How to test if the EU is Sincere about accepting Turkey as a Member or Not.

Here, I provide a very simple lithmus test to see if the EU is sincere about accepting Turkey as a member or not. It goes like this: There are all kinds of issues and demands that the EU brought before Turkey as a condition to start the negotiations for membership, like the recognition of the Greek Cypriot government as the only legitimate Republic of Cyprus, hence denying the existence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). And, as the French foreign minister Barnier reminded us just last week, EU will demand Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide during the negotiations, which, he also reminded us, will take 10 years. "We will have 10 years to ask the Turks to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and they'll have 10 years to think about their answer," he said. Now, these are just two of the most prominent issues that will both raise an uproar in Turkey, and I suspect, with no result at all. If the EU is sincere about accepting Turkey as a member state, why not suggest that "Turkey will recognize the Republic of Cyprus simultaneous with Turkey's membership in the EU." What a wonderful solution would that be! As things stand right now, EU demands that Turkey recognize the Greek Cypriot government even before starting the negotiatons, which is a huge concession for the Turkish government and an even bigger concession for the Turkish public, and this concession may bring absolutely nothing in return! EU is certainly being unreasonable in its demands. Turkey fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria and on its way to completing the Maastrich criteria. Turkey today is already a consolidated democracy with a history of democratic rule that is much longer and entrenched than any of the post-Communist Eastern European countries that became EU member states in 2004. Moreover, Turkey is a full functioning market economy. And these two conditions, democracy and market economy, is all it takes to become an EU member. Under current conditions, I don't see any reason why the EU cannot schedule Turkey's membership for 2007, simultanous with Bulgaria and Romania. No, this is certainly not a joke; it is dishonest for the EU not to accept Turkey as a member within the next 2 or 3 years. Negotiations should have started in January 2005, and Turkey should have been accepted as a member to the EU definitely no later than 2010, preferably by 2008.