Author Topic: Turkey EU Visa deal off?  (Read 2122 times)

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Offline JohnF

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Turkey EU Visa deal off?
« on: May 18, 2016, 10:26:54 AM »
Never going to happen in June like it was first planned, October being the earliest date mooted now.

So far Turkey have completed sixty five of the seventy two "criteria" demanded by the EU, and of the seven left to fulfill they mostly relate to Turkeys anti-terror laws.

Little reginald and his cronies have been using these laws for purposes way beyond what they were legislated for - seizure and closure of media outlets (Kozi Ipek, Zaman etc), imprisoning journalist and dissenters, controlling what information the media (as a whole) can publish and generally allowing the government to do what it like as long as it can cite "terrorism" as its rationale.  They do not want to give up these powers and I suspect that if its a deal breaker, then the visa free travel will take the hit.

One of their main targets (using the anti-terror legislation) is going to be HDP deputies in parliament - the AKP are getting closer and closer to removing the immunity* from prosecution of deputies and when that happens, expect to see charges brought against all 67 HDP deputies.  Soon as that happens, they lose their seat - what happens next is that as second party (in those seats) from the elections, the AKP magically get the seats, get a majority and can then push through the changes to the constitution that the wee despot has been gagging for.

I've read a few commentators who are now saying that as far as the EU is concerned, little reginald has gone past his sell by date - this article Has Europe had enough of Erdogan? is suggesting that its now only the Germans who can be arsed with pushing the deal forward.

Of course I could be talking bollox here, and the only reason they've delayed getting the deal done is so Turkey can coin in an extra four months of $20 visa fees     :)

JF


* interestingly, prosecutors are holding 142 cases against currently serving deputies (from AKP, CHP & MHP) that have not gone forward due to parliamentary immunity.  One wonders if they'll go ahead...   oh wait a minute, they'd have to ask little reginald first and you can guess which ones he'd let go forward.



Offline Colwyn

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Re: Turkey EU Visa deal off?
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2016, 10:55:15 AM »
Sickening isn't it. In years to come political science students will be set the history of the last 20 years in Turkey as a case study in of "Step by step guide in how to take over a country". Reminiscent of the much quoted and debated words of Fethullah Gulen, except that everyone notices Erdogan's existence:
"You must move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centres. You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institution in Turkey."  Then you can create an Islamic State - or in Erdogan's case, a fledgling caliphate.




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