Turkish is made an 'official EU language'

[Groucho]

This is the Daily Express headline:-

Horror as Turkish is made an 'official EU language' before ANY voters support membership

Not a single voter from the EU's 28 member states - which have a total population of 508 million - has yet to vote in favour of Turkish membership.

But MEPs voted 375 – 133 to back the initiative by President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, who asked the Dutch EU Presidency to add Turkish to the bloc’s 24 official languages in order to boost attempts to reach a reunification agreement on the Mediterranean island.

The move, expected to add £25m to the EU's annual budget, has infuriated critics who last night said it was further proof that Turkey’s accession to the EU was “all but guaranteed”.

[jofra]

Sorry if I cause any offence, but now that I have stopped laughing - my immediate thought was that it was as if Joe McCarthy had joined the Communist Party, or Hitler had laid the foundation stone for a new synagogue.....

[Groucho]

At least the Express called Cyprus a Mediterranean island and not a Greek one.... that's a first!

No doubt the 'horror' is that they fear they will all be murdered in their beds because Turkish is spoken - idiots... Words fail me.

[Keithcaley]

...Words fail me.

I suppose that we should be thankful for small mercies...

[brian24001]

I don't see that this is any surprise, as it already was.

The 2 'official' languages of Cyprus are Greek and Turkish, thus it was already an EU language via RoC.

I know this for sure as my lawyer buddy in the south has all his certs on his wall in both Turkish and Greek, the 2 official languages.

Also, if a Turkish speaking person appears in court in the south thys can ask fro their case to be heard in Turkish.

[Groucho]

Well it wasn't one for which translation services would be provided at the EU until this vote.... part of the problem with Turkish PR which is often truly poor at getting the message over.

If the west's interface with the relatively moderate Islamic states is only ever a slap in the face then you can see how that plays into the hands of the extremists who will quite understandably be able to declare - "you see they disrespect you and want nothing to do with you" and how that might enable the hate preachers to garner support for their fundamentalism with subsequently disaffected youth.

[Bowman]

Sorry Brian you are wrong.

In the 1960 constitution the Republic was defined as bilingual. But the application for Cyprus to join the EU was made in English (Greek being an official language due to the presents of Greece), thus Turkish was not made an official language of the EU.

If a Turkish Cypriot wants to work for the EU they must have two other language.

[sophie]

If it says it in the Daily Express then it must be Gospel mustn't it.??

[Groucho]

If it says it in the Daily Express then it must be Gospel mustn't it.??

Well my only point in quoting the Daily Express rather than the other papers which reported the same news was that they headlined the item with:-

Horror as Turkish is made an 'official EU language'

Which I felt left one in no doubt as to their level of balance...