Turkey

**percy toboggan** · 10-Jun-09, 07:47

Do you think Turkey should be admitted into the European Union?
If not, why not?

**percy toboggan** · 10-Jun-09, 07:52

Having been to Turkey only once, it's one of the few countries I have visited which provoked a desire to return one . (add USA, Italy,France,Spain - and of course Wales & my beloved Scotland)

A secular nation, and certainly in the parts I visited I was made welcome and the people were friendly. It is a huge country though with about six or seven borders.

Bearing the interests of British people primarily in mind I do not think it's a good idea for Turkey to join the EU anytime soon.
What do you think?

**©Amethyst** · 10-Jun-09, 09:13

I voted for "I don't know"

I understand that the Turks and the Greeks don't get along (although the rivalry between the Greeks and the Albanians seems far worse with a guy I know getting mugged by an Albanian when he was a young child). Anyways, my OH is half Greek and spent half of his childhood abroad... so I am biased and thought it unfair to say no because of that.

On the same sort of lines, some people here in the UK seem to think that it's difficult to find a job due to foreign workers that have come over. I was one of them that blamed this when I found it difficult.

On the other side of the coin, I am sure that there would be some advantages to our country if they joined the EU... not sure what they are but trading may then become easier etc.

**Rheghead** · 10-Jun-09, 09:26

I'm against the idea because (unless things have drastically changed) there are certain human rights issues to be addressed. I know that no country is perfect but I have the biased view that Turkey is a wee bit more corrupt from the top down than most. I'm sure I'm wrong if I really looked into it. I also think we would be heading for disaster in inviting a country that has been at war for centuries with another EU member and expecting it to be all cosy like it was all in the past. I know that we can't talk with France and Germany etc but I think the tribal dimension to the conflict down there would be too much to bear for those on the border villages. I mean, can you see it? An open border between Greece and Turkey? They're barely talking to each other. As for Cyprus, don't even go there! (I don't mean that literally mind

)

**tonkatojo** · 10-Jun-09, 12:00

Originally Posted by percy toboggan

Having been to Turkey only once, it's one of the few countries I have visited which provoked a desire to return one . (add USA, Italy,France,Spain - and of course Wales & my beloved Scotland)

A secular nation, and certainly in the parts I visited I was made welcome and the people were friendly. It is a huge country though with about six or seven borders.

Bearing the interests of British people primarily in mind I do not think it's a good idea for Turkey to join the EU anytime soon.
What do you think?

Friends have been to Turkey some more than once and had a great cheap holiday,from their point of view it would be dearer once Turkey joins the EU as no doubt they will convert to the Euro currency and look what happened to the Spanish prices when they did.
Perhaps if they wait a few more years they can take our place in the EU and we will be free to take full advantage of the Commonwealth once more. I can only hope.

**arana negra** · 10-Jun-09, 12:41

I voted no and do not think they will ever satisfy the required criteria.

**Stefan** · 10-Jun-09, 13:24

Being German, having grown up in a country that is full of Turkish people... well, I don't know, I lean to no.

**rich** · 10-Jun-09, 16:44

What about the Armenians? And the Kurds?

**rich** · 10-Jun-09, 17:00

As someone who is a fan of multiculturalism I am all for admitting the Turks to the EC.

Here is a full list of the ethnic minorities in Turkey, each with their own language .

There could be a daunting amount of paperwork involved in squeezing everyone in!

But, hey!, the more the merrier! And I know, Percy, you would be a one man welcoming committee. I see that the Cossaks left in 1962 - a pity that, Cossaks would fit in very nicely in Scotland or Barrow on Furness.

