Jeffrey just doesn’t get it

The Times reports today:

Following Dr Borg’s and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s endorsement of Turkish membership, Dr Pullicino Orlando cited reports of human rights abuse, Turkish treatment of its Kurdish minority, the country’s handling of ongoing disputes over northern Cyprus and its relative poverty as some of the reasons for his hostility to Turkey joining the EU.

Jeffrey just doesn’t get it, does he? One of the main reasons Turkey hasn’t joined the European Union YET is precisely because of those matters he mentions.

Turkey will NOT join the EU – it CANNOT join the EU – until those matters have been resolved.

He’s out of his depth.

Not even George Vella, our foreign minister in the wings, agrees with his stance.

“Turkey was accepted as an EU candidate country in 2004, something you cannot simply withdraw. If it undergoes EU scrutiny and satisfies EU accession criteria, there are no grounds for denying it membership,” he told The Times, though he added that Turkey’s size and “relative poverty” could create an internal imbalance in the European Union and eat up a great deal of money.