Huge democratic deficit and do they really follow European customs and values?
Quite the shock when Erdogan tried to blackmail his country into the EU. I hope Sweden will also not give in when it comes to burning religious books.
I would say there is a huge difference in culture and values when comparing to those people from Turkey who are very conservative or religious. We even have some here who voted in Germany for Erdogan!
But the difference isn’t that big with secular, non-conservative people. It is like Turkey has two sides.
European values are irrelevant for being a NATO member. But I believe being a democracy is a requirement, but USA is a somewhat flawed democracy too. But hen again no democracy is perfect.
Not NATO, the EU. Turkey is in NATO already, the other poster was probably mentioning EU because Erdogan has recently indicate he wanted to join before letting Sweden in NATO.
That doesn’t even make any sense. Erdogan has done nothing but backpedal on all the efforts Turkey had done before him to increase cooperation and become a member of EU. Erdogan clearly does NOT want Turkey to become a member of EU.
Also it’s completely unrealistic for Erdogan to wish to Join EU before Sweden becomes a member of NATO. In NATO all members want Sweden in, except Turkey and Hungary. In EU there are ZERO countries that want Turkey in the EU. So how would he realistically imagine it would be possible for Turkey to join EU before Sweden joins NATO.
Turkey is probably more at risk of being thrown out of NATO, unless they begin to moderate their behavior. Technically they don’t meet the requirements to be a member of NATO anymore.
It’s not even about customs or abstract values in general. Some of the past and present aspirants or aspirants in spe seem to see only the economic side of things, while considering the legally binding parts of the treaty like the European Convention on Human Rights or the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union more like an optional thing.