Turkey joining the EU

I noticed that negotiations regarding Turkey joining the European Union were announced yesterday.
What are everyone's thoughts on this development? Should they be welcomed in as the first Muslim-majority nation, and what would be the reasoning behind that... or if you think they shouldn't join, what's your take on why not?

First off, Turkey isn't some Muslim nation. Maybe if they actually dealt with their own minority issues and gave women some actual rights first... then we could talk about them joining the European Union.

Turkey’s got this nasty little condition: "No military government." But let's be real—without a military government, Turkey doesn't have a single thing resembling a civilian state. It's a bummer. They gave it a shot, but it just didn't fly.

Well, they’ve already arrived. I mean, there’s a million of them in the Netherlands, maybe just as many in Germany, and then probably another huge chunk over in Switzerland...
Did anyone actually bother staying in Turkey?😕

Timothy Campbell2 said:First things first, Turkey isn't exactly a Muslim country. They really ought to deal with their own minority issues and start giving women more rights before they try stepping foot into the European Union...

Hmm... yeah, you actually have a point there. While it’s officially a secular nation, when I say "Muslim country," I just mean that the vast majority of the population identifies as Muslim...
Since Islam is the primary religion there, right?

Has anyone actually stepped up yet to clarify where they stand on this... or maybe shared a deep dive into their specific perspective?
Come on, folks, let's get the conversation moving...

We’re going to go through all of this again, tearing everything apart and picking it all to pieces, just because we can.😁

Steven Ruiz said:It’s officially a secular nation, sure, but if we're talking religion, most people there identify as Muslim.
So, Islam is the majority religion, right?

Yeah. Right...👋 🙂

Mark Hall3 said:We’re just going to lay everything out on the table, call it like it is, and tear it all apart!😁

That’s exactly why I started this thread, just to get us all talking and liven things up a bit... 😁
So, come on... who wants to be the first one to jump in? 😁

Why bother? Don't we have enough of our own messes to deal with already?

Besides, nobody would even care if we did. 😬

When they’re ready to step up, they can sort out their own domestic issues.
It’s not our place to lecture them on how to handle their wives, especially since most of us can barely manage our own, right?😁 At least a good handful of us...
I know a few people from Turkey living here in the States, and honestly, most of those women wouldn't want—or even be able—to live any other way than they do now. Maybe the younger generation will be different, but at the end of the day, it usually ends up being the same story.
Only time will tell if they, or the women themselves, eventually realize things might actually be better handled differently.
And that’s going to take a long time.
😁

Yeah, but if we're looking at this hypothetically, since the European Union is constantly pushing for deeper integration—things like a single currency and having uniform laws across the whole union—don't you think Turkey should be stepping up to be a bit more flexible too? I mean, shouldn't they be trying to align themselves more closely with the rest of the European Union instead of just veering off in a different direction on basically everything...

Turkey's been pivoting since the days of Atatürk, but honestly? It feels like the same old pattern: one step forward, two steps back.

It’s honestly just a massive waste of cash and time. I feel like the European Union is going to pop like a soap bubble once a few million people are gone, mostly because all these national bureaucracies are going to start turning on each other... I’ll give you five years of peace, tops, before we hit the next big global war.

Ashley Rogers4 said:It's a total waste of time and money. The European Union is going to pop like a soap bubble—leaving millions dead in its wake—because national bureaucracies are eventually going to start turning on each other... I’m giving you five years of peace, tops, before we see yet another massive global war.

You basically took the words right out of my mouth...
But let me clarify why I’m even posting this in the first place.... regarding Turkey's presence in the region, there hasn't been true peace for 500 years... and it isn't because one side is better or worse than the other... it's because they brought a culture into an area where it wasn't native, and ever since, the "immune systems" of the existing cultures have been rejecting it for good reason... No matter how much people want us to just "move past our differences," those differences don't just vanish—they exist, and they must be respected... but to respect them, you need radical shifts in perspective, and radical shifts almost always end in world wars.

So, to wrap up and answer that initial post... honestly, I am completely against Turkey joining the European Union...

The difference between the Roman Empire... and the European Union lies in how they approached conquering the Mediterranean and Europe... in the Roman Empire, they forced their way in and nobody liked it... now, they aren't even being allowed in, though more people are saying they should be (to a lesser extent)... Human nature is truly bizarre; in the end, the result is identical... provinces working for the mother country.

I am totally on the same page as David Adams65!

Personally, I’m against it. At least not until they actually sort out the whole human rights situation. Plus, if you ask me, they’re still far too dependent on foreign aid to be making their own calls—let alone deciding things for us, heaven forbid.
Aside from those few tourist spots that look halfway decent, most of the places there are just pure struggle and poverty.👎

For those exact same reasons, I’m a hard pass on this. I honestly think it would just end up causing massive friction between the other members of the European Union...
Not to mention the systematic violations of human rights, issues regarding women's rights, and all those religious fanatics who are still running around despite the country being officially secular, and so on...
Plus, Istanbul and those coastal cities are really in a league of their own, but the heartland of Turkey is like a completely different world altogether—it feels like you've stepped back several centuries in time...

Turkey occupies a massive expanse of territory stretching deep into the Asian continent... 🙄
If we follow that logic, why haven't we welcomed Israel into the European Union yet? Cyprus is right there and already holds membership, so why not Lebanon next? Where exactly would we draw the line if Turkey were to become a full-fledged member of the European Union? 😲

Steven Ruiz said:So I see they announced talks yesterday about letting Turkey join the European Union.
What’s everyone’s take on this? Should we actually let them in as the first Muslim-majority nation, and if so, why? Or if not, what's the deal?

Because let's be real, Turkey isn't even part of Europe—they're tucked away in little old Asia!

As for everything else you asked... man, I don't even want to go there... because if I start down that road...

Terry Smith4 said:I am totally with David Adams65 on this one!

I’m a no! At least until they actually sort out the whole human rights situation. Plus, honestly? I think they’re still way too much of a collection of "developing" areas to be making their own calls (and heaven forbid they try deciding things for us, too).
Aside from those few tourist spots that look halfway decent, most places there are just pure struggle and poverty.👎

Man, you could talk about human rights forever. Just go check out the thread about Swiss people on this same forum and see how messy that gets. And don't even get me started on how Germans treat everyone else in the European Union.

The European Union is basically just the result of Germany's imperialist policies mixed with France's ego. The Germans are doing the exact same thing they did last century, just using economic tactics instead, and the French only stuck by them because they don't have any better ideas. Everything else is just "decoration."

The whole European Union is nothing more than a soap bubble built on layers of bureaucracy.