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.
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.
Intriguingly when I backed up through the cache, there was no "m" in the name.
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.
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.
Most Turks look as European as most Europeans anyway.
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.
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.
ALL the Indo-European languages have their roots in the area that is now the country of Turkey.
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.
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