That´s negative, right?

oi, you are babbling, barba, definetly!

Well, that might be negative depending on your point of view. Just as you are, I am entitled to my opinion and everyone is free to establish links among different concepts.

I don´t want to teach you anything but let me make this explanation:

When nations deal with one another, they invariably seek to further and/or to protect their interests. It is generally thought that this point serves a basic principle upon which all treaties, agreements and decisions must be based. Turkey-EU or Turkey-Russia relations can be evaluated from this point of view: what is gained or what is lost.

That there is no future in Europe is not something I came up with. This point has been frequently covered by major European financial publications.

That the US requested to use Turkish air, sea and land territory to launch a new front against Iraq is a very well-documented event of our near history. When the Turkish parliament refused to grant that right to the US a crisis between Turkey and the US broke out.  A visiting US senator openly threatened Turkey saying something like this : If Turkey does not help US she has more to lose. The US can defend Chicago or New York but can Turkey hold on to Izmir or Istanbul in a future war?

To set the record straight, I am not anti-american. Many of my friends are American citizens. I like the American culture. What I am against is despotism, militarism and racism which are unfortunately amply present in that country. Still, I can differentiate between good and bad aspects of America.

I believe you are a logical person. I hope you will understand what I am really against. It is certainly not the Western culture.

This is I heard for years. I didnt believe then. Today I agree with such predictions.

As for Russia, it is a good balance to the western world.

I´m not saying you can´t be negative about the EU or the US. I have my doubts about the European Union as well (especially with how Greece is behaving) and the US isn´t my favourite country in the world. However, I was just wondering why a threat about Russia and Turkey had to turn into a negative thread about the EU and US again.

I would love to learn about how greece is behaving.

Ah, welllll... The Greek goverment lied about the real deficit they had on their state budget. Before it was said that the deficit was 3.7 percent, turns out is was 12.7 percent. Which kind of sucks for the other euro-countries (including mine :S) since it´s not really cool for a government to lie about these kind of thing whe you have common money with other countries. The whole bail-out for Greece is connected to strict requirements, and I get that the Greek people are upset about that, but that´s just the effect of years and years of totally messed up economical planning. Setting buildings on fire (like happened last week, killing people in the process) won´t help anybody.

It´s hardly a surprise Turkey is looking for allies that are going to treat it seriously and on real partnership terms. Turkey has the right to feel deceived by the EU and USA, which seem to tempt, promise demand and don´t give much in return. Quite a logical step to take is to find somebody that´s more likely to keep a healthy balance.

Well, the history of my country has taught me that Russia is not really fond of partnership, but...things change and so do state policies.

I hope Turkish economy will benefit from visa-free flow of people

Daydreamer, I know the outlines of Poland´s history. I know how Poland feels isolated from Western Europe and how countries like Germany and Russia treated it.

Through the end of the empire, Turkey found itself in a similar position when all the major powers in Europe began attacking the Turkish territory. Countless fronts were opened and a whole generation virtually lost their lives in the trenches death fighting a hopeless war. We know that medical schools in the country could not graduate anyone since all of their pupils had lost their lives at war. Today, what is left behind from this terrible episode of the WWI are the memories of desperation, poverty and claims of genocide. We would not want to go through this again.

Nonetheless, doing business is thought to be one way to stay away from war. No one would like to lose a partner helping you make profit. There is a largely untouched potential for partnerships outside Europe. The country is just trying to capitalize on those prospects.

Greece has recently become the black sheep of the EU. That is a shame. By the look of the things, the EU is an organization run by myriad of rules and regulations. Accession is difficult and time taking. One would expect, no country stands a chance to enter before achieving full compliance. For example, Turkey has been left outside of the organization since she has not been able to achieve full compliance.

The EU members said good bye to their national currencies, adopted Euro and began trading as chartered by the EU decision makers. This scheme did not work in Greece. Life has become more expensive and the people began moaning about the EU. Germany is not doing well either. Inflation has revisited Europe after so many decades.

I don´t know what kind of a union this is. Everyone is pointing their fingers at Greece. It seems, soon there will be other victims of the economic crisis. If nations don´t help each other in the hour of need what is the point of being in a union?

Loved your post!