“Europe should halt all discussion of the matter until a secular government is reinstated, and one that supports Israel.” Absolutely.
“Should Turkey join the European Union? Obama says yes. He’s wrong,” by Abigail Esman in World Defense Review, April 30:
Suddenly, and in large part thanks to Barack Obama’s recent European visit, America’s attention has turned to Turkey, and its strategic position in U.S.-Middle East relations. During his visit, Obama took the opportunity to advocate Turkey’s acceptance into the E.U. — as if it were any of America’s business in the first place, which it isn’t, and as if the new conservative Turkish government was one that Europe should embrace, even when it rejected a more secular Turkey in the past.
It should not.
In fact, if anything, Europe should halt all discussion of the matter until a secular government is reinstated, and one that supports Israel — or at the very least, does not insist on demonizing Israel at international conferences, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan did last January in Davos, Switzerland.
Recently, I happened to meet with Mat Herben, former leader of Holland’s lapsed political party, Lijst Pim Fortuyn — a party that, in its time, was viewed as radically right-wing, though when compared to political events and activities that have emerged since its demise in 2006, would these days be considered “center-right.” Herben is also the former vice-chairman of the Dutch Committee on Defense, where, with a Dutch-Turkish associate, he held unprecedented meetings with the Turkish military. For him, the risk involved in bringing Turkey into the E.U. now is clear. “Turkey,” he told me flatly, “is the key to the victory of jihad.”
These are frightening words, though they do fail to acknowledge the reverse: that Turkey also plays a role, if not in the victory of democracy, than in jihad’s defeat. The fact is that both of these are true….
Read it all.