[Cyrus]

("Versus" also means "alternative"...)

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I suppose you are a big supporter of Turkey joining the EU.

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I'm not too enthusiastic about it since it will not be good for Turkey or Europe. Turkey should be forced to get its act together. Turkey, as the saying goes, is not a country with an army but an army with a country. This needs to change and fast.

Europe will lose by allowing in as a full member a country that bears no political, cultural or geographical affinity to the rest of the continent. (If Turkey goes in, then other such countries, such as Israel or Morocco, would have every right to demand entry as well. "The Jews are back in Europe!" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]) What would be best for all concerned would be the creation of an EU-like organisation of Middle East countries, with Turkey leading the way.

The United States is keen on Turkey joining the EU for two reasons: (a) Weakening the EU's coherence, (b) adding a front-line US ally to the mix. Zbignew Brzezinsky was not being flippant in The Pivotal States.

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You think it will happen?

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All bets are off after the French and Dutch referendums which killed the concept of a clumsily, ever expanding European Union. I'd speculate that the EU will benefit from this hurdle, though. There might evolve a better, more practical and efficient vision of a United States of Europe than the amalgam of all-things-to-all-people we now see.

Henry Kissinger once famously scoffed at the idea of a European Union, asking rhetorically "When I want to speak to the Foreign Minister of the EU, who do I call?"
Brussels might have a phone number for Henry before the decade is over.