Barrel Strength

The current debt crisis within Greece, in a roundabout way, will ensure that Turkey never becomes a part of EU.  Turkey simply doesn’t share any of the culture heritage of Europeans but their application was strongly supported by Bush Jr.  This is a country that has never admitted to the Armenian genocide, lacks freedom of speech, continues to have territorial disputes with neighbours and has adopted a radical islam-oriented foreign policy.  Is this a country that shares European values?  Hell no, and thankfully the current events have ensured that Turkey is unlikely to be accepted in EU.

The Greek debt problems will require some creating thinking to resolve.  Defaulting on debt, will mean that Greece cannot borrow money in the future, which will lead to deep cuts as the option of running a deficit disappears.  That is not an option.   The other option is to make deep spending cuts.  As the rioters have made abundantly clear, that is not a viable option either.  What other possibilities are there?

The best option is for Greece to withdraw from EU.  EU is a “rich-man’s club” and its monetary policy is designed as such.  The EU monetary policy is simply not viable for Greece.  The reintroduction of Drachma will allow Greece to devalue their currency and allow it to grow unhindered by EU.  The withdrawal will have to be voluntary, because EU does not have a provision to boot countries out, although after this sorry episode they wish they did.

If Greece is unable to work within the confines of EU, then can one really expect Turkey to do the same?  When comparing the two countries it is instructive to compare the economic, political and  social institutions of the two to ascertain the “fit”.  Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call to those who continue to be enamored with Turkey, and that includes Bush Jr. and some on this blog.