Talking Turkey

Western Europe is in a quandry. They don't really want a comparatively poor, mostly Muslim country to be part of the European Union, which would allow Turkish citizens to freely work in Britain, France or anywhere else in the EU. But Western Europe didn't have the guts to say 'no' to Turkey at the beginning. Instead, they've led Turkey along, saying 'do this or that reform' and we'll think about letting you in. Then when those reforms were done, the demands were changed. Turkey, finally sick of the moving goalposts, is telling the EU to put up or shut up.

Jonathan over at The Head Heeb notes an example of this nonsense. One day after France made a revision of Turkey’s official denial of the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide as a precondition to French support for Turkish membership, the European Parliament has passed a non-binding resolution in favor of starting accession negotiations with Turkey by a vote of 407 to 262.

I dare say the French government really doesn't want Turkey to join the European Union, but for political reasons, it has to be seen as pretending.

It makes you wonder: if France is so concerned about an early 20th century holocaust, how come Belgium wasn't forced to officially acknowledge the genocide in Leopold's Congo before acceding to EU membership? Or perhaps France itself could set the precedent and acknowledge how many people were killed during French colonialism in Africa and Asia, particularly during the often brutal 'pacification' campaigns.