic. So...) Who belongs there is hard to say.
It doesn't matter who belongs there. The Turks are guests in Europe. And they are Mongols by origin. My point is clear - Turks should stop pretending they belong to the Europian culture. Part of it they demolished in thier conquest. There is nothing in common between Turkish Muslem Mongols and Christian Europe. Zilch.
80 posted on 03/14/2003 8:23:10 PM PST by singsong
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