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David Cameron, the British prime minister, pledged full support for Turkish membership to the European Union during a visit to Ankara.
Turkey's application to the European Union challenges the very definition of "Europe" as various constituencies disagree on whether Turkey should be admitted in the E.U. or not.
Could this be just a matter of what it means to be European and that some Europeans feel that Turkey just doesn't fit?? Turkey has long been an ally of the West since its admission in NATO. It fact along with the US, UK and Greece it sent major forces to Korea during the Korean War. It helped stop the USSR from spreading, during the cold war, when it joined NATO and toady it has the second largest standing army in NATO, behind the US. It has also been a help to the US and Europe in conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan. To be part of the European Union only makes logical sense and economic sense. Access to Asian markets given its geographical location and just the opening of the Turkish domestic markets to free trade. Seems that old prejudices of what it means to be European is rearing its ugly head..last time this prejudice gained momentum of what it means to be something in Europe...Hitler!
Turkey wanting to join the EU will change political geography drastically. Turkey would provide the EU with a border town with the middle east as well as add power and span of the European Union. With some countries like Greece showing that EU economies are dependent on one another and I'm not sure that makes Turkey an attractive or unattractive prospect.