Will Turkey EVER Join the EU? 

The official spelling is Türkiye. Sorry for forgetting the Umlaut (dots) above the "u" in the video.

The EU needs to reform the voting systems and also ellaborate a way to curb rogue states within the EU that decide to go against its principles

As a Turkish I want to say, we don't wanna join, and Eu never accepts us, I dont wanna see this topic anymore, I am tired of this.

1:00 There is actually a small border between Azerbaijan and Turkey in Nakhichevan.

Not in our lifetime.

Bir türk olarak avrupa birligine girmeyi desteklemiyorum. Avrupa birligi bize her zaman cifte Standard uyguladi. Bu kriterlerin bir cogunu ne romanya ne de bulgaristan karsiliyordu. Ayrica avrupa birligi kibrisi üye yaparak kendi yazdiklari kanuna uymadilar. Biz avrupa ile dost ve müttefik olabiliriz ama bir kamusal birlik altinda bulusamayiz. Türkiye artik yoluna türk birligi ile ilerlemeli. Bu birligi güclendirip genisletmeliyiz.

Technically Cyprus is located in Asia but it is often considered to be culturally and politically a part of Europe. France borders Latin American countries as well, also the UK and France have many overseas islands scattered around the world, therefore I don't think being on and only on Europe is a key matter. And I don't think Georgia or Armenia would be denied applications although they are fully or partially in Asia since they are Christian states with closer cultural ties to other EU states.

turkey is not europe and never will be

with the chaos Turkiye's membership has been causing in NATO already, I cannot imagine the EU wanting any part of that, especially not before its current leaders, like Erdogan, are out...

There are already 15 million turks in the EU. 14.99 million too many

Thanks you guys so much for all the content you make! I find ut both entertaining and important that you exist, making the EU more available for us all.

As a kurd, thank you for the informative video. There are many reasons why Turkey cannot be accepted into the EU. Socio-cultural structure of Turks, refugee problem, religion, negativities with Europe etc. for reasons such as. Other than that, the best thing could be in close relations with the European Union. A rapprochement like Canada and Norway would be nice. Turkey's entry into the EU will do nothing but bring harm to both sides.

Not gonna happen Turkey is known to be expansionist and will try everything to get more land Europe doesnt need that kind of burden

Cyprus (100% Asia geographically) is a member and Georgia (pretty Asian if not completely) is an official candidate now. This argument aged like a bottle of milk under the sun.

Ultimately it depends on if they can add benefit to the union without being overly disruptive and have the pros outweigh the cons. I think its pretty clear that they would be a net drain on the union with the amount of eu funds they would need and the political influence they sould have. also having the EU border syria isnt a great idea

Mi entute subtenas la aliĝon de Turkio en la EU. 🇪🇺 Turkio estas certe parto de nia riĉa historio, ekde jarcentoj (mi pensas, ekzemple, pri la Bizanca Imperio kiu estis la Romia Imperio de la Oriento, kaj pri la Otomana Imperio). Tamen, mi konsentas kun vi, kiam vi diras ke kun la nuna registaro la aliĝo de Turkio estos tre malverŝajna.

As a Turk, I don't want my country to be a part of the union who uses us as an open refugee camp. Even though it would be crucial for the economy. I just would not prefer being in a union who would decide everything for us.

The "tiny 3% of landmass" is actually bigger than several EU member states by size and population (around 10-11 million). So Thracia by itself would not be the smallest member state by far. The economic and cultural heart of the country is based there.

As a Turk I don't want to join after so many things.

I think the first "main challenge" does not really matter since Cyprus is part of the EU...

cyprus is all in asia but seems to be in europe

As a Turk glad membership not happening. Turkish government also have zero interest. Sometimes they throw and say we want eu to mock with eu

why is Georgia consider part of Europe when they are east of Turkey?

i really can't understand why some people call Cyprus an Asian state? This means that Malta is an African state? Both are Mediterranean island-states. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sure, Cyprus in Europe, right 😅 And Georgia too! According to you, at least 3% of Turkey in Europe.

