Let me restate once and for all that I believe Erdogan as much as I would believe a convicted fraudster and a liar, non can ever again be trusted. If you read my post carefully, you will see that I newer mentioned allowing them integration into EU structures, I even go as far as to say that I am openly and explicitly against it. The one concession that I did make and which you misunderstood is that we allow Turkey to enter the EEA, since they are so willing to enter the common market. Even if that were to happen, Turkey would need to fulfil a large set of requirements, even for the economic freedoms to happen. Yet and this is important, they would NOT HAVE access to the institutions as such and present their interests outside normal diplomatic relations. If they want the market, I say welcome them, after they enacted the appropriate reforms, which would take a long time and would force them also to change their society, but the freedom of movement of goods, capital and services do not present any problems. I concede that the free movement of individuals might be a problem, but they would not join the Schengen group and their citizens would still need to respond to the limitations imposed on any other EU citizen. This way, Erdogan gets the economic integration he wants and the Turks, especially younger people get greater possibilities to study in the West and well, learn. While we cannot force them to accept our values, previous experience has shown that free-er travel to the West does enable the democratisation of societies.
Again, I consider every word uttered by Turkish representatives to be mere propaganda (welcome to diplomacy) and I do not support Turkish entry into the EU. I am more then open to the discussion about the economic consequences of the Turkish entry into the common market with you or anyone, should they wish to do so.
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