# Why isn't Turkish the official language of the EU like Greek is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701 "2023-09-26T01:55:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/1 "2023-09-26T01:55:13Z")
I honestly don’t understand why Turkish isn’t listed as an EU lanuage like Greek. I mean Greek is widely spoken in countries like Italy, Turkey and even Greece (obviously) while Turkish is spoken as a minority in Germany, Turkey (of course) and Greek as a minority so why isn’t Turkish one of them? Good for the greeks but its still a wonder why Turkish isn’t an EU language ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/2 "2023-09-26T01:59:05Z")
Greece is a member of the EU; Turkey is not a member of the EU. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/3 "2023-09-26T02:13:01Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Greece is a member of the EU; Turkey is not a member of the EU. _mic drop_ ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/4 "2023-09-26T02:24:38Z")
Turkish is an official language of the Republic of Cyprus, along with Greek, which is spoken by the majority of people. The Republic of Cyprus, which controls southern Cyprus, is part of the EU, while the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is not recognised by the EU. Hoping to advance reunification of the island, in 2016 the Republic of Cyprus [proposed that Turkish become an official language of the EU](https://www.euractiv.com/section/languages-culture/news/official-eu-language-status-evades-turkish/): > [@](#): > > In early 2016, Cyprus asked the EU to recognise Turkish as an official language, in an attempt to boost its reunification process. Over one year later, this request has made little headway. > > In February 2016, Greek-Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades wrote to the Dutch Presidency of the EU asking for Turkish to be recognised as the bloc’s 25th official language. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/5 "2023-09-26T02:29:50Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Greece is a member of the EU; Turkey is not a member of the EU. As a follow-up trivia question: There are 27 member countries but only 24 official languages, including English. So which 4 EU member countries do not have an EU official language that is specifically associated with their country? Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Luxembourg. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/6 "2023-09-26T03:38:37Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > So which 4 EU member countries do not have an EU official language that is specifically associated with their country? > > Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Luxembourg German is the official language of Austria. French, Dutch and German are official languages of Belgium. Greek is an official language of Cyprus. German and French are official languages of Luxembourg. Nor are these transplanted languages. They’ve always been spoken in the respective countries. National borders don’t run neatly along linguistic boundaries. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/7 "2023-09-26T03:46:31Z")
Was there something about what I asked that implied I thought differently? Perhaps “nominally” associated with the country would have been better phrasing, then the trivia pedants would want to include Dutch. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/8 "2023-09-26T04:42:08Z")
I remember Turkish as being one of the seven language choices on the ticket machines in the Munich U-bahn stations. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-turkish-the-official-language-of-the-eu-like-greek-is/990701/9 "2023-09-26T21:43:17Z")
I suppose if they’re not recognizing the Luxembourgish language at the EU level despite it being an official language of the country, then the fact that the Republic of Cyprus (southern part of the island) has Turkish as an official language is irrelevant to EU decisions. What matters is if the states request inclusion, which it does sound like the RoC is encouraging, or was under the previous President.