As a Turk I don't think that Türkiye will be a member of the European Union, at least for the moment, especially if we examine the demographics of Türkiye this becomes more impossible. Türkiye is too European to be eastern, too eastern to be European, too southern to be northerly, too northern to be southerly. I mean, the fact that Türkiye is a geopolitically intercontinental country is also reflected in the demographics (I'm not saying this in a negative way), but I think that the Secularization Policies of the New Government, which is expected to come after the elections, will contribute to the positive course of relations with the European Union. As a result, I don't think my country can become a member of the European Union for now, but I can't say anything about the future.

God please ,no .

AS A TURKISH CITIZEN, I DON'T WANT TÜRKİYE TO ENTER THE EUROPEAN UNION. AFTER THIS HOUR, I DON'T BELIEVE THAT THIS WILL BE A BENEFIT FOR TÜRKİYE. IF IT HAS BEEN PURCHASED ALREADY, IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN WAIT AT THE DOOR FOR 50 YEARS. LET THE EUROPEAN UNION BE HONEST AND SAY WE ARE NOT BUYING TÜRKİYE AND LET THIS COMEDY END.

Thank you for mentioning Türkiye with its new name in your video. Unfortunately, most people do not have this sensitivity or knowledge.

Firstly, thanks for the video. I remember when I asked for a video regarding Türkiye. Happy to see it! However, I believe it needs a little more. Firstly, we are aware that the EU is a club, and in order to be part of a club, we have to meet some standards, also known as the Copenhagen Criteria. Unfortunately, Türkiye is fading away from the EU values since 2013. There is a fact that the longer it takes for the EU accession negotiations, the more possible for the candidate country to get under the influence of Russia. Just like the examples of Türkiye and Serbia. I see that Türkiye has a very diverging foreign policy in many aspects with the EU, especially regarding Russia. However, I ask for my European friends to bear the fact that our neighbors are Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Not Spain, France, or Switzerland. Russia has a huge influence on Türkiye's neighborhood, just like the US. In fact, whatever happens in the Middle East is because of the US. It is impossible for a country in the Middle East not to cooperate with Russia to ensure its national security. Regarding the issues with Cyprus, well there is literally nothing that was not written or said to overcome the issue. The EU accepted Cyprus as a member country even though Cyprus rejected Kofi Annan's Annan Plan. Now, Cyprus has a chip to use it against Türkiye. Türiye's stance on Cyprus will never change since it is a national issue. I For last, I believe, as Turkish citizens, we have to fight for our democracy. We have to comply with the Copenhagen criteria, improve our economic situation, and promote good neighborly relations. We have to do it regardless of a full-EU membership since the process of becoming an EU member is as important as a full-EU membership. The EU, on the other hand, applies double standards when it comes to Türkiye, which is understandable based on their interests and stance. Who knows, maybe things change for both parties and we can find a common ground. A couple of years before, nobody envisaged Ukraine as a part of the EU, now everybody supports its membership. You cannot deny the Turkish economy's potential or demographics if it becomes eligible for EU membership. I think the most important message here is that do not take your democracy for granted. We are not recognized as a full democracy anymore even though we are among the first countries that gave women the right to elect or be elected. Things could change in an instant, even in a democracy...

Why don't you show many cathedrals in Türkiye in this video? It depends a bit on you how the EU wants to see or show Türkiye, Türkiye bordered with Bulgaria and Greece in the European part.

Thank you for this video. Will you ever make a video on the pros and cons of a fiscal union?

I don't know if adding Turkey to the EU is possible, but better economic ties and maybe even bring this country to the Schengen area sometime in the future would be useful.

Nice video :)

0:45 Die Türkei hat auch eine Grenze zu Rumänien, Ukraine und Russland, denn das Schwarzmeer gehört auch zum Territorium. Keine Landesgrenze, jedoch eine Meeresgrenze.

I think these reasons are dwarfed in comparison of Turkiye using asylum seekers as hostages to Greece and further EU. It's a great bargaining chip. If Turkey doesn't want to follow something it can find more migrants to send. I think joining the EU would make it worse.

