EU: Turkish Accession

House of Lords debate "EU: Turkish Accession" took place on the 22nd January 2007.

Here is an extract from Hansard:


The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, the first Armenian church in this country was founded in Manchester. Will the Minister advise Members of this House where the Government stand in relation to discussions with Turkey over the Armenian genocide, when those discussions were last held and whether the Government have any intention of raising the matter further during the negotiations for Turkey’s entry into the EU?

Lord Triesman: My Lords, I start with the most significant part of the right reverend Prelate’s question. For this Government, recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide is not a condition of Turkey’s membership of the EU. I wish to be straightforward and clear about that. Neither this Government nor previous British Governments have judged that the evidence is sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be characterised as genocide under the 1948 UN convention on genocide.


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There are ongoing human rights abuses in Turkey. The Kurdish question, and the future for Cypress remain unresolved. It seems foolish in the extreme to be considering its possible membership of the EU.

Even discussing the potential for EU membership is destabilising Turkey itself.

Turkey is far more useful as a buffer state between the Christian and the Islamic world, than it is as a full member of the EU.

See my blog posting "A Possible Solution for Iraq" for more details.


Humanity needs peace not Islam.