Turkey and the myth of European Union - accession to disillusion

Click below to read the whole article:

From the myth of European Union accession to disillusion: implications for religious and ethnic politicization in Turkey

At the present time, there are no clear outcomes in Turkey's European Union
(EU) accession process. By the end of the two years following the rise of the
pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the government in 2002,
Turkey's accession process entered into a stalemate. Potent political opposition
to the Turkish candidacy in Europe has escalated, despite a staunch Turkish
political commitment since 1999 to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for admission.
In this article, we argue that Turkey's EU accession process has contributed to
opening political spaces for Islamism and ethno-nationalism in the country,
ironically producing societal and political forces undermining Turkish
membership. We inquire first into the practical reasons obstructing Turkey's
membership to the Union and second into the societal and political implications
of the continuation of the bleak possibility of EU membership for Turkey. As far
as the latter is considered, our focus is limited to an analysis of the
politicization and institutionalization of the ethnic and Islamist conservative
politics in Turkey within the process of "liberal democracy."

Kosovo

The Kosovo Song (To the tune of "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys, parody).

This is not necessarily relevant, mostly just entertainment. I just like parodies. Kosovo will be an ongoing issue for the US and the EU. In light of that the following article may be interesting.

Kosovo: The US and the EU support a Political Process linked to Organized Crime
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is part of a criminal syndicate
by Michel Chossudovsky

Mr. Thaci, nicknamed "the Snake" during his KLA days, is a sharp-suited 32-year-old former rebel commander with poor oratory skills, links to organized crime and a determination to preserve relations between his party and the United States (The Scotsman, 20 October 2000)

I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists," (US Special Envoy and Ambassador Robert Gelbard)

"The KLA [formerly headed by Hashim Thaci] is tied in with every known Middle and Far Eastern drug cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead right to the KLA,..." (Michael Levine former official of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA))

Hashim Thaci founded the "Drenica-Group" an underground organization that is estimated to have controlled between 10% and 15% of all criminal activities in Kosovo (smuggling arms, stolen cars, oil, cigarettes and prostitution). Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

The state of the EURO

From this article in Asia Times:
Euro-trash by Chan Akya

When the US Fed last week made an announcement that it would expand its Term Auction Facility (TAF), the idea was greeted with sardonic smiles across the boardrooms of European banks. After all, the Fed had only made operational in March what the ECB had been doing since last summer.

How it operates is quite simple. Banks gather all the collateral on their books that cannot be sold into the wider market and provide it to the ECB against which, following some minor valuation adjustments, the central bank provides immediate liquidity. This has proven quite useful in the current climate of poor liquidity in various market instruments.

Thus, we have found out that European banks have continued to issue billions of euros-worth of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) that are never sold to any investor. After securing the rating, the securities, which are simply paper representing actual mortgages in the books of various banks, are pledged as collateral to the ECB and liquidity lines are drawn.

In turn, this borrowing from the ECB is used to support the uneconomic overseas operations of European banks, ie their investments in US subprime collateral, poorly constructed collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and the like. By not being forced to sell such assets, European banks continue to pretend that they have taken fewer losses than their US counterparts when the truth is the exact opposite.

You can read the entire article here.

European Union - the complete Country Profile from the Economist Intelligence Unit

The complete Economist country profile for the European Union is now available

1. Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union - Part 1
2. Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union - Part 2
3. Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union - Part 3

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 3

You can now read the Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 3, the final part.

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 2

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 2

is available online. Click on this link to read it.

The European Union - Fit at 50?

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union, published December 2007, is available in the Montgomery County Public Library articles databases, in the database Academic OneFile from Gale. I am linking the European Union Country Profile. Since it is lengthy, I'm dividing it into 3 parts, and will publish the next two over the next two days. You can read part one here:

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union - Part 1


The Economist published a special report on the European Union almost exactly a year ago, March 15, 2007. It is one of their articles they make available online to the public. You can read it on the Economist website:

The European Union - Fit at 50?

It is several pages long, so at the bottom of each page, click on the Next article » to continue reading the report.