I have an objection about Turkey's geography and historical & cultural relations with Western Europe. Can you discuss about the geography and culture of Malta, Rep.Cyrpus, Ireland, UK? Also, can you discuss about in which circumstances Eastern European Countries accepted to the union? I don't mention EU's attitude towards Ukrainian and non-Uranian refugees.... Finally, Can you mention about why the EU needs Turkey and why Turkey needs the EU? What will be the mutual benefits if Turkey becomes a member of the EU? Thanks in advance 🙏

Amazing graphics 😮

İstemiyorum abi AB falan yetti cidden

1:19 "Belgian prime minister ... claimed an Islamic nation would threaten the Christian values of the union". So by his logic Russia would make more sense?

We own a small piece of Continental Europe. However, we need to look at this issue from a different perspective. Only 8-10 million people live in the European part of the city of Istanbul every day. This means that the European part of Turkey is more crowded than many countries. Also, when we focus on our historical past, we see that the center of the Turkish Empire is not in Asia, but in Europe. With the collapse/dissolution of the empire, 1-1.5m from the Balkans (according to the American studies) Turkish/Muslim people living in the Balkans migrated to Anatolia (reverse migration) and affected the demographic structure of Anatolia. Although we can see intense Middle Eastern signs in Turkish culture, we can see that Turkish culture and cuisine is not much different from the Balkan region. This makes Turkey, like the Hungarian and Finnish peoples, European. In addition, in the period from the foundation of the Turkish Empire to the millennium, Turks were heavily influenced and influenced by Europe.

Iceland is the most likely new member. Their polls already have majority support. Not sure why they don’t act about it, though it is Iceland.

Cyprus will veto any Turkish attempt to join even if all the other EU members voted in favour (which they wont) unless the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus ends

I would say very unlikely in the soon future

As a Turk I believe partnership is better than full membership. Our country can act as a bridge between Asia and Europe politically and economically (like holding Russian Ukraine peace negations)or a transit country for land exports or imports between Asia to Europe 'china might love that')

Probably never, due to its huge size (Threat to Germany in parliament), secondly: its religion, third: civil rights are not at that level yet.

This video is too brief imo. Regarding whether Turkey is a European country, you HAVE to mention the EU's "European perspective" policy. Whether a country is able to join the EU used to be that the broad idea of being a European country. Early on the countries involved were indisputably European. However, this all changed when Cyprus was being considered. Cyprus is a country 100% geographically Asian. However, EU member states agreed to accept its application due to having a European perspective. This means that it's basically up to EU countries to decide which countries count or not. Turkey and the Southern Caucuses have already been determined to have a European perspective and thus are all considered eligible European countries from the EU's perspective. This is without even mentioning the long historical presence of the Ottoman Empire in Europe or that the "small" part of Turkey geographically in Europe contains Istanbul, one of Europe's largest and most important cities historically and presently, holding nearly 20% of Turkey's population. On the political side, this doesn't matter. The reason is that obviously Turkey currently does not fulfill the Copenhagen criteria. It will never do so unless/until Erdogan loses power and the new government makes a 180 degree policy turn. However, this is not something that is uniquely Turkish as for example Georgia, a Christian country, also struggles with the same circumstance. It is however worth noting that the election coming up in a couple months both looks highly likely for Erdogan to lose and the united opposition have embodied this "180 degree policy u-turn" platform. Time will tell. Lastly, the enlargement stall is basically just a matter of time. In the next year or so there will be a new European constitutional convention to reform the treaties. In this reform they will further eliminate unanimity and prepare the EU for new members, both in terms of Ukraine but also the Western Balkans. These reforms will resolve this issue for all prospective applicants including Turkey.

hopefully not 🤞

Could Turkey perhaps join the EFTA-EEA instead of the EU, if she meets the EU’s obligations? (In the near future of course, not now.)

No please

Never! It has a very undemocratic government. The human rights record is appalling

In short: no Long: No

Why didn't you mention Cyprus? It is all in Asia but EU..

