C.dric, I just can't help it but thanks for showing me your intelligence

Sorry MRiGnS, didn't mean to shout that loud

And no, I didn't mean anybody else. I showed you who I meant. I also make grammar mistakes, no doubt.

suoko, that's actually a good point

Turkey needs to stop being a follower and become a leader like in pre-World Wars days of it's great Ottoman Empire.

Not quite yet as they still have a lot issues to sort out. But I am not opposed to the idea, in principle. The cultural and religious gap isn't particularly a problem for me as it is for some people. I voted yes.

I am a Bulgarian

Turkey is definite "no, no" for the EU.

They should apply for membership in another millennium

I voted "no" as well.

Main reason is that the EU is growing way to fast and it is not wise to add a huge country (in millions of citizens) like Turkey.

I was also against the EU membership of Bulgaria and Rumania.
Partly due to their poor economic state, and also due to the huge corruption there.

Personally I don't mind that most turks are muslim. Turkey has been a secular state since the early 20ies. They divide government and religion even more than here in Holland.

I'd say that generally speaking, UE poor countries are a benefit for richer EU countries.
Problems usually arise inside newly added poor countries only, IMO.

Common benefits for richer people of EU members are outsourcing and delocalization while common disadvantages are price increase.
I think these pro and con apply to both old (richer) and new (poorer) EU countries.

ITALY CASE:
Prices incredibly arose with the introduction of euro: costs have almost doubled thanks to a miscontrolled situation.
Here we blame the government although the problem were people only: everyone is proud to spend more money than before. We think we're reacher. While this is true for those who sell goods, that's not true for ordinary people (aka common employee).

In regards to corruption, do I have to remind Italy's situation?
You all know what we're famous about...

I hope you don't think Bulgaria gets some money because of the membership in EU?!!! In fact, it must receive financial support for the next several years. But so far the situation is getting worse. I can hardly imagine rich Bulgaria in the near future.

mmm Spain, Portugal and Ireland were heavily supported ni the past by richer EU members. They were once poor and well Portugal still is in some way.

What is the benefit then for the average bulgarian citizen to be in the EU?
Same question for me as a dutchmen.

I think most benefits are for the companies.
And yes, i tought the new EU countries were being aided by the rest of the EU, like they did in the past.

Spain, Portugal and Ireland are not that corrupted
I believed once in EU. Now I don't think I, as an average Bulgarian citizen, will benefit in any way from EU.
Yes, older and richer countries will now support Bulgaria. But maybe 80% of the money will go not where they are supposed to go.

Speaking in this level of offense needs to be relied on documents on some kind of examples.If you had been slaves , we wouldnt make investments on Bulgarian and Greek territories more than we do on East,SouthEast Anatolia.The only basis of slavery could be "the taxes" you give to Ottoman Government which still isnt enough to make Bulgarians slave.In addition to that Bulgarians and Turks lived peacefully until late 18th century.This makes your point of view of "getting rid of" Turks pointless.

If we hadnt recognize human rights ,why we didnt execute the Kurdish Leader "Abdullah Ocalan" although he is responsible for the death of 5.500 innocent civilians and 50.000 Turkish soldier.Killing 55.000 human should be given a DeathPenalty which we still dont apply.

You shouldnt directly accept what you heard of media and broadcasting televisions.Turkey have published very satisfactory documents,from Ottoman Archives, that prove "So called genocide" is a media propaganda which Allies put on Ottomans in 1st WorldWar.That is a huge subject to talk about but my advise to you is that dont accept media ideas that quickly without researching information.

Could you give a one consistent reason why Agean territory needs to be Greek territory? It is in shared borders like BlackSea,has shores to both Russia and Turkey.

Apologies but ; if you are powerful you can do everything you want in this world .USA is invading Iraq for oil and resources + middle east control zone , dont tell me they done it for democracy. Can anybody stop them ?Doesnt EU sees dying civilians in Iraq ? They see, but USA is powerful , so they pretend not to see. This is politics and if you grow and become powerful you have rights to become anything you like. I would like Turkey to be leader of MiddleEast and union Arabic countries , but neither Turkey Goverment has appetite to it , nor Arabic countries willing to union around a democratic Islam country...

My point of view.
We should not join EU.In following years,Turk civilians started to think same.EU will never let Turkey in anyway.I would like to list my reasons but i am too tired now to answer your quotes maybe other time

I was worried about Italy, but Italy is one earlier members of the EU and can not just be expelled. Not sure all of your statements are true though. The mere existence of racist parties does not make the government rascist. How many seats do they have? Belgium has the 'Vlaams Blok too. (11% last elections according wikipedia)
I am not sure what to do about that, i guess just discussion and education. Finding out the reasons of these views.
Also note EU is a set of countries, membership should not be based on 'deserving it', it has to be practical as wel.
People should not directly believe a lot of things. The problem is that they can not research every subject. People tend to believe what the people they trust tell them. This issue is a rather big point, though, and un-knowledgable people discussing will doing the Yes/No thing.(This goes for a lot of things) Either side could have their conviction out of some kind of pride/reliance on what they where thought. Hence, i think historians should discuss it based on the facts and not what was thought to them, perhaps they can figure out what happened.(perhaps they should look for new evidence too.) They should make sure the spirit of this is colaborative, though.

Noting all of this, i am not sure if Turkey should enter. I think extensive deals can be made about various things, though. Maybe focus should start with that, why should it be a boolean value whether a country is part of the EU. That is not how it grew before it was actually called the EU.
The EU has already grown a lot, what should the EU be? I do not even feel i know what it is now. (goddamn internet, making me know that i do not know all that stuff )