Building regional alliance to stabilize Eastern Europe.

Croatia - Albania - so called Kosovo signed anti-Serbian alliance.

Serbia sending warning to Croatia and Albania regarding meddling in Serbia`s southern province of Kosovo.

Only Serbs still think Kosovo is Serbian.

Nobody else does.Serbs need to wake up to the new reality...... they are always blinded by their history.
Which is irrelevant now.

Yeah....I would like to see any alliance with Poland and Turkey as members.....that should get interesting.....I can't see any of their leaders compromising much!

Well, BB, Türkiye was the only country in Europe that refused to recognise the partition of Poland.

And of course there's Polonezkoy and Adampol there, as well as a small Polish district in Istanbul just past Sultanahmet, before you turn off to go to Alsaray. Plenty of r*SSians there too.

I was once waiting at a kiosk to buy some tabs and there was an old lady in front of me chattering away to the young man in the kiosk in rather old-fashioned Polish. this was the area of town where Polish people have been living for centuries. I thought great, I can order some things in Polish rather than just pointing at t( Marlboro so spoke to the guy po Polsku. He didn't understand a word and the old lady had just been talking at him rather than to him.

Yeah....I admit.....that has to count for alot!

I wouldn't forget about it either.....maybe they really have a better "chemistry" than others....

Still. But not only Kosovo. Much more.

From Serbians and Hungarians is stolen a lot of.

Sure, it needs to be led from behind by its lordship Britain which takes this opportunity to restore its rather faded laurels of glory.
why do I think it is a bad idea?
Can you guess?
---

I don't care why he does it, the fact he denies it is deliberate makes it strange. I don't worry about it those Germans are twisted in odd ways.

Your infantile alliance went down in flames before it had a chance to rise. :):):))

@jon357


Italy has been there since the beginning yet they are not a founder?

Speaking about Turkey, Erdogan's biggest rival was just arrested, shortly before his likely nomination for the presidential election.

Istanbul mayor arrested days before likely presidential nomination

theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/19/istanbul-mayor-arrested-ekrem-imamoglu-days-before-likely-presidential-nomination-erdogan-ntwnfb


You can also say that red is blue. The FRG had long been a stable democracy when the GDR joined, and the GDR became part of its' political system, and even if it had gone terribly wrong, the GDR was never large enough to become a veto player. An autocratic Turkey however could very well become one in the EU. One only has to look at the kind of damage Hungary, a country with 1/10 of Turkey's population.

I suspect that if the German constitution had offered the same kind of power to e.g. Thuringia, people in West Germany would have either amended it or would have been much more reserved about the prospect of German reunification.


Ok, so then it never worked on my devices, hence I never felt the need to fix it. Case solved.


All I am doing is marking the parts I want to quote, use "quote" and then copy the parts I want to quote in there. If you want to believe that I am doing something else so be it.

@Bobko


Well, without having looked into it, each ranking puts different weight on certain criteria's. Turkey under Erdogan has purged a lot of people after the failed military coup, with a lot of people losing their jobs despite having no ties to the coup attempt. Turkey is one of the countries with the most journalists being jailed, enough to warrant its' own Wikipedia page.

Deniz Yücel was a prominent case of a journalist being incarcerated without any evidence for more than a year, iand he and other journalists were reportedly the victims of abuse during his time in prison.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deniz_Y%C3%BCcel

Ultimately you have Erdogan ruling the country for more than 20 years. During this time he changed the constitution in order to stay in power and later to give the previously mostly ceremonial office of president most of the power. Many criticial journalists and opposition politicians are jailed. His party has complete hegemony over the press, any dissenting voice in the state apparatus are purged. He has given his family and friends important positions in the government. His son-in-law was made finance minister (with terrible consequences for the economy) And now the mayor of Istanbul has been arrested. The one opponent Erdogan is still concerned about. Because as former mayor of Istanbul he knows the power and prestige of this office. Before his arrest there have been multiple other to neutralize him as a political threat, including the annulement of the mayoral election, on flimsy grounds.

I would argue that all of this paints a pretty bad picture.

In what infantile dimension you learn to read without comprehension? Who claims that the alliance is dependent on Germany? I just said that we can leave a way for Germany to join if they wish to do so. If not that is even better.
You German worshiper are just a disgrace and I advise you to get a certificate for your lunacy you will need it.

Because it has been mentioned....just today:

Istanbul's Mayor: Raid!

Erdogan Opponent Imamoglu Arrested

He posted a photo of the police officers outside his house online

bild.de/politik/ausland-und-internationales/istanbuls-buergermeister-in-haft-erdogan-gegner-imamoglu-festgenommen-67da57d1a7ec4b4b052f04c8

That's also Turkey 2025!


Nobody demands worship, Iron.....aber imagine the whole of Poland acting like you do....wouldn't it be a wonder if Germany looks to Russia instead? Is that smart?

Kinda "self fulfilling prophesy".....I treat him like sh****t and you will see how he acts like a traiterous bastard.....or something like that.....

@Bratwurst Boy

Worth remembering that there was a huge corruption scandal in 2013 involving many of Erdogan's close allies and his son.

Police investigations were supressed and many of the responsible police officers were reassigned, demoted, fired and otherwise punished.

The police is now fully under governmental control.

How the Corruption Investigations of 2013 Still Shape Turkey's Bleak Future

vocaleurope.eu/how-the-corruption-investigations-of-2013-still-shape-turkeys-bleak-future/

What does it have to do with anything?
These are their internal affairs.
It is not a disqualifying factor for the alliance.
Having cooperation is not a wedding.
---

ME??? What do I DO? I said if you want to join, you are welcome, if not - no problem. What seems to be the issue here?
Is that a German trait - being paranoid and suffering from perscution mania?
--

You mean they do not want German money. Even if they do, they do not listen to Berlin.

