I have not heard anything on this for quite some time now. Is the EU still planning in bringing Turkey into the fold? Also, has Turkey made all the consesions demanded?
The only news report I have seen recently is to do with Cyprus. Turkey and Greece are still as far apart as ever over the question of reuniting the island. This could be a stumbling block for Turkey’s EU membership .
There’s also the issue of the Armenian Genocide, I believe. Though I’m not sure how big of an issue that is to the EU (as opposed to how hot a topic it may be on the SDMB.)
Turkey is being critizised for lack of human rights. HRW and Amnesty are constantly on their asses. But I’m sure you know that.
From what I read, it’s a matter of finding an equilibrium, to wit:
We don’t want Turkey to turn Islamic. The U.S. regards Turkey as an ally, and it’s pretty secularized, for a predominantly Islamic country. Western Turkey is pretty… Western, I guess.
So inlcuding Turkey in the EU would make for a great incitement to stay Western and secular.
…
OTOH, Turkey has about 70M people, which would mean they get to swing a lot of power in the parliament. It would also mean expanding the EU border to countries such as Iraq, Armenia, Iran, Syria, Georgia and Azarbaijan. The general sentiment seems to be that we’re unsure if Turkey is up to the task of protecting the borders against those countries.
And while Western Turkey is inarguably a part of Europe (a tiny part, but the socio-economic reaches far beyond the Bosporus), the largest part of the country (and it would be the largest country of the EU by area) is certainly *not * European.
Morocco wants to play too. Should we admit them?
It’s really tricky, but my WAG right now would be that the EU Powers That Be are quite happy that Turkey is not living up to the standards we require for an imcumbent nation.
And then there’s the Kurds.
If Turkey were to grant independence to its Kurdish provinces, most of the objections to EU membership probably would fade. There would still be Cyprus. But at least the single cause of most of the Turkish government’s human rights violations would be gone.
The Germans are nervous as they had a heck of a lot of Gastarbeiters from Turkey
- they don’t really want to be flooded
That French stuff about denying an Armenian Holocaust smells to me as if the French are quietly stirring things on behalf of the Germans.
The problem with border buffer zones is that they tend to get absorbed, for sensible reasons.
According to a report on Euronews this morning a critical report is due to be published by the EU in a couple of days time saying that the rate of “compliance” by Turkey has slowed down considerably since the signing of the agreement between Turkey and the EU a few weeks ago. One example cited is the law that has just been passed effectively gagging writers who are critical of the country.
I would imagine that Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which makes it a crime to insult “Turkishness,” isn’t helping matters.
Turkey charged a EU MP with this crime when he made a visit to Turkey and spoke critically of the Turkish military. They eventually dropped the charges, but damn.
“We want to join your Union but YOU WILL NOT CRITICIZE US!”
What, you mean like, “How do they separate the men from the boys in the Turkish Navy?”* 
*(A: “They gave up trying years ago!”)
Hmmm, if I were you, I wouldn’t step foot in Ankara for awhile. At least, not until the heat dies down.
The is the critical EU report I mentioned in an earlier posting :-