Yes, the accession of Turkey to the European Union is entirely fine in principle.
It has a portion of its nation within the boundaries of Europe and that qualifies for me. Is there some arbitrary no. of square miles which must lie in Europe before the country is considered European? If that's the case, shouldn't we rethink the categorisation of Monaco, the Vatican, and Liechtenstein as European? Who decides how much is enough?
Without writing a whole essay over it, there are definitely areas of concern over how Turkey treats some of the minorities in its borders, etc... yet few countries can claim perfection. My own country, Britain, participates in illegal wars (and unpopular), opposes bans on cluster bombs, is closely allied to nations which kidnap people and jail them for years without trial, etc. Hardly ideal. Sometimes I wish I still lived in Sweden -- democratic, incredibly tolerant, anti military interventionism, astonishing landscapes... and of course the unbelievably beautiful women. *sighs* Anyway, I digress.
There's also the fact that if Turkey join, we'll probably see the power of federal Europe diminish. There's a lot of things I like about the EU especially in its economic aspects, but I have no desire to see yet more political power stripped away from sovereign nations.
It has a portion of its nation within the boundaries of Europe and that qualifies for me. Is there some arbitrary no. of square miles which must lie in Europe before the country is considered European? If that's the case, shouldn't we rethink the categorisation of Monaco, the Vatican, and Liechtenstein as European? Who decides how much is enough?
Without writing a whole essay over it, there are definitely areas of concern over how Turkey treats some of the minorities in its borders, etc... yet few countries can claim perfection. My own country, Britain, participates in illegal wars (and unpopular), opposes bans on cluster bombs, is closely allied to nations which kidnap people and jail them for years without trial, etc. Hardly ideal. Sometimes I wish I still lived in Sweden -- democratic, incredibly tolerant, anti military interventionism, astonishing landscapes... and of course the unbelievably beautiful women. *sighs* Anyway, I digress.
There's also the fact that if Turkey join, we'll probably see the power of federal Europe diminish. There's a lot of things I like about the EU especially in its economic aspects, but I have no desire to see yet more political power stripped away from sovereign nations.