"Europe's Middle East adventure
15.12.2004 - 17:40 CET | By Andrew Beatty EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Turkey is not in Europe. Regardless of its "Europeanness", geographically at least, a great deal of the country is most certainly not in Europe.
Of course, for the EU Turkey's situ may well be less important than relative modernity, but in foreign policy at least, it does matter.
As any ad-man or Canadian diplomat will tell you, location matters.
Turkish membership would bring the Middle East, the Caucuses and Black Sea to Europe, it would also sharpen Europe's focus on Central Asia and the Balkans.
The thought of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq and Syria bordering the Union may scare the Merkels out of Germany's Christian Democrats - but it does pose some difficult practical questions for the EU's embryonic common foreign policy not to mention border control.
Ankara's neighbours do not exactly form a who's who of stable, democratic and prosperous countries."
More:EUobserver.com
