Turkey will stay an alien Muslim country if in EU

And in its turn this is going to add to radical nationalistic sentiment already present in Europe resulting in social unrest and things of the sort. On the other hand Turkey is scary of being treated as lower brand member state in the EU. In a nutshell, Turkish member in EU is quite a challenge for both sides concerned.
Still there are many proponents of the scenario when Turkey is embraced by Europeans. Their wishful thinking is that Turkey could act kind of bridge to link Europe to Islamic countries. IMHO Turkey is in no position to manage the task for there is strict division of secular and religious institutions in this country. And Turkey is too much in Europe already. This substantially downgrades her image in the Islamic world. Generally Islamic countries prefer to get in contact with Europeans without any mediators at all.
Turkey as a go-between with Central Asian states and Europe has failed absolutely. Turkey possesses neither political nor economical weight to be helpful to these states and thus she’s no intermediary. CA states obviously prefer direct links with Europe.

 

Well, if Turkey is in, the EU should change its name. Only a fraction of Turkey is actually in Europe...

 

I would agree - but would like to add that it is the hope of Europe to convert turkey to becoming less of a Threat to Europe. If you look at where Turkey is situated - would you agree that it is in Europes interest to make Turkey a member, for 3 reasons
1) You dont want a country that close to Europe siding with the muslims in a war
2) The country offers the ability to mass troops in better strategic positions.
3) By converting Turkey to the European life it entirely negates the idea that the muslim world is separate to the west

 

Are you implying that if Turkey isn't with you, it will be against you?

 

I am saying that is possible
but I am also saying that turkey would be useful in political negotiations
with muslim countries - it may help bring peaceful settlement

could you supply me with a link to a page on the net that might inform me as to why you believe this please - its an interesting argument and you obviously have a reason for saying it but I dont know what that is

 

So basically, nobody should be in the EU unless they are white and Christian?

And you call Conservatives racists?

 

its going to be really hard for turkey to join the EU for a numer of reasons. Specifically, their relationship with the Kurds has been pretty shocking and disturbing to most European states. They have made strides recently but it Turkey has some ground to make up if it wants to join the EU, and the thing is they want to join the EU which is an important fact that has been overlooked in our discussion.

 

And the European states want Turkey to join - so it looks like it will happen. The point being IMO that it will be benificial for world relations