Why Turkey Must Get In

Its EU entry is good for France.

By Soner Cagaptay | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 15, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jul 27, 2009

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  • Posted By: erenkoy @ 07/23/2009 12:38:59 AM

    vor123 "What about the opinion of the rest of French and EU citizens? "

    Correct me if I am wrong but all European governments who had accepted Turkey's application and agreed on Copenhagen criteria were legitimate ones elected by European people. If you are a citizen of a EU country, you should know that your government signed a piece of paper and according to that piece of paper, if Turkey meets Copenhagen criteria it will become a member of EU. But I would not be surprised if certain European countries do not honor their end of the deal.

  • Posted By: erenkoy @ 07/23/2009 12:22:21 AM

    @prDO Maybe not Cuba, but certainly Mexico is part of the North American Union which is the equivalent of EU. Comparing US with EU is like comparing apples and oranges. Compare regional unions with other regional unions, not with countries.

  • Posted By: erenkoy @ 07/23/2009 12:22:19 AM

    @prDO Maybe not Cuba, but certainly Mexico is part of the North American Union which is the equivalent of EU. Comparing US with EU is like comparing apples and oranges. Compare regional unions with other regional unions, not with countries.

  • Posted By: prDO @ 07/18/2009 1:32:16 PM

    Hello, I've read the french translation of this article, and came here to tell you what I, as a french, think about what you just wrote. It will be short and easy to understand :

    Accept communist Cuba as the 51st state of the USA before trying to tell us what to do with OUR country!

  • Posted By: Boxer4 @ 07/18/2009 5:31:54 AM

    I found this a very bad article that isn't helping the cause it is supposed to in any way. It is full of oversimplifications & arguments that cast the possible outcomes in black & white in spite of reality being mostly a gray area. Let's take the following as an example: "(Turkey) must become an EU member and part of the West, or else fold into the Muslim world, as per Al Qaeda's vision": 1. Turkey doesn't HAVE TO do anything; 2. on becoming "an EU member & part of the west": there are (maybe understated but nonetheless real) definitions of Europe & the Western world in general along geographic, cultural & religious lines; 3. in any event, Turkey will not have to "fold into" the Muslim world - being a Muslim country, it is already there; 4. with your reference to "Al Qaeda's vision" you seem to equate the whole Muslim world with the fundamentalist, terrorist version of it that Al Qaeda envisions. Turkey is a modern, secularist Muslim democracy that has every right & reason to be proud of itself. It is already benefiting from close economic ties to Europe, the ties & benefits to Turkey can only became larger over time. The rigid insistence on Turkey's becoming a full-fledged EU member is starting to smell of inferiority complex - maybe in time there will be a realization that being an EU PARTNER instead of a member is possibly a better solution for all parties...

  • Posted By: Kirlikovali @ 07/17/2009 8:03:34 PM

    France and Austria found out how Turkey???s strategic role as the energy hub for Europe can benefit and enhance life in EU. EU also seems to have discovered how Turkey can be instrumental in promoting peace in the troubled Middle East and elsewhere with direct consequences on EU security and welfare. Turkey???s accession to EU membership is more than just beneficial, it is required, if EU is to have balanced and amicable relations with the rest of the world. EU must show that EU is not a discriminatory club established on the basis of creed or race, by allowing Turkey in.

  • Posted By: Kirlikovali @ 07/17/2009 8:02:53 PM

    France and Austria found out how Turkey???s strategic role as the energy hub for Europe can benefit and enhance life in EU.

    EU also seems to have discovered how Turkey can be instrumental in promoting peace in the troubled Middle East and elsewhere with direct consequences on EU security and welfare.

    Turkey???s accession to EU membership is more than just beneficial, it is required, if EU is to have balanced and amicable relations with the rest of the world.

    EU must show that EU is not a discriminatory club established on the basis of creed or race, by allowing Turkey in.

    Ergun Kirlikovali

  • Posted By: vor123 @ 07/16/2009 5:52:06 PM

    So EU should allow Turkey to join in order to satisfy the 10% of French Muslim population? What about the opinion of the rest of French and EU citizens? Once again some politicians who supposedly know better should decide over the heads of the public? Do will still live in democracy? Till now I thought that democracy means following the will of majority and not minority, because we cannot have it both ways? People have their reservations and reason for them, why not first solve them and then consider Turkeys accession instead of imposing the situation on people and forcing them to adapt. Who said that every country should be permitted to join? Who can guarantee that allowing Turkey to join will bring the positive effects? Why the article does not mention none of negative outcomes? Turkey represents quite different culture? I do not claim it cannot be democratic country, but that is not only criterion for being EU member state.

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