Here's the list:
.
Turkic-speaking peoples: Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Kumyks, Yörüks, Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, Azeris, Balkars, Uyghurs, Karachays.
Indo-European-speaking peoples: Kurds, Zazas, Armenians, Hamshenis, Greeks
Semitic-speaking peoples: Arabs, Jews, and Assyrians
Caucasian-speaking peoples: Georgians, Lazs, Circassians, and Chechens
Other Muslim groups originally from the Balkans (Bulgarians, Albanians, Macedonians, Serbs, Croats, Romanians and Bosniaks): These people migrated to Anatolia during the Ottoman Era and have been assumed to accept Turkish-Muslim identity.
Cossacks in Turkey (mostly left Turkey by 1962)
Others: There are small groups and individuals from all over the world living in Turkey, either remnants of past migrations (there is for instance a village near the Bosphorus named Adampol in Polish, Polonezköy, "the Polish village", in Turkish) or witnesses of contemporary mass migrations towards the European Union and its periphery (there are also illegal migrants camps with thousands of Africans and others intercepted while trying to embark, or swimming from the wreckage of overpopulated small boats, for the Greek or Italian shores).

**MadPict** · 10-Jun-09, 17:03

I'd have to say no - where exactly will the expansion of the European Superstate stop at?

Originally Posted by Rheghead

I have the biased view that Turkey is a wee bit more corrupt from the top down than most.

And our lot are whiter than white when it comes to being 'corrupt'?........

**unicorn** · 10-Jun-09, 17:47

I visit Turkey as often as I can and have fantastic friends there. I do not go to the tousist areas and I think they absolutely should be allowed, they could teach us a bit about family values for a start.
Turkey is nowhere near as cheap as it once was.

**chef4celebrations** · 10-Jun-09, 17:53

i think that the EU should be for europeans not anyone who thinks that they deserve to join, for whatever reason, are the turks not mostly of arabic/asian dissent? which would mean that they are part of the middle east not europe correct me if i am wrong please.
sorry for the spelling not my best quality.....lol

**Bazeye** · 10-Jun-09, 18:58

Originally Posted by rich

As someone who is a fan of multiculturalism I am all for admitting the Turks to the EC.

Here is a full list of the ethnic minorities in Turkey, each with their own language .

There could be a daunting amount of paperwork involved in squeezing everyone in!

But, hey!, the more the merrier! And I know, Percy, you would be a one man welcoming committee. I see that the Cossaks left in 1962 - a pity that, Cossaks would fit in very nicely in Scotland or Barrow on Furness.

Here's the list:
.
Turkic-speaking peoples: Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Kumyks, Yörüks, Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, Azeris, Balkars, Uyghurs, Karachays.
Indo-European-speaking peoples: Kurds, Zazas, Armenians, Hamshenis, Greeks
Semitic-speaking peoples: Arabs, Jews, and Assyrians
Caucasian-speaking peoples: Georgians, Lazs, Circassians, and Chechens
Other Muslim groups originally from the Balkans (Bulgarians, Albanians, Macedonians, Serbs, Croats, Romanians and Bosniaks): These people migrated to Anatolia during the Ottoman Era and have been assumed to accept Turkish-Muslim identity.
Cossacks in Turkey (mostly left Turkey by 1962)
Others: There are small groups and individuals from all over the world living in Turkey, either remnants of past migrations (there is for instance a village near the Bosphorus named Adampol in Polish, Polonezköy, "the Polish village", in Turkish) or witnesses of contemporary mass migrations towards the European Union and its periphery (there are also illegal migrants camps with thousands of Africans and others intercepted while trying to embark, or swimming from the wreckage of overpopulated small boats, for the Greek or Italian shores).

Been busy on Google havent you. Cossacks. Barrow in Furness.

**Rheghead** · 10-Jun-09, 19:48

remember the teenage lass who set her hair alight and ran down the street in london a few years ago over kurdish civil rights? Well she was turkish.

**golach** · 10-Jun-09, 19:53

Greece will never agree to Turkey becoming a EU member, they are virtually on a war footing as it is and they are both Members of NATO and cannot agree there either.
As for the Cyprus problem that is a constant ulcer in the relationship. Ask any Visitor who has gone from the Greek Cypriot part to the North for a visit.