It looks like Turkey doesn't want to be in the EU after all.

[aneeshm]

Is the EU crazy? With the army gone as a political force, who will stand between the Islamofascists and power?

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
... + the hope that a moderate modern secular muslim country is not a fantasy, and that if not let in, Turkey might regress into an islamist path

This is for me the only reason why they could be let in.

But i still think they shouldn't be.

[DinoDoc]

Too many dirty brown people?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
It is not ironic

if it wasnt for the military putting order, the turks would follow their "natural insticts" and go radical islamic

And of course they dont find that an ideal situation

Uh?

1. The EU seeks a secular Turkey
2. The Turkish Military is the guarantor of secularism
3. The EU seeks to reduce the influence & power the Turkish military

The contradiction is blazingly clear. So, which part of the word 'irony' do you not understand?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Too many dirty brown people?

[dannubis]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Too many dirty brown people?

Shouldn't you be building a fence right now ?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by aneeshm
With the army gone as a political force, who will stand between the Islamofascists and power?

Um, the Turkish people?

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Um, the Turkish people?

They have repeatedly displayed their inability to stay on the right side of secularism. It is only the army which keeps radical Islam at bay.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by aneeshm
They have repeatedly displayed their inability to stay on the right side of secularism.

No they haven't.

[Chemical Ollie]

And they smell bad too

[aneeshm]

This is rather ridiculous. We're both going on like:

Yes!
No!
Yes!
No!

Until one of us bothers to produce some actual evidence to back up our claims, this debate in meaningless and no more than a shouting match. I'm too lazy to look up anything right now, and I'm going to go to sleep soon, so do whatever you can manage and post it. I'll reply when I'm less sleepy.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Is the EU crazy? With the army gone as a political force, who will stand between the Islamofascists and power?

A country that needs the army to keep it's own citizens at bay is not ready for the EU.

[LordShiva]

@ aneeshm: Hey, I just noticed, you fixed your punctuation!

[aneeshm]

I know. I wondered when you people would notice. Seems you caught it quite fast.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Is the EU crazy? With the army gone as a political force, who will stand between the Islamofascists and power?

Contrary to popular belief the EU is not crazy. I'm afraid you don't understand the point of a EU membership.

As said, it's not like some usual alliance, we already have that in the NATO. It's called European Union for some reasons, for example because of the idea that the members agree to a set of basic principles and that their states/societies work on similar grounds (that's much more important than the question if Turkey or any other candidate is "geographically" in Europe), and a role of the army as you describe it is not amongst the principles which are accepted in the EU.

And of course nobody in the EU wants a radical islamist Turkey but the hope is that during a process of reform, modernization (however you want to call it) Turkey reaches a point where it doesn't need that kind of military "supervision" anymore.