Merkel in Turkey

Gazıantep otogar, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

That silly old woman who made such a mess of helping that poor country Greece at the risk of damaging the Euro, landed in Turkey today to make a viosit she had appaerntl;y been trying to put off for quite a while.

The Dutch news just reported that the first day of the visit went quite well, while the BBC reported that "On every important issue, Chancellor Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemed to be at odds with each other". My guess is the latter, as Merkel with her awkward buddy Sarkozy and nice countries like Austria want to keep Turkey OUT of the EU.

As you may know, I think that it is far more in Europe's interest for Turkey to join that it is the other way around, as Turkey is in a geographically strategic place, represents a bridge from Europe to the mainly Muslim countries to the south and east, has a large number of well educated people and so on, not to mention the fact that so many Turkish people also live in Europe. Joining the EU can also help the Turkish people better develop and embed their democracy and human rights.

I founjd the comments of this chap on the BBC website to be quite interesting:


BEYLERBEYI, STUDENT, 29, FROM ISTANBUL, CURRENTLY LIVING IN SOUTHAMPTON, UK

Beylerbeyi
I am against Turkey's association with the EU, and Nato for that matter.

Turkey should instead cooperate with its neighbours in the region to promote development and prevent further imperialistic aggression by the West.

I oppose the EU because it is a club for developed countries who exploit the Third World by employing global organisations such as the IMF, World Bank, WTO, or through bilateral actions.

Some EU countries are even willing to use force, as we have seen in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. It is no coincidence that support for Turkey's EU membership comes mainly from the business elite and the political classes of UK, Italy and Spain - countries currently supporting the USA's imperialistic adventures.

In return for this support, Turkey is expected to remove all remaining obstacles, including allowing Europe access to its economy and continuing its support for the West in keeping the Middle East, the Balkans and Caucasus under control.

While the US-UK axis may fear that Turkey will move further away from the West without EU membership, the Franco-German axis believes it is possible to keep Turkey as an ally without it.

They use Cyprus as an excuse to stall the whole negotiation process, but it is EU involvement that has exacerbated the Cyprus problem.EU officials declared that the economic isolation of the north would be eased after the UN plan was rejected in the south. However, they let the south join the EU and forgot their promises to the north. Now Turkey is being punished and Turks are crying hypocrisy! Turkish troops should leave Cyprus after a unification deal is reached through the UN. And Turkey should leave EU negotiations immediately.