Kremlin welcomes Turkey's reported desire to join BRICS

[+OverSword]

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Russia welcomes Turkey's reported desire to become part of the BRICS group of nations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, saying the subject would be on the agenda of the organisation's next summit.

Peskov said there was heightened interest in BRICS - a group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates - from various states, but said it was unlikely the grouping could completely satisfy all interested nations.

 

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What are the objections to Turkey joining the EU?  Is it to Muslim for the other members?

[DarkHunter]

32 minutes ago, OverSword said:

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What are the objections to Turkey joining the EU?  Is it to Muslim for the other members?

The main issue is Greece and Cyprus are doing everything they can to keep Turkey out of the EU.  

Greece and Turkey still have a grudge with each other from approximately WW1 that has never been resolved then there was the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 which made issues between Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus worse.  Essentially Greece and Cyprus has made it clear that as long as Turkey remains on Cyprus they will never join the EU.

[+OverSword]

59 minutes ago, DarkHunter said:

The main issue is Greece and Cyprus are doing everything they can to keep Turkey out of the EU.  

Greece and Turkey still have a grudge with each other from approximately WW1 that has never been resolved then there was the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 which made issues between Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus worse.  Essentially Greece and Cyprus has made it clear that as long as Turkey remains on Cyprus they will never join the EU.

So, sore losers eh? 

[DarkHunter]

15 minutes ago, OverSword said:

So, sore losers eh? 

More of centuries of enmity between Greece and Turkey/Ottoman Empire but that is essentially the issue.

[DarkHunter]

If anyone is interested the Turkish invasion of Cyprus is an interesting and complex problem where just about everyone is the bad guy.  This is just a very brief overview and will over simplify a lot.

There are two main ethnic groups in Cyprus which are Greeks, who make up a clear overwhelming majority, and Turks, which when all of this was going on was like a little under 20% of the population of Cyprus.  

In the 1960s some amendments to the Cypriot constitution were attempted to be passed by the ethnic Greek controlled Cyprus government and these amendments would of removed a lot of the protections guaranteed to the ethnic Turk population of Cyprus and essentially limit to remove any political influence they had.  The ethnic Turk population wasn't exactly thrilled with this and left the government which meant nothing could be passed or really done.  The Greek Cypriot leadership came up with the Akritas plan which included the violent suppression of the ethnic Turk population if they did not accept the plan which they expected to only last a few days.  

Stuff was not going good in Cyprus and by 1963 the Cyprus constitution fell apart and ethnic communal violence started very quickly with periodic peace talks that always failed.  From 1963 to 1974 hundreds of civilians, mostly ethnic Turks, were killed and tens of thousands of civilians, essentially all ethnic Turks, were internally displaced.

In 1973 a second coup occured in Greece putting in control a military junta that replaced the previous military junta which launched a coup in 1967.  The new military junta government in Greece began planning and organizing a coup in Cyprus almost immediately and in 1974 when the coup plan was more or less discovered by the Cypriot government the military junta in Greece gave the order to launch the coup and the Cypriot national guard with their ethnic Greek officers quickly overthrew the government and installed a military junta.

Five days after the launch of the coup and failed attempts at diplomacy the Turkish military invaded Cyprus to protect the ethnic Turk population citing a treaty that allowed them to intervene to protect the ethnic Turk population.  At this point the Turkish military was able to secure approximately 3% of northern Cyprus.  On the same day that Turkish forces were landing in Cyprus a town of 10,000 ethnic Turk Cypriots surrendered to the ethnic Greek Cypriot National Guard who then preceeded to burn down the Turk quarter, rape the women, and shoot the children while another ethnic Turk enclave started to get heavily shelled by ethnic Greek artillery.  After Turkey invaded Cyprus the Greek government airlifted a battalion of Greek commandos to aid the Cypriot National Guard to fight off the Turkish military.  After about a week after the coup a ceasefire was called that lasted about a month.

The reason why it only lasted about a month was cause by mid August the Turkish military launched an attack with saw their approximately 3% control of Cyprus turn into them controlling approximately 37% of Cyprus.  This attack also resulted in between 140,000 to 160,000 ethnic Greek Cypriots forced out of their homes and made to go to territory controlled by the ethnic Greek population.  Later on approximately 50,000 ethnic Turk Cypriots were relocated to areas controlled by the Turkish military.

Ultimately by the time the dust settled ethnic tensions were high, ethnic violence was still going on but at a lower level, Turkey controlled approximately the northern third of Cyprus and set up a Turk controlled government there that I don't think anyone but Turkey recognizes, close to 10,000 total casualties of which a lot were civilians, approximately 250,000 total people internally displaced in Cyprus of which the overwhelming majority were ethnic Greeks, and the military junta government in Greece collapsed allowing the civilian government from the first military coup in 1967 to largely come back to power.  

Everyone involved did some level of ethnic cleansing and war crimes against their opponent.  No one was really innocent but Greece and Cyprus, with the recognized Cypriot government now being essentially all ethnically Greek, refuse to let Turkey ever join the EU as long as they remain on Cyprus.  Turkey has been getting annoyed at this constant blocking of them joining the EU largely by only two members and has caused Turkey to start looking for alternatives like BRICS.