Talking Turkey

Or gobbledegook. Intrigued by The Coalition - and in particular the Cameron/Hague Duo - pushing for Turkey's accession to the European Union, it seemed a little 'digging' was necessary. In the course of that process this website was found - Conservative Friends of Turkey. On their website, under 'Aims & Objectives is:

"Lobby in favour of Turkish membership of the EU with a stress on Turkey’s role in the bloc, the region and its strong ties to Western institutions."

All the more confusing then is the 'Founder Members' which includes one Daniel Hannan. Can this also be the 'Eurosceptic' Daniel Hannan who blogs that were he a Turk he would vote against EU membership?

"For what it’s worth, if I were Turkish, I would be against EU membership."

Also amongst the Founder Members is one Douglas Carswell. The Douglas Carswell? Co-author with Hannan of The Plan? What is going on with these two?

Also uncovered is The Ankara Agreement, signed between the EEC and Turkey in 1963 - I repeat 1963 - well before the UK joined the EU. According to Wikipedia:

"The Agreement sought the free circulation of workers, establishment and services, including virtually total harmonisation with EEC policies relating to the internal market. However it excluded Turkey from political positions and precluded its recourse to the European Court of Justice for dispute resolution to some extent."

Over the years it would also appear that the EU has been rather busy with the 'Turkish' question and this decision is particularly interesting as it would seem the Turkish equivalent of the 'Polish Invasion' is already underway. It would also seem that whilst preclusion to recourse to the ECJ was originally made, somewhere along the way it was amended and/or rescinded. Whilst I stand to be corrected, I don't recall that 'nugget'  of information being aired by our politicos or the media - or did I blink and miss it?

When considering the status and utterances of Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs this sales line is most certainly a contradiction - (ok, spellings different, but pronunciation is the same!)