Should Turkey be allowed into the EU?

[Taxloss]

Poll question: Should Turkey be allowed into the EU?

This popped up as an issue in another thread. I'd be interested to know what we all think.

Personally, I was weakly against it until recently, and now I'm trending towards being in favour, but I think it will get blocked by the member referenda.

Anyway, on with the poll. I'd be interested to read your opinions, so please explain your choice.

Should Turkey be allowed into the EU after 2015?

[tjwmason]

1. I'm far from convinced about their human rights record.

They have improved w.r.t treatment of the Kurds recently, but they still refuse to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. On the otherhand - it has been the potential of E.U. membership which has been a major factor in recent progress.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I said "yes, but with massive reform"

but "massive" is probably a stronger word than I'd choose. They need open investigation and acknowledgement of what happened in Armenia; the Cyprus situation needs to be sorted out (I suspect that will end up with a large payment from the EU to the Greek Cypriots to accept a UN-brokered deal with some cosmetic changes from the last one. I'm thinking roughly of the Not the Nine o'Clock News industrial relations sketch - "use of the comfy chair at the next negotiations, sleeping with Perkins' wife, all that guff - and some money ... ?")

I'm not sure exactly what needs to happen about Turkey and the Kurds. I don't feel we get realiable information about the situation from either side. It's possible that it's no more of a problem than Northern Ireland was when the UK joined the EEC.

Apart from that, it's more a question of "keep the reforms you've done going for another 10 years", in my view.

[demobrit]

5. Greece and Turkey

As far as I understand they are still technically at war .
This needs to be sorted out pronto as well as other issues,

[D-Notice]

3. I said "massive reform"

but I just think it needs to come up to the standard of other EU countries esp. for its human rights record - something which we will also have to improve as we don't comply with ECHR judgements...

[non sociopath skin]

4. Indeed. But I reckon that the likes of Poland and Austria ...

... need just as much watching. 'Taint only Turkey that has a wobbly record on human rights and democracy over the last century or so...

The Skin