mr president the eu's attitude to turkey will one day be regarded as a generational error as an ethical mistake
we could have reasonably pursued one of two policies
either we could have worked with goodwill towards eventual accession or we could have said at the outset look accession is not going to happen let us work out an alternative arrangement
instead we have held out the promise of eventual accession with our fingers crossed behind our backs
we have made promises which we have no intention of fulfilling
now look at it from ankara's point of view
would they have made a series of difficult and painful concessions on broadcasting on secularism on cyprus above all where turkish cypriots voted in favour of the eu plan and where isolated greek cypriots rejected it and were rewarded
we have made them grovel about the armenian massacres we have imposed tens of thousands of pages of the on them and then at the end of this process we are going to turn around and flick two fingers at them we risk creating the very thing we purport to fear namely an alienated and anti-western state on our doorstep
turks defended europe's flank against bolshevik expansionism for fifty years
we may one day ask them to do the same against jihadi extremism
they deserve better than this
