Hey, European Union, are you hearing this shit? “A Turkish court closed Istanbul’s only gay rights association on Thursday after the prosecutor said it broke public morality laws. The prosecutor argued the association’s aims broke the law for the protection of family and public morality, and a court ruled in favor of closing the association.” [POQ]
Shut Down.
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Beelzebab
Have no fear cos the islamic monkeys have NO fucking chance in a million years of getting into the EU.
The guilt for them ever thinking they can lies with US govts over the decades, who have promised them membership of the EU if they do as the US wants!
thanks guys
hisurfer
One of the points of bringing Turkey into the EU is that it would strengthen and solidify GLBT (as well as Kurdish, Greek, and other minority) rights.
diago
“…as well as Kurdish, Greek, and other minority..”
Are you kidding me? You do know these people (Turks, Kurds and Greeks)all hate each other, right? Some in the EU want Turkey because it is the door to Central Asia and the Middle East. It’s all about power and money like everything else.
Beelzebab
Hisurfer,
you are absolutely correct in that the dangling carrot of potential EU membership has always had the accompanying stick of countries having to clean up their act around human rights (the USA by the way would fail the basic test on the human rights issue and would not be allowed to join), around corruption, democracy, the rule of law etc etc etc.
But this is has so far been for European countries, usually with a christian background/culture – eg Bulgaria, Romania who have been clearly trying to clean up their act to get into the EU.
But these corrupt hell-holes are also small countries
I don’t think Turkey is compatible with Europe for all kinds of reasons, not least because of its appalling human rights record.
But we Europeans have been freaked out at the prospect of Turkey going fundamentalist and doing so within the borders of the EU. It seems to be going down into the islamic abyss now with this current islamic govt.
there is also the problem of Turkeys sheer size and population.
I can’t see Turkey getting into the EU within the next 50 years.
hisurfer
I met a fair number of Kurdish guys in Turkey. I even dated one briefly.
Kurdish culture, music, and language are under attack by the State, but not so much by the general populace. Their rights would be far better protected if Turkey were in the EU.
So no, I am not kidding you.
Nor do I know that “these people” all hate each other. I met Turks in Mykonos and Greeks in Istanbul, played football with a team in Antalya that had Laz, Kurdish, and Turkish players, hung out in Sufi bars in Beyoglu, debated politics with the PKK in Anatolia, and went to a queer working class gypsy bar in Istanbul.
People seemed to be getting along fine.
Turkey definitely has some serious internal tensions – but we’ve seen far more ethnic violence in Sydney, Paris, and Berlin in the past few years.
Some of us are hoping Turkey gets in the EU because we’ve been there and know the people, and know that the best hope for a secular, modern, and progressive Turkey is for them to gain entry.
hisurfer
I wish we could edit posts. The above comments were in response to DDiago.
The size, and relative poverty, of Turkey are serious concerns. I can understand these. I can’t understand the idea that Islam is incompatible with Western modernity. It’s not. Or, rather, no more so than Catholicism and Protestantism.
I don’t think Islamo-fascists are a threat in Turkey; not the way they are in Iraq or Egypt*. Most of the human rights abuses there come from the secular militaristic branch of the State, not the Islamists.
* Total tangent here, but: Egypt is the place we should all be worried about. It’s huge, poor, corrupt, and ready to explode.
Beelzebab
/////Turkey definitely has some serious internal tensions – but we’ve seen far more ethnic violence in Sydney, Paris, and Berlin in the past few years.
*****That has got to be the most ridiculous statement I have read on here in a long while.
I don’t recall seeing European/Oz police focees/army shooting hundreds of the ethnic minorities that have been causing the s”ethnic violence” like they do in Turkey
Oh yes, and guess what?? The ethnic violence you mention has all been between fucking muslims and the indigenous white population – so it’s no surprise that we don’t want any more muslims here, thanks, and we have no intention of allowing 70 million muslim turks to join the EU.
hisurfer
Do you even read the posts, or do you just take random lines out of context? I stated, quite clearly, that the State is oppressive in Turkey. I am not aware of any ethnic rioting *in the streets* like we see in the West.
An Other Greek
Nor do I know that “these people†all hate each other. I met Turks in Mykonos and Greeks in Istanbul, played football with a team in Antalya that had Laz, Kurdish, and Turkish players, hung out in Sufi bars in Beyoglu, debated politics with the PKK in Anatolia, and went to a queer working class gypsy bar in Istanbul.
Well said.
I for one am SO SICK AND TIRED of north Europeans (Americans included) gleefully declaring the hate between Greeks and Turks and others when in fact, a simple accounting of the reality shows a different paradigm…
The powerful play the people for fools, no matter the humanity between them…
In the end though, to me, the real question is:
Does the EU admit Turkey so they can help Turkey -become- European,
or,
does the EU admit Turkey because it is READY and European?
big difference
——————————————————–
dfrw
Turkey should not be allowed to join the EU.
Thinking that membership in the EU will solidify rights for Turkish gays is ridiculous. Membership for Poland certainly didn’t do that for Polish gays in Poland.
Former eastern-bloc countries suffer from religious extremism because religion was denied to them under Soviet rule. Turkey, like most Islamic nations, is historically extremist.
Whether they’re former eastern-bloc countries or Islamic nations, they have no business being in the EU until they shed their religious extremism.
Beelzebab
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7779.html
Council of Europe expresses concern over gay rights in Turkey
By Tony Grew • May 30, 2008 – 18:25
The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has today issued a stark reminder to the Turkish government that freedom of expression and freedom of association are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey has ratified.
Lluis Maria de Puig expressed his “profound concern” after the banning of Turkey’s only gay rights association, Lambda Legal, by a court in Istanbul.
“The arguments put forward by the prosecutor, reportedly leading to the closure of the association Lambda Istanbul, whose activities were held to infringe the laws on public morality, are puzzling to me,” said Mr de Puig, who is a Spanish Socialist.
A department of the Istanbul Governor’s office responsible for non-governmental organisations alleged that the group, Lambda Istanbul, violates Turkish laws on morality.
They successfully argued that Lambda violates both the Penal Code, as an association in violation of “law and morals,” and Article 41 of the Turkish constitution, which is concerned with “the peace and welfare of the family.”
Lambda Istanbul was founded in 1993 and registered as an association in May 2006.
“Freedom of expression and freedom of association are enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey has ratified as a member of the Council of Europe,” said Mr de Puig.
Turkey was a founder member of the Council of Europe in 1949.
“Thus any person, whether lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, has the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, without discrimination. It rests with the authorities to ensure that everyone can exercise these rights,” he said.
The 47-member Council of Europe predates the European Union.
It promotes and protects democracy, educational and sporting co-operation and created the European Court of Human Rights.
Government officials have made similar legal moves to shut down other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organisations in Turkey but failed.
Kaos GL, based in Ankara, faced a demand for closure from Ankara’s deputy governor, Selahattin Ekmenoglu, in 2005. The closure petition was dismissed by prosecutors.
Turkey is a candidate country for EU membership, but concerns about human rights are one factor frustrating negotiations.