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sophisticatedbeggar
Villager
Joined: 28 Oct 2005
Posts: 71
Location: Athens, Greece
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... Greece and Cyprus were banging on the door of the EU for entry and Turkey was already in? Would Turkey vote yes for these two countries to enter the EU? If so under which conditions? Would Turkey ask for something in return? The fact that both Greece and Cyprus are christian countries would be an obstacle? Just curious...
For the sake of the conversation let's take for granted that both countries are in their current financial state (Cyprus an up and coming power and Greece languishing somewhere in the middle)...
PS Apologies in case this has been discussed before... |
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brother
Warnings : 3
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Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 8920
Location: London/Cyprus
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| Well as a secular country Turkey would not care for its christian roots and would imo assist Greece on its entry but on cyprus i would definately see them blocking them unless the cyprus problem was solved. |
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andytandreou
Senior Villager
Joined: 09 Oct 2005
Posts: 239
Location: Larnaka
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I tried to answer your question to the best of my ability but it's just too open and hypothetical to answer. All I can say is this:
If Turkey met European standards, would the Cyprus problem still exist? If i assume that it DID exist and Turkey got into Europe while occupying the Northen third of Cyprus, then I suppose Cyprus and Greece would be (excuse my French) in deep sh*t.
Turkey's views would become (partly) the views expressed by Europe and no matter how outlandish they may appear to Cypriots, they would probably be adopted by Turkey's European partners.
Ultimately, what I think you are getting at is the meaning of power. Cyprus and Greece have enormous political power in the world because of their European connections, this is true! But action brings reaction and Greece and Cyprus both have enormous political responsibility as well. The future of Europe may rest of the shoulders of Greeks and Cypriots who may be considered the most likely candidates to VETO Turkey, but (as action and reaction go) they are among its biggest supporters!!! |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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Kind of a strange hypothetical - but here goes anyway
| sophisticatedbeggar wrote: |
... Greece and Cyprus were banging on the door of the EU for entry and Turkey was already in? Would Turkey vote yes for these two countries to enter the EU?
If so under which conditions? Would Turkey ask for something in return? The fact that both Greece and Cyprus are christian countries would be an obstacle? Just curious...
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I think Turkey would take a similar view on Cyprus as they did being poutside the EU, namely that a solution / settlment would first have to be in place before Cyprus shuld be allowed to join the EU.
As far as Greece goes I think they may well have sought some concessions over exitisting disputes with Greece in the agean. Their ability to get these would depend on how much support they could get from other EU states imo.
What history seems to show (to me at least) is that a state on it's own can force concessions (blackmail) other states re entry of another state much more than they can re the blocking of entry of another state. Like greece forcing the EU to allow entry of Republic of Cyprus and Austria forcing the EU hand on Croatian entry talks.
With Turkey being in the EU in this hypothetical senario, I think all talk of their being an issue of the EU being or being seen to be a 'christian club' would be pretty meaningless. Greece and Republic of Cyprus both being christian, when all other member states bar turkey also being chritian, this would not be any sort of obstacle?
| sophisticatedbeggar wrote: |
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For the sake of the conversation let's take for granted that both countries are in their current financial state (Cyprus an up and coming power and Greece languishing somewhere in the middle)... |
I am a little confused by what you mean when you describe Cyprus as an up and comming (economic) power? Cyprus will never be an econmic power in Europe / EU simply because of it's population size. Luxemborg has the highest wealth per head of population in the EU but is not and never will be an 'economic power' in the EU. It is simply too small. France, Germany and the UK could be considered economic powers in the EU. Poland could be considered an up and comming economic power in the EU (as Turkey could if it ever gains entry), but Cyprus? Or have I misunderstood what you mean here? |
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bg_turk
Deputy
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1316
Location: Bulgaria
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It is enough to look at the situation between Turkey and Armenia to see how things might have turned up if Turkey had the upper hand. Turkey has closed the border with Armenia for its occupaiotn of Azerbaijan and also imposes a trade embargo on land locked Armenia.
Additionally Turkey is blocking Cyprus from NATO meetins as far as I know.
So I do not think Turkey would have behaved differently to Greece and Cyprus. And basically that is what Balkan politics is all about - abuse your position as much as you can to extract as many concessions from your neighbour as possible with absolutely no solidarity between the people. |
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