[quote="Glaucus]I think you're over playing it down. Turkey is a non-EU country that wants to become one. The EU has all the cards, it's Turkey that needs to bend over backwards. Instead we see Turkey placing pressure on the EU and the US and coming out ahead. You can easily play down the appointment of Turkish generals, but you don't live under Turkey's military shadow.
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Turkey is strategically important whereas Greece isn't. Because of this, Turkey has some leverage with the US, and has used it.
But I digress as the article is about how the EU had to concede to Turkey over something that should have been a non-issue. Unfortunately this makes it into one as we see that the BBC is
suppressing an interview with one of the cartoonists for fear of upsetting Muslims. One must wonder did they not consider this before the interview? Perhaps someone "suggested" to the BBC not to shake things up lest their public funding gets cut?
Nothing to do with funding. This is type of self-censorship is typical of the BBC and is nothing new.
I don't think Turkey will ever get EU membership. Although it often pretends to be like a European liberal democracy, it sometimes seems to lurch back to the middle ages with restrictive Islamic laws. As if by instinct when it forgets to act nicely.
[quote:1dvn436y]On accession to the EU, I think this is a bit of a red-herring. American presidents regularly nudge the EU with a "go on, let 'em in" about some country that is a million miles from being an appropriate member but is deemed important to the US.
The US involvement is more complex then that. The US isn't interested in a strong EU and they know the best way to weaken it is to encourage rapid growth, especially with countries of varying economic success and even culture. But Turkey in particular gets special treatment from the US, as does Israel. Their strategic location coupled with their military vastness has always granted them special status within NATO and this is the main reason why Greece can't take NATO seriously. There's not a Greek alive who'd ever expect NATO to come to it's aid if Turkey were to invade. NATO understands this, and Clinton knew exactly why Greeks rioted in the streets when he visited, but they don't care. Turkey is important, where as Greece and freedom of speech are not so much.[/quote:1dvn436y]
The US has never really understood what the EU is. They seem to think it's some kind of country club. It's an integration project designed to create a single state. One of the reasons it's feasible because Europeans share the same ideals and culture. Turkey does not have a European outlook which is why France and Germany are opposed to Turkey's entry.
I can't see any circumstances that Turkey would invade Greece? Do you think that Turkey is a military threat to Greece? Isn't this article (written by a Greek?) just a continuation of the usual Greek-Turkish sniping?