I've been debating on whether or not to respond to this post, as it seems that you and I are on pretty much the same anti-EU team, but I wanted to point out a few things for those who may be lurking or not familiar with the history.
The Greek and Turkiye thing has been going on for centuries. Remember Troy? LOL This is not a new situation by any stretch of the imagination and I think it stems partly from two very culturally similar yet religiously different countries being so very close to one another. I've been to Greece, the food is the same, the countryside is the same, the people are pleasant and friendly just like Turks, but the language and religion are very different. Both sides will have to make concessions to end the antagonism. But why should this tension be a cause for Turkiye to be excluded from an international collective bargaining unit? Because the Greeks are members, Turkiye is faulted in the conflicts.
The "genocide issue" is far from settled. There has never been any proof of an intended genocide against Armenians. There were mass casualties on both sides and no one was killed simply because of their ethnic background. The ethnic Armenians were incited by Russia to rise up against the newly declared Republic of Turkiye and promised a land of their own in return. The plan was to carve the remains of the Ottoman Empire into slices for the winners of the war, when along came Gazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to throw a monkey wrench into the plans. The war with the Armenians was to defend the newly declared sovereign nation against its attackers, not an attempt to exterminate an ethnic identity.
I'm not sure about that claim by the BBC that political information can only be presented in Turkish. I have personally seen political info in both English and French, although it is always accompanied by a Turkish translation (or they are English and French translations of Turkish). Perhaps they meant to say that it must always be presented in Turkish, as well as whatever other language?
I am not as familiar with the situation with the Greek Orthodox church, not my religion, so it hasn't actually been on my radar. Keep in mind, though, that Ataturk also destroyed the Muslim caliphate shortly after the revolution (1925?). While Islam is the majority religion, other religions are neither persecuted nor prevented. Proselytizing is illegal, however. (But ask me how many missionaries that I know of personally who are here in Istanbul.)
Let's talk about the Kurds. Remember when Saddam used the Kurdish Iraqis as cannon fodder, promising them a homeland in exchange for fighting his war? What happened to those Iraqis when he changed his mind and decided to exterminate them? They came to Turkiye. No other country would grant them refuge or asylum, but Turkiye did. There's more than one "group" of Kurds and they don't necessarily all see eye-to-eye on their situation in the world. They are the most displaced persons (next to the Hmong, I think) in the world in that they have no homeland and have been persecuted no matter where they go. They are very tribal, with loyalty to the tribe over all else, which makes them ideal mercenary-type warriors, which is how they have traditionally been used by other governments. By the way, those honor killings and forced marriages that you read about--those occur primarily in the southeast among the Kurdish population, not the ethnic seljuk/Ottoman Turkish population.
Turkiye's history and current internal conflicts are more complicated than can be covered in a 30 second sound bite on CNN, or by a blurb in the newpapers. These issues go very deep and may never be wholly solved. What galls me, however, is that founding nations of the EU have the nerve to cry shouts of genocide, without making any reparations for the genocides that they have committed themselves. Or they lambast the lack of free speech in Turkiye, while passing laws governing what a politician can say regarding events that happened in another country. None of us has truly free speech or a free press anywhere in the world--there is spin on everything.
I have yet to figure out what Turkiye will gain by joining the EU or what her reasons are for trying--other than just to be a member of the club. Kinda like the lone Jewish/Black/NA member of the WASPy country club.
Here's a couple of items from today's Turkish Daily News, just for the heck of it:
EU Made up of Christian Values
Swiss Court Convicts
By the way, the injunction was lifted yesterday and You Tube is back on!
