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Conservatives blast Westerwelle over Turkey EU bid
Published: 30 Jul 10 10:25 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100730-28843.html
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has angered conservatives in his own government coalition this week by keeping open the possibility of full European Union membership for Turkey.
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In the Turkish capital Ankara this week, Westerwelle called for “an open-ended process, which is not an automatic process” towards Turkey’s membership.
“Turkey's direction is Europe ... We place great importance on deepening mutual ties and binding Turkey to Europe,” he said.
Westerwelle effectively kept open the idea of Turkey’s future EU membership and avoided using the term “privileged partner,” which the conservatives prefer.
The debate follows British Prime Minister David Cameron’s remark this week that he was “angry” over the slow pace of Turkey's accession talks, declaring himself the country's “strongest possible advocate for EU membership.”
Alexander Dobrindt, general secretary of the CSU told daily Der Tagesspiegel’s Friday edition that it was “all very well to offer the insight that Turkey is not ready for admission and that they EU is not ready to accept” them.
But one should not “against better wisdom cling onto an open-ended process that cannot produce results in reality.”
This was rather “the time to say to Turkey that further discussions only make sense if they are conducted with the eventual goal of becoming a privileged partner.”
Talk of an open-ended process was just empty diplomatic speech “to which you can’t fasten anything,” Dobrindt said.
It was less damaging, by comparison, to “show fairness to the Turkish partners,” by being upfront, he said.
“The realistic view has to be expressed,” he said.
AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)
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Your comments about this article:
EU is destined to be a huge fail anyway. You can only bail out the lesser countries so many times you know.... have fun paying for them for the rest of your lives!
Turkey does not need the EU.
I'm sure Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist killed in Turkey, would have disagreed.
It is difficult to believe Westerwelle could so naive regarding the treatment of gays like himself in Islamic countries.
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi said: "You will be imams of the European continent . . . We await the day when Turkey joins the European Union to serve as a Trojan horse . . . We must unite in Europe, and to be an Islamic state and one under the banner of the World Islamic People's Leadership."
http://saucymugwump.blogspot.com/
I believe that humans should respect each other. However, we are not required to agree with each other's views on life. What that being said, I can honestly say that Liberalism is immoral poison. It's the only thing that really threatens the future of human existence.
No nation that can possibly have the quality of life it deserves, if it is being lead by people who don't understand the true meaning of conservatism. If the world as we know it does end someday, then it will be because the universe / God grew tired of dealing with so many screwed-up people.
If we want the 21st century to be better than the 20th, we must start living what we believe. Continue the prejudices of the past and we'll repeat the mistakes of the past. The 3m turks in germany illustrate that there exist no fundamental differences between these peoples, just fear and superstition on both sides.