Absolutely! And you know it!!!!

The establishment that is backed by European Commission ie Germans did the same thing in Rumania and is supporting similar autocratic measures in Poland so shut your hole!

In a way yes. Have you been to Istanbul, especially the suburbs? Very different people from those from
Anatolia who emigrated and became Germans.


Yes, PiS the same thing to one of their opponents, Piotr Ikonowicz, one of Poland's better politicians.


Less of the faded. We aren't degenerate east European 'szlachta'. And not so faded that almost a million Poles went there for jobs and to settle there.


Rubbish. It had a larger population than half of the current member states.


You're doing it in an unusual and over complicated way.

To quote a poster, all you do is select the text you want to quote and press the quote button.

Did you really imagine that everybody else does
It that fiddly way, trying to paste in a tiny spot the typing an equals and the username? On a phone, it's literally two quick finger movements.

It must have taken you ages. At least now you know the normal easy way.

Unless there's another reason.....

Don't worry, when many more Germans are of Turkish and Syrian roots and clued up on tech, such mistakes will be rarer.

@jon357


People from the GDR accounted for only 1/4 of the votes. The population of the GDR was smaller than the population the largest West German state NRW. All East German states put together dont' have a blocking minority in the Bundesrat on most issues. Even if the people of the GDR voted all together in strong contrast to the rest - which they dont, there are strong regional differences - it would not paralyze the system. Contrast that with the veto power of a very small country like Hungary in the EU. As it stands now, neither the EU nor Turkey is ready for membership. Maybe in a few decades, but for now that is a pipe dream.


I did just that. That saves one step, but still no name in the quote.

Tac, after you mark the part of the text you want to copy look to the left/down corner...the grey button comes alive....with the name of the poster, it is now clickable, do it...not before!

Turkey could be as democratic as Denmark and have a transgender Prime Minister - and it would still not be admitted into the EU.

This is what Erdogan says, at least.

He thinks, and I think so too - that the real reason it is not being admitted, is because Turkey is Muslim.

Corrupt, dysfunctional, and war-torn Ukraine is literally being dragged into the EU. But Turkey which has been waiting since the 1980s, will have to wait some more.

It is not "dragged", it never was....or it would be already a member.

Every EU member knows that the rebuilding would cost the EU again Billions....and an admission has to be unanimous! That just never happened....

It is a virtual certainty that Ukraine will join the EU.

Even Putin recently said that Russia recognizes Ukraine's sovereign right to join the EU, but not NATO.

The Eastern Europeans in Brussels - like Kaja Kallas - always talk up the idea of Ukraine joining rapidly. Tusk has talked about it. Pavel in Czechia has spoken about it.

Turkey - meanwhile - had signed its Association Agreement with the EU back in 1963 (Ukraine did in 2013). It applied for full membership in 1987 (when such a country as Ukraine did not yet exist).

Then several things happened. First the Berlin Wall fell, and German Reunification started. Then the Soviet Union collapsed. Nobody had much interest to discuss Turkey in this context.

The "nail in the coffin" came in 2004, when Cyprus was admitted. Cyprus will never allow Turkey to join, without Turkey deoccupying Northern Cyprus. Turkey will never de-occupy Cyprus.

So... Turkish authoritarianism, or lack of progress in reforms, etc - is all a sham. Erdogan has only been around for 20 years, and only for ten of those has he been acting like a dictator. Meanwhile, Turkey has been facing a brick wall in admissions long before that.

I know at least of one country which will veto it....Hungary!

But there will be more, alone thinking of the EU budget.....


Even as it starts to sound like a bad record: a NATO membership was never in the cards!

That's all made up by Putin to justify his invasion....

Orban can be made to see Ukraine's accession favorably.

Orban's big thing, which angers his neighbors and the domestic liberal opposition, is handing out Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia, Romania, and other places.

These "Non-Resident Hungarians" then deliver Orban big election wins. They are essentially guaranteed to vote for him.

There is in Ukraine a sizable Hungarian minority. It lives in the Transcarpathian Oblast. Orban has given all of them Hungarian passports. He uses the defense of their interests as a cover for him running offense for Putin otherwise.

Anytime people begin accusing Orban of being Putin's puppet, he trots out the issue of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

So what I think Orban would want in exchange for lifting a veto is Ukraine carving out a large degree of autonomy for its Hungarians. Also, Ukraine resuming supplies of Russian gas and oil to Hungary.

What other countries do you think are staunch opponents of Ukrainian membership? I can think of at least one more - Slovakia. It has similar hangups as Hungary - defense of Slovakian minority and access to Russian energy via Ukraine.

lol what szlachta? If anyone talks about szlachta seriously those either some kind of nutters or very pretentious people.
----

It is faded. You are imperialists without imperium. I guess you need a few more decades to get it over with, and face the reality.
---

We are working hard to reverse such a trend. Won't be the first time either.
---

No, it won't. If Ukraine by some fluke becomes a part of the UE. There won't be EU anymore.
Unless we are talking about perspective of 40 years maybe.

That is super interesting, I didn't know that....

But still...there is the big question of the monetary support. Usually Germany would be on the forefront, with all counting on Germany to take over the biggest part of the cost...buuuut that was during better times. Now are not so great times and we have to scratch together the Euros to get our own country working again....that is just not the time to take on additional huge costs which come usually with rebuilding a country up to EU standards, not to mention a country destroyed by war.

I would not underestimate that part.....

Care to explain?

In 2004, ten countries joined the EU, with a combined population of 75 million people.

The original members were able to pull this weight without breaking their backs.

Now a much expanded and considerably wealthier EU has to absorