Job Discussion Forums

[Kodak]

[calsimsek]

thrifty:

[TeachEnglish]

Yes that'll teach those French.. stop shopping at Carrefour and go to another store and pay more..
I don't think Europe wants the Turks in their club because of the religous issue. I think they are afraid to give so much power to the "others" but we will see what happens. Look at the issue with the cartoons.. the pope's remarks and the reaction by the muslums. They were ready to kill people. We all know that words don't mean that much.. do they?

[thrifty]

I don't think European atheists who make up the majority of the EU give a toss about what religion Turks claim to belong to. It is money and immigration.

[calsimsek]

thrifty:

[FGT]

Thrifty, I think you should rethink your comments

[xulagu]

The biggest opposition to Turkey joining the EU is religion,culture and the legacy of both since the late middle ages.I doubt there would be any real opposition to a Christian Turkey joining the EU.Romania,Bulgaria and some of the others are hardly healthy economies.Furthermore,the greatest opposition to Turkey seems to come from either countries threatened or occupied by the Ottomans in the past or those such as Germany(CDU) and France with their own agenda and unpopular muslim minorities for many of the electorate.
Of course Turkey's size and population is an issue but I doubt it would be such a great issue if the inhabitants were Orthodox or Catholic.

[thrifty]

Were Germany and France occupied or threatened by the Ottomans?

[scot47]

The Ottomans got to the walls of Vienna. Now go to any German city and you will see this time around they have got further !

[xulagu]

Considering that Germany and much of the rest of central Europe at the time was the Holy Roman Empire,then the answer would be that,yes,Germany was seriously threatened by the Ottomans.France made alliances with the Turks at the time but I guess that much of the current hostility in that country towards EU comes from the sizeable population of Algerian and Moroccan muslims in their midst.However,both Algeria and Morocco,which were part of the Barbary Coast,were Ottoman satellites,very much perceived in the Europe of the time as slavers and pirates preying upon their neighbours shores-just like the Knights of Malta.

[thrifty]

Your average European wouldn't know that and probably couldn't even name all the EU member nations and is more interested in Big Brother than Turkey entering the EU.

[xulagu]

Yeah,but where does the underlying animosity come from?

[billybuzz]

I really don't see what Europe has to be afraid about .If Turkey is pushed away from Europe because of what previous posters have said then I feel that is a greater danger . I wonder how many people in Europe are aware of how powerful this country is and from a strategic perspective what safety they provide as a buffer zone from the middle east ? The recent events should have woken them up to that fact unless as Thrifty said the're too busy with B.B.
An ageing Europe also needs the young Turkish population to pay all those social security contributions and the major manufactuers need Turkey for all the cheap labour force available ,Europe won't be flooded with Turks ,a lot of work will come here ,maybe thats what people really need to be afraid of ,a wealthy Turkey with zero unemployment .

[yaramaz]

A French friend of mine, my age (early 30s) told me that when he was growing up the image of the Turk was used as a kind of threatening bogeyman by parents for kids. Like, if you don't do your homework now the bloodthirsty marauding turk will come take you in the night.

That may have left some, er, subconscious issues in the minds of certain western europeans.

[thrifty]

Quite erotic