ElkeTheWise
Kuschelfloh
No. It shouldn't join. Turkey is not a European country. I don't even understand why it would like to join and why our leaders want Turkey to join... I mean okay I get why the leaders want it. They want to widen their easter borders.
Turkey is so much different than Europe. There are so many clashes between Turkish people who live here and Europeans already, how is it gonna work in the parliament??? Plus, Turkey would be the only majorly muslim country in the Union. It would not get any veto rights so that means it would get run over in any major discission regarding culture, terrorism issues and immigration issues and such things. It just will not work. A large majority of the European citizens are against Turkey joining. The Governments are just pushing it through for their own selfish stupid reasons. Nobody thinks about this will do to Turkey itself and also what impact it will have in other European countries...
Which selfish, stupid resons would that be?
I think - but maybe that's just me - that the EU will probably very carefully examine the consequences for both the EU and Turkey.
Turkey is only partly European - its most important city, Istanbul, is situated in Europe - but has always played a big part in the European history. Turkey being so much different from Europe is bull. It is a secular state since 1923 and the women are entitled to vote since 1934 - that's 14 years before Belgian women could vote! The form of government is European. The religion should not be an obstacle. After all, millions of Europeans are Christians. And Christianity, may I remind you, used to be a point of support for European absolutism. Still, it couldn't restrain democracy.
It is not proven that the majority of Europeans is against Turkey joining. And when the European Commission voted whether an entry was possible, only Frits Bolkestein, a Dutch politician, voted against the joining.
It is right that Turkey has a lot of human rights issues (which
of course need to be solved before they enter the EU), but hey! So does the USA, the self-declared ultimate democracy and Land of Freedom. (And a country were death penalty is still not abolished, while in Turkey, capital punishment is 'moratorium' according to the Amnesty International website. They should know it, right?)
And GeckoSlayer, that country would be Cyprus.
Their selfish stupid reasons are of economical and military nature. Sorry, I thought that was obvious.
And the USA would never be allowed in the EU because of those excat reasons you said.
The thing is there hasn't even been a commision yet to see if Turkey was ready to join, i.e. comply with all the rules of the EU. Nothing. yet they are already starting talks. And what I meant with a majority of Europe, surveys in many European countries have shown that a majority o fthe populations are against it.
Istanbul is being used as sort of a show-off right now. It's just one city. In the west of Turkey. What about the east? The tiny villages in the rest of the country? I'm just against it because it is so rushed. Turkey is going to get a list of things they have to "fix" in their country and they are gonna push themselves to do it by a certain time. This way most things are gonna happen superficially, not on its own and also in most parts of turkey people are not in a place yet to accept all this strange stuff from Europe. We cannot push our ways on them. And by having them in the Union we'd push a lot of things. Just one example:
Maybe at one point the EU wants to push through equal rights in all EU countries for gay people. Turkey would of course vote against that (I'm not saying it's the only one, though). If the law gets through, though, turkey will have to abide to those laws. That's forcing it. That's what I mean.
What about laws regarding terrorism? What if the EU defense program will require a law being pushed through that makes it easier to exchange data on "muslim fanatics". That would mean, that regardless of whatever they did or will/want to do, the people on those lists won't even be "save" in their own (muslim) country.
I also wonder if there will ever be a referendum regarding this, through Europe. Has there even been one in Turkey?
I'm not against Turkey joining. I'm against this being so rushed by our countries' leaders, and being pushed on Turkey.
Oh btw that Bolkestein, he's an idiot. He's right-winged but he calls himself a liberal, that should tell you enough...
