Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-15-Speech-3-108"
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"en.20041215.3.3-108"2
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"Mr President, in
of 8 December, Mr Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, stated that if the EU is not a Christian club, then it should be possible for an Islamic country such as Turkey to join. What this means is that Europe should abandon its individuality, or a large proportion of it anyway, while Turkey is allowed to stay an Islamic club. A few days later, Mr Erdogan, in
alerted the European leaders to the fact that violence from Islamic extremists could escalate if Europe rejects Turkey as a candidate country. Since Mr Erdogan is himself from that background, we can consider this as a downright threat, as blackmail, pure and simple.
We in the European Parliament no longer even have the self-respect to act against that kind of blackmail. Moreover, how will we in future reject applications from Morocco, for example, if we include a non-European country such as Turkey? The public is being taken for a ride; we are told that Turkey is being assessed according to the Copenhagen criteria, but that does not appear to be the case. It is not a problem that in Turkey, torture is being carried out on a massive scale, that Turkey has its troops occupying part of the territory of an existing Member State and even refuses to recognise that state. I can only conclude that we in this House have become too pusillanimous to carry on protecting our own interests as Europeans."@en1
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