Monday, December 13, 2010

Poland: A Friend of Turkey

Erdogan and Tusk

Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland wants to be best friends with Turkey. At least that’s what he says during his visit to Ankara.

Many thanks to our Polish correspondent M for this translation from Rzeczpospolita:

“Poland constantly works towards Turkish accession to the EU; we are the leaders in this area in Europe,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk, beginning his two-day official visit to Turkey. He underscored that he will make attempts to hasten the accession talks with Turkey during the Polish presidency of the EU in the second half of 2011. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanked Poland for its efforts, reminding his listeners that 2014 will see the 600th anniversary of the beginning of diplomatic relationship between Turkey and Poland.

Poland is a member of the Friends of Turkey Group in the European Union, lobbying for that country’s membership in the EU. Turkey’s attempts to join the EU are jeopardised by the failure to normalise relations between Turkey and Cyprus. Many countries — for example Germany, France, and Austria — stress that Turkey does not satisfy the membership requirements, such as freedom of speech, religion, equality of sexes and the protection of minorities.

10 comments:

. said...

If Turkey truly adopts western norms of civil rights, rule of law, tolerance of minorities, etc., and they also get their national gdp up, then they deserve to be in the EU.

I'm not holding my breath. And I know you are all rooting against them.

Baron Bodissey said...

Nice to see you around, Nodrog! Long time no viddy!

Well, Turkey will never meet the criteria you listed here, so the question is moot.

Unless the EU fudges the rules, of course, which is always a possibility. But given that France is known to be adamantly opposed to Turkish accession, I doubt it will happen.

sulber nick said...

What is the former Gordon's point and why is he making it here: "If Turkey truly adopts western norms of civil rights, rule of law, tolerance of minorities, etc., and they also get their national gdp up, then they deserve to be in the EU."?

'Deserve'?

Hasn't he anything useful to say?

Anonymous said...

Given the identity of this blog site is "Gates of Vienna" , and the topic of this thread, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's inclination to ally with Turkish accession goals, I went to check for production updates for the Polish film "Victoria". The script is based on a book by Cezary Harasimowicz which illustrates it's cover with the victorious Sobieski on horseback leading his troops ahead of a superimposed backdrop of the burning twin towers. book cover

The indirect link to music selections for this film are absolutely gorgeous. Follow main screen to"Victoria feature film" seen in lower left, then find the link to 'music' on the lower left. At this point choose the 'download/listen to music' feature to explore the various melodic pieces composed specifically for this much anticipated film.
It appears that the movie and plans for an extensive entertainment and educational theme park, "VictoriaPark" based on the story of "Victoria" are currently in limbo. Too bad, perhaps if PM Tusk (hmmm, Tusk/Turk similarity is too obvious to overlook) reviewed his history a bit more closely, he would reconsider.

A GoV thread posted in late 2009 discussed a book recommendation:
"Eclipse of the Crescent Moon", by Geza Gardonyi about the Turkish occupation of Hungary and the danger posed by Islam to all of Europe.

michael farris said...

In this case, Poland is being the good cop, encouraging Turkey to not give up on secularism and western ideals.

Deciding ahead of time that Turkey is bound to go the way of Iran is a defeatist and doomed way of thinking.

Tusk - Turk, that's pretty funny. He lost the presidential election a few years ago partly over rumors that he's really German....

Anonymous said...

I wasn't aware of Poland and Turkey's diplomatic relationship, nor that it went so far back - basically the beginning of the fledgling Ottoman Empire.

Considering that George Friedman of STRATFOR foresees the continued growth and strength of Poland and Turkey, it's certainly interesting to read that Poland continues to seek inclusion into the EU for Turkey.

mace said...

The impetus behind the inclusion of Turkey in the EU is the dream of the re-creation of,first, the northern part of the Roman Empire and then, a union centered on the Mediterranean.

It's multiculturalism on a grand scale.

urah2222 said...

nodrog -
If Turkey adopted "Euro-Zone" mores and laws, It would no longer be Turkey as we know it - AND contrary to some propaganda, the AKP is far from being the Muslim equivalent of a Euro "Christian Democrat" Party. -S-

costin said...

Lech Kaczyński died(was killed?), the left came into power in Poland. One of the last healthy countries in Europa is now in the hands of the Russians and making ga-ga to the Turks. From now on its probably gonna be all bad news from Poland, like in the rest of the EU.

The chances that Turkey will join the EU are practically zero, even though Britain (and Romania... who cares? :-) ) support it, Erdogan is doing everything possible to prevent that.

Michael Farris said...

"the left came into power in Poland"

uh, no. Left and right in Poland don't mean the same thing as they do in the USA. Kaczynski was basically a socially conservative (right) socialist (left).

Tusk's party is a good deal more rightwing in terms of economics and slightly less conservative on social issues.

Kaczynski's politics also were based being as confrontational with as many people as possible which is why he had virtually no chance of being re-elected (which leaves kind of a hole in murder plots, why kill him when he would be out of office in a few months?)