Germany was by far the most important force behind the first eastern enlargement. Who’s now keeping the door open? Britain’s support follows a widening vs deepening logic, and is in many circles discounted accordingly. Anyone else?
Arguments over Turkey I can understand. But to shut the door on part of continental Europe is a massive retreat. A formal process to eventual membership ought to be maintained; ‘privileged partnership’ shouldn’t become an alternative, second-order endpoint. To go down that route is a short term soft option that will lead to grave problems down the road.
Should we invest some hope in the diplomatic fudging reported in the linked article?

And the Dutch and the British and the Belgians (through their king Leopold II) and the Germans (WWII), etc.

The point, right now, is in recognizing the atrocities committed. As Peter said, “There’s a major difference between a law that requires certain things in the school curriculum and a law that makes it a crime to mention a dark episode in the nation’s past.”

I think they are exactly alike. In fairness the Armenian genocide is less evil (it is more if not them than us unlike what France did in its colonies)

There’s a major difference between a law that requires certain things in the school curriculum and a law that makes it a crime to mention a dark episode in the nation’s past. Turkey’s criminalization of Armenian-genocide discussion is a significant infringement on free speech. Whatever else may happen, I do not see how the EU could accept Turkey as a member with that law on its books.

Sorry, I can’t quite see how the Balkans are a staging post for Britain, the US, Germany or Belgium.

Malawi?