Cyrus problem and the location of Turkey is not that matter. Europe itself already an artificial geographic continent. And it is always possible to find a solution for Cyprus but the UK will block it. The current non-democratic and Europe-skeptic rise in Turkey is also a consequence of the EU's policy against Turkey.

I'm Turkish and I don't think EU membership is beneficial for both parties. So I'd much prefer something like privileged partnership. Like eu citizens can enter turkey without visa and vise versa

Well of course Turkey will never be able to join the EU, not because of geography but drastically different fundamental values that both sides have

We need to stop this. The EU needs to become a nationstate first. Stop adding complexity. No hard feelings towards Turkey.

Turkey is not European in any way, so it has no place in the EU (or in any other Western alliance such as NATO, but that's another discussion).

Man Tatooine will join the EU before Turkey x)

Cyprus is in Asia and still part of the EU. Your first point doesn’t make sense.

i didn't know that the european union was a christian union. i thought it was a secular democracy. thank you for informing us.

I do not think that Turkey will be admitted to the European Union with its current administration. However, it would be a great mistake to exclude Turkey completely and be declared a bad boy and leave it in the arms of Russia and China. In my opinion, first of all, all the problems with Greece and Cyprus should be resolved with the just approach of the European Union, leaving no room for doubt. Until now, they have always been two-faced towards Turkey. I think the solution is a final population exchange.Let all the Turks in cyprus withdraw from the island and settle on the troublesome islands in the eastern aegean, and the Greeks in the eastern aegean islands settle in northern cyprus. This issue cannot be solved with a federation in Cyprus, because both Turkey and Greece will be in the race to be the dominant power on the island and the problems will never end. or recognize the northern cyprus turkish republic as a state, the eastern mediterranean problem will be solved, only the problems in the aegean remain. As a Turk, I can easily say that the current administration makes Turkey look really bad and that the Turkish people are much more modern than you think.Our administration is so terrible and bad that our borders are out of control, and the refugee problem is deliberately created and fueled. A quality management can solve these problems instantly. because the Turkish army and police force are very strong. In other words, if the administration wanted, not a single refugee would remain in the country, but because our administration is full of Arab lovers and religious bigots, the state of the country today is obvious. Turkish youth are uncomfortable with both their management and their bad neighbors. Europe has been with Turkey from the very beginning and did not see the Turkish people as an ally. Instead of listening to Turkey's problems, they came with the language of threats. Europeans never learn from history. What did the Turks do with the threat? Even if we know that we will starve if greece goes beyond its limits, we will defend our right to the end.

How does the Republic of Cyprus join the European Union?

No

As a Turkish citizen who lives in Eu my opinion they will never accept Turkey.

Since there are 250 million Turks, we want to establish a Turkish union rather than a European union.

As a Turk i do not wanna be a part of EU. We can not deal with racist countries in the same union.

Geographically speaking, for instance, Cyprus is totally in the Asian continent and only 3% or something of Denmark is also in Europe, the argument that Turkey is not in Europe geographically does not make any sense at all. Remember that around 25% of Turkish population live in the small European part of the country and in other European countries and another 20% in closer parts of the country to European continent. Besides, many Turkish people are immigrants from the Balkans, Circassia etc and are related to the Europeans more than they are related to Middle East, Central Asia, Iran etc. I personally believe that Turkey is part of Europe, even the last 20 years have proven it even further. No matter how hard you try to place it in the Middle East it doesn't match there.

Turkey is an eurasian country. They have european culture and asian culture. Its pretty simple. Eurasian countries can join EU too. (Prime example of cyprus)

I have never seen Turkey spelled like that before, Turkiye, interesting. Turkey will never join the EU while it is under the regime it has now.

0:58 actually türkye bordes Aserbaishan with a vers tiny border

From a Turk, it will Never

Take e tone, The EU needs Turkiye more than Turkiye needs the EU. I think Turks are lucky to be isolated because it forced them to find their own potential and reminded them of their own values. Therefore Turks have already sparked the establishment of the Turkish Union which includes several Turkish nations. You are all going to see the wind of change in the near future for real justice and peace.

