EU to USA: Want us to take Turkey? You add Mexico

Daily Telegraph via suntimes.com ^ | December 14, 2002 | AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD

[Destro]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-eside14.html

Want us to take Turkey? You add Mexico

December 14, 2002

BY AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD Advertisement

COPENHAGEN, Denmark--The EU flexed its muscles Friday at its summit here, dismissing American pressure to speed up the admission of Turkey as unwarranted interference.

President Bush was given a taste of the EU's newfound confidence as a future colossus of 25 states, led by a revived Franco-German axis, when he was told accession talks with Turkey were entirely "a European decision."

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark's prime minister, told Bush caustically that Washington had failed to grasp the meaning of EU membership, which involves sharing a lawmaking parliament, a currency and a supreme court in a close-knit union.

He asked: "If you are so keen on us letting the Turks into the EU, why don't you let Mexico into the United States?" Bush deflected the rebuke by laughing, Danish sources said.

Several EU leaders, including Jacques Chirac, the French president, delivered tirades against the Americans at the summit dinner Thursday night.

The common refrain was that Washington was trying to force the pace for its own purposes, chiefly to secure Turkey's vital air bases for the war against Iraq but also because it stands to gain from any weakening of Europe's cohesion as a political bloc.

But there was even greater irritation with the "hardball" tactics of the Turks themselves, who said refusal to offer an early date for accession would be taken as evidence throughout the Muslim world that the EU was a racist Christian club.

Venting his fury at the dinner, Chirac accused the Turks of blackmail, adding: "It's not enough to respect EU law. You have to be polite and civilized."

The leaked remarks prompted an angry riposte by Abdullah Gul, the Turkish prime minister who attacked the French for delaying the start of accession talks until December 2004.

"The real blackmail is what Chirac has done," he said.

Daily Telegraph

[kAcknor]

a taste of the EU's newfound confidence as a future colossus

kAcknor Sez:

No good deed can be without punishment...

"yIQeqQo' neH, DoS yIqIp!" (Don't just aim, hit the target!)

Basic HTML help for new FR posters. <Ver 1.4>

[Audit_Jesse]

The Turks should tell the EU to pound sand.

[Paleo Conservative]

Mexico would object.

[ByteMe]

Screw the EU. We have NAFTA. Ignore the geography and let Turkey join NAFTA

[Sparta]

I'm sure the Mexicans would like to join the EU.

EU=Fourth Reich

[Destro]

There goes American textile and steel!

[mrustow]

They say that we should keep out of their business, but they recently vetoed the merger of two American firms. (I know, it sounds crazy, but it happened.) They do whatever they can to make mischief with American interests ... and then beg for our help, when they have trouble on their own miserable, decadent, failed continent.

[thoughtomator]

Venting his fury at the dinner, Chirac accused the Turks of blackmail, adding: "It's not enough to respect EU law. You have to be polite and civilized."

Well, that disqualifies the French and the Germans...

[Eternal_Bear]

The Turks are Moslem amd Asiatic. What do they share with the Euroes exactly? Can anyone tell me?

[July 4th]

The Turks are Moslem amd Asiatic. What do they share with the Euroes exactly? Can anyone tell me?

The Euros are Muslim and Eurasian. Just look at the Netherlands, the suburbs of Paris, the millions of Turks already in Germany...

Seriously though, many see Turkey as not much different from some other nations now on the path to accession. It has a real economy, and it may be Muslim but it is for the most part secular.

[Steve0113]

Need your input on this.

[c-b 1]

I get the impression that Jorge Bush would like to let Mexico into the United States, or help Mexico reclaim the United States.

[Destro]

All these people angry at the EU for saying this would squeal the most if the Mexicans did come knocking at the Union's dooor (for now they don't knock and sneak in the back way a little at a time). We want the Turks taken care of? Let 65 million poor mostly undeducated Muslims into America and let the Europeans have the Mexicans..both would lose.

[Axenolith]

Sheeeit, then don't take Turkey...

[Sterlingtimes]

Hello. This is my first posting here. I usually post at FreeBritannia.

For once I agree with the French and the Germans, Bush is well out of order on this occasion.

He is focusing upon the near-term advantage in using Turkey as a base for military purposes to improve the prospect of shortening the war with Iraq. And yet, he hasn't weighed up the longer-term consequences of aiding the Islamification of Europe.

Bringing Turkey into the EU would give Turks free passage into Middle and Northern Europe, and the UK as well as Germany and France would be compromised by a massive emigration from Turkey.

Tony Blair is the weak point in this resistance, as Bush well knows. Blair is a socialist and feels unthreaten by large scale Islamic immigration and by cultural change brought about by alien religious fanatics.

The French and Germans have had a taste of Turkish immigration, and although wishing to avoid being called racist, would not wish to sell this prospect to their nationals.

Whereas I oppose British membership of the EU, we in the UK are stuck with it for the time being, and with the consequences of an acceleration of Turkey's integration into the EU.

I think that US foreign policy on this occasion is shortsighted. Playing games with Turkey would not bode well for the future.

Mexico is a red-herring and shouldn't come into the argument. The circumstances are wholly different.

With or without Turkey, the USA with its few real allies will win the war against Iraq and there is nothing to say that Turkey won't come under pressure to co-operate anyway.

Regards - Sterling

[eleni121]

...and it may be Muslim but it is for the most part secular.

Wishful thinking or just plain in denial on your part. How convenient it is to be secular when you have eliminated through genocide all non muslims (Christians). Second, the term "secular" is tossed around for the sake of the gullible west. Christians the few remaining - are still persecuted abd imprisoned. Third, Turks have never replaced mohamed with Ataturk. Mohamed and islamic law still seethes below the surface and Ataturk and the Turkish mafia elite have used this to periodically "cleanse" Turkey of Christians and non turks.

The main point is this: Notwithstanding the Bush genocide proclamation, Bush and his advisors had better watch their step when it comes to Turkey. Turkey was almost dismembered after WWI and it could happen again.

[MissouriForBush]

As an American in Germany, I agree with you totally.