Turkey? In the EU?

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) recently made affectionate statements expressing admiration not for the European Union, but for the last Islamic caliphate — the Ottoman Empire, an expansionist Islamic realm that committed massacres, rapes, and sexual slavery of people in the lands it invaded. The question is when the EU will start acting like a self-respecting institution, and consider Turkey according to what it actually says and does? Pictured right: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

 

• “What is the conquest?” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked his audience. “The conquest is Hijrah [expansion of Islam through emigration, following the example of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and his followers from Mecca to Medina]. The conquest is Al-Andalus [Muslim Spain]. … The conquest is Salah al-Din al-Ayubbi [Saladin]. … It is to hoist the flag of Islam in Jerusalem again. … The conquest is to have the courage, tenacity and sagacity to defy the entire world even at the hardest times.”
• “The EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the EU. Let everyone know it like that.” — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On April 25, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, while speaking at the High-Level EU-Turkey Economic Dialogue meeting in Istanbul, said that the full membership process to the European Union was Turkey’s most crucial strategic target.