Cyprus is not geographically not european. Divided and part ofEU. How did it happen? Turkey has a population of 23 million citizens living on the european side of turkey

even, and its counterpart never, are a really long time, and most people fail to even gasp that, so it's simply impossible to rule that out forever, and I really like how you alude to that in your videos. there're PLENTY of things that people said would never happen that eventually did. however, as mentioned, turkey joining the eu that's not gonna happen any time soon, not even decades from now, and it's even possible that by the time they'd be ready do join, we might even have moved beyond the need of a EUROPEAN union. but you never know

Great video!!!! It's really interesting. I agree, I don't think it's possible now, under Erdogan. It would be a mistake. In the future who knows. It's a really interesting topic. Maybe elections this year represent a turning point in Turkey (or maybe I just like to be optimistic). This is the best video I've seen on the topic and it takes 3:47, less then 4 minutes. I don't know how you do it! :)))

First Turkey need to become true democracy. They also need to recognize their difficult history like admitting to genocide on Armenians.

There is zero chance of Turkey joining the EU while militarily occupying northern Cyprus (an EU member).

It was actually a mistake to let Poland, Bulgaria etc. in but Turkey. They had more serious problems than what Turkey has but joined eventually.

No.

No need for big reasons, Türkiye is so big for europe to be swallowed. Also Türkiye is not an artificial country with a history of 50-100 years at most. They are EU’s main rival since hundreds of years and all history can not be forgotten 😊

Yes, there are a lot of problems … When we entered the European Union negotiations in 2004, I was saying that we will enter the European Union, I hoped until 2019, now we will never enter ….

No we dont want them

Bizim,Avrupa Birliğine girmemiz bizden daha çok sizin işinize yarar,malum Avrupa gittikçe yaşlanıyor bizim genç nüfusumuz oldukça fazla gün gelecek siz bizim Avrupa Birliğine girmemiz için ısrar edeceksiniz. Şuanki şartlarınız bizim toprak butünlüğümüzün parçalanıp da avrupa birliğine girmemiz üye ülkeler güçlü söz geçirecemeyeceği ülkeyi Avrupa Birliği'nde istemiyor,Makedonya'ya yaptığınızı gördük ülkenin ismini değiştittirdiniz. :D Doğu'da da sözde bir devlet kurulması ve sözde soykırımı tanımamız istenecek bu asla olmayacak...

If Turkey wants to be accepted EU, it has to accept unprecedented requirements of all EU countries.

I think the biggest problem for turkish accesion to EU, bigger than geography, economy, religion and democracy is its population. Turkiye has too many inhabitants for other small EU countries, it is a big country and regional force and brings too many influence and would change the balance of power inside the EU. Turkiye is bigger and has more inhabitants than now the biggest country Germany. For Ukraine it will not be easy too, it will be needed many years of negotiations even with all this support now, too big country and almost 40 million inhabitants. Its much easier to accept a smaller country. I believe Montenegro has great chances with new president to speed up its negotiations. Montenegro has 600 000 inhabitants. Nobody is scared of them, but many are scared of Ukraine and Turkiye. Only 5 EU countries have more than 35 million of inhabitants, 22 are smaller countries.

Either stick to the proper pronunciation of the now official spelling or keep calling it Turkey because this constant back-and-forth really grates on the ears.

My idea as a turk is that the current government does not want to enter the European Union, if the government changes maybe the government that makes an effort to enter the European Union will not take us anyway

Oh yeah, das ist eine interessante Frage: kann Marokko der EU überhaupt joinen und wie lief es in der Vergangenheit ab? Genau das selbe mit Israel und anderen Mittelmeer Staaten?

I don't care about joining the EU, but Turkey, or rather Anatolia, is one of the most important regions in shaping European culture. For example, the Hittites, the first Indo-European state in history, were established in Anatolia. Or the Etruscans, one of the nations that formed the core of the Roman Empire, were of Anatolian origin. In addition, East Rome, an advanced civilization from European countries for centuries, was centered in Asia Minor. Or most of the churches that Christianity considers holy are in Turkey. I can list more, but these are the first ones that come to mind.

The only reason they ever were and still are a candidate is because we wanted to keep Turkey in the Western sphere of influence. Just like you already highlighted, there are too many problems. They are too big, too poor and too unstable. We will never want a border with half of the Middle East. Accepting them would also be a massive blow to our efforts of enhancing our common European identity. Because, despite some Turks seeing themselves as Europeans, the majority of us actual Europeans do not consider them as such, for a variety of reasons once again. They’re also occupying the Northern part of the Republic of Cyprus, they’re being hostile towards several EU states, most notably Greece (and of course Cyprus) but also the Netherlands, Sweden and France and they have general problematic foreign relations (too friendly with Russia even at this crucial moment in History, their brutal oppression of the Kurds, the weapon sales to Libya, threatening us with migrants etc). Not to mention their grim record regarding democracy and human rights. The polls show that a majority of Turkish citizens do actually want to see their country join the EU someday. But this, thankfully, will never happen due to the many issues that would arise as well as because a majority of EU citizens would be against their membership.

Europeans doesn't want Turkiye to be in EU, as in video explained they think that they would lose a lot of national political power. Because even the Europeans are united, their mind and interests are still national. If they ever get over their nationalistic views, they would see EU would be so much stronger with Turkiye with its resource of population, with its geopolitic strength and connections, with its economic potentials since its a growing market on its borders, also an opportunity to get rid of their over-reliance on china since Turkiye is a good alternative for lowcost manufacture

I would be all in for Türkiye to be a part of the EU, but I just don't see it happening... Türkiye (or at least it's current govement) is unwilling to follow EU's rules and regulations, just wanting to keep doing it's own thing. Türkiye (or at least it's current govement) is unwilling to reconcile with it's neighboors about bad stuff that happend in the Ottoman past. Türkiye (or at least it's current govement) is moving the country into becoming a more autoritarian regime. etc... ect... ect... A lot of work would need to be done for Türkiye to be able to become a part of the EU and I don't see any politician in Türkiye willing to start the years long process. Türkiye now is basically knocking at the door and saying... Türkiye: Let me in. EU: If we are gonna let you into our house we have to setup rules and boundaries. Türkiye: tl:dr, let me in.

Turkey will never join the EU, but the EU can be a watchdog. Of course, if Turkey becomes a good state on its own, things will change for the EU.

As a Turk, I can say that Turkey is suffering. I advise Europe never to do this to themselves. We have millions of Syrians and Afghans. I am a nursing student and will leave the country when I graduate.

İ think n.korea have more chanse than turkiye for membership eu

As a Turk, I would like to say that the European Union is right, albeit a little, because Turkey is a country with a population of 85 million that will govern the European parliament, and at the moment, Turkey is an underdeveloped country, I hope we can develop properly. And we become members

Hello dear friends, I want to tell you something as a friend from Turkey. I see these news being given regularly in the western media, but the truth is that you do not need to worry about this issue because the relations between Turkey and the EU actually ended completely in 2012, so you do not need to worry. Probably a political party is funding these channels to scare you.

No it wont. First of all, it s not even in Europe for the most part, second of all, they haven t made any progress and thirdly, the EU is way too tired of expanding in the near future and if it will expand, it wont be Turkey. I bet the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine joining before Turkey ever will.

Erdoğan's foreign policy completely focused on being an ally to the West, supporting The US, EU, and Israel on any platform during his early career as PM. UN even held a referendum in Cyprus to solve the problem and Turkey supported that idea strongly but the greek Cypriots rejected it. I hate Erdoğan so much but he tried to be a good friend of the EU. Despite the efforts EU just wasn't that friendly and that pushed Erdoğan to a more agressive foreign policy. But I hope for this election the Pro-EU opposition will be able secure the presidency and kicked Erdogan out.