Comments on: Sumer, Kurdistan and Turkish Membership of the EU.

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:29:24 +0000

“Oddly, I don’t hear anything about having a common border”

Watching this discussion trundling on, I just want to make plain that the intention of my post was not to talk about Europe’s frontiers. I was drawing attention to the real possibility I see of some kind of break up of Iraq, strong autonomy for Kurdistan. It is possible therefore that at some stage pressures inside Turkish Kurdistan could build up for association with this region, and this could plunge Turkey into a crisis big enough to put its application to join the EU in question.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 04:10:27 +0000

Oddly, I don’t hear anything about having a common border with Brazil in discussions about French membership, either.

It is basically impassable by terrestial means of transportation. There is constant trouble with the Spanish enclaves in northern Africa. They are guarded like a building housing the crown jewels.

By: Young Fogey

Young Fogey — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:13:43 +0000

Such questions I didn’t hear in the discussion about the Turkish EU membership at all.

Oddly, I don’t hear anything about having a common border with Brazil in discussions about French membership, either.

By: janne

janne — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:31:29 +0000

Oliver:
“If you claim to know what Iraq looks like in 2010 I want your crystal ball. There’s not really much sense in discussing this now.”

2010, due to the financial situation in the US President Jeb Bush decides to pull troops out of Iraq.

By: c

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 02:54:26 +0000

But there are two likely options for how Iraq looks like in 5 years time. Neither of the good. In one they are Lebanon and in the other they are the master of the Gulf instead of the USA.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 17:16:09 +0000

If you claim to know what Iraq looks like in 2010 I want your crystal ball. There’s not really much sense in discussing this now.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:45:21 +0000

“virtually nobody has thought so far in deep, what it means to have a common border with Iraq”

Well, we’ve got about ten years. Even by European standards, that’s a long time to work on a policy problem.

By: Janne

Janne — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:40:36 +0000

mp:

One of the cornerstones of Turkish foreign policy is never, under any circumstances to allow the creation of a Kurdish state, so I’d seriously doubt that such a tradeoff would be on the cards.

By: mp

mp — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:34:38 +0000

The treatment of Kurds is a red herring in the debate about Turkish membership. Particularly after the failed referenda, Turkey has similar prospects to Brunei or Uruguay when it comes to receiving a formal invitation.

I suspect that if the Turks were offered an iron-clad irreversible deal; join the EU but ditch the Kurdish territories completely, they’d give the trade off serious consideration. But it won’t happen, and they must be realising that inside by now…

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:09:58 +0000

I wonder if the British occupation authority in the MNDSE zone, which is pretty much coterminous with Sumer, is encouraging them? It’s one way of making for a quiet life, as well as a useful contingency plan…