EU referendum: Row over Turkey's membership escalates

[Anthea]

David Cameron has said claims the UK would not be able to block Turkey joining the EU are "very misleading", insisting the UK retains a veto.

Earlier defence minister Penny Mordaunt said the migrant crisis would hasten talks over Turkey's EU bid and the UK was powerless to stop it.

The EU referendum was the "only chance" for the UK to have its say, she said.

But the prime minister said this was "absolutely wrong" and raised questions about the Leave campaign's judgement.

It would be "literally decades" before Turkey was deemed ready to join, Mr Cameron said, pointing out that the UK and every other EU member must agree - as well as 28 national Parliaments - to this happening.

With just over four weeks to go to the 23 June referendum on UK membership, NHS boss Simon Stevens has said leaving the EU would be damaging for the health service, while the Remain campaign has said food prices would rise sharply in the event of a vote to leave.

Talks with Turkey, which first applied to join the then European Community in 1987, have stalled amid concerns about the pace of economic reform, its record on human rights and free speech as well as historical tensions between the country and Cyprus.

Turkey must get the approval of the 28 member states at the European Council and the European Parliament.

It would then need to be ratified by national Parliaments, giving the UK a second opportunity to potentially block a deal.
Media captionDavid Cameron: "Britain and every other country in the EU has a veto on another country joining. That is a fact"

But Leave campaigners say an agreement earlier this year between the EU and Turkey on tackling the migrant flow across the Mediterranean, to which the UK signed up, had also injected new impetus into its membership bid.

Mr Cameron's insistence the UK could block Turkey from joining the EU followed junior Armed Forces Minister Ms Mordaunt telling the Andrew Marr programme that it was a question of when not if this happened.

She seemed to suggest the UK's existing power of veto over the accession of new EU member states would not be a barrier.

"It's very likely that they will join, in part because of the migrant crisis," she told Marr.

"Britain doesn't [have a veto]. I do not think that the EU is going to keep Turkey out. I think it is going to join."

Ms Mordaunt complained that it was dishonest "to have a policy of expansion and at same time deny member states what they need to mitigate the security risk that comes with it".

"If you are going to pursue an expansion policy, you have to allow us the tools to protect our own interests, to protect our national security. That we do not have," she said.

She added: "This referendum is going to be our last chance to have a say on that. We're not going to be consulted or asked to vote on whether we think those countries or others should join."

The Leave campaign has warned if Turkey and six other countries - Serbia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia - who are aspiring EU members - were allowed to join, free movement rules within the EU could see many of their citizens seek work in the UK and could lead to a five million increase in the UK's population by 2030.

A million Turks could potentially come to the UK within eight years of joining, they have claimed, a scale of migration that would run the risk of enabling murderers, terrorists and kidnappers to enter the country.

Successive British government have been, in principle, in support of Turkey joining the EU if it meets the criteria, a position endorsed by Mr Cameron several times since he became prime minister. But the mood music has changed in recent months.

Mr Cameron said that at the current rate of progress it would be the "year 3000" before Turkey joined. "It would be decades, literally decades, before this had a prospect of happening and even at that stage we'd still be able to say no," he told ITV's Peston on Sunday.

"This is a very misleading claim about Turkey. Britain and every other country in the EU has a veto on another country joining. That is a fact.

"And the fact that the Leave campaign are getting things as straightforward as this wrong, I think should call into question their whole judgement into making the bigger argument about leaving the EU.

"They're basically saying vote to get out of Europe because of this issue of Turkey that we can't stop joining the EU. That is not true."

Damian Chalmers, professor of EU law at the London School of Economics, said the UK effectively had a "double veto". He told the BBC "we are talking many many years" before Turkey would be let in.

But Leave campaigners argue the UK has shown itself unwilling to challenge the pace of EU enlargement in the past, such as when 12 new countries joined between 2004 and 2007, and would be unlikely to do so in the future.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Mr Cameron had been a strong supporter of Turkish membership in the past, tweeting: "Veto? Mr Cameron has said he wants to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels."

A leading Turkish politician has urged the EU to clarify its intentions vis a vis Turkey. Binali Yildirim, who is set to be the country's next prime minister, said on Sunday "confusion over Turkey's full membership and the migrant issue has to be brought to an end".

"It is time for us to know what the EU thinks about Turkey," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-e ... m-36353013

[Anthea]

So let me sum up the situation:

For many years Turkey has been killing Kurds

Turkey has destroyed hundreds, possibly thousands of Kurdish Towns, Villages, farming communities, houses, farms, business, farmland (making it totally unusable), large areas of flora and fauna

Not only has Turkey killed many THOUSANDS of Kurds but the barbaric Turkish armed forces has taken great pleasure in so doing - they laughed in Dersim

Must not forget the forced relocations

When Kurds ran from Saddam and were dying from freezing cold, hunger and thirst on the Turkish Iraqi border - Turkish border guards shot them as soon as they were in range

THOUSANDS of Kurds have been tortured, maimed and executed at the hands of the vile Turkish regime - not to forget those who vanished completely

Turkey has been asset stripping Kurdish land with very little investment in Kurdish economy

In recent years the Turkish regime has tried to control Kurds through the use of Ocalan and the so-called peace plan, that was in fact little more than a list of EU requirements to enable Turkey to further it's application

And a cease-fire that was design to enable Turkey to build more military bases on Kurdish land

Present Day:

Turks often attack Kurdish shops and businesses

Turkish employers seldom employ Kurds and those who do pay them near starvation wages

Turkey does not put any money into helping Kurds living in cities

Turkey, a member of NATO, sat and watched as ISIS moved into Kobane

When Kurds fled to the Turkish border with their most precious belongings in their cars

The Turkish regime refused to allow them entry for their cars, which were later looted by ISIS

Turkish army of occupation is still SLAUGHTERING innocent Kurds on their own homes

Syrian Kurds (it is mostly Kurds) who have crossed the border into Turkey for safety, have been treated so badly and lived in fear yet again, they had to flee Turkey in the hopes of escaping to Europe

And for all this Turkey are receiving BILLIONS of DOLLARS

Turkey was probably running short of money since spending so much on building Erdogan's fortress, buying all the bullets and bombs it is dropping on innocent Kurds, and trading with their friends ISIS

Turkey has to pay for the upkeep of the roads to allow ISIS convoys easy cross-border travel

And as a further reward for their savagery and expecting visa-free easy access to EU

FOOK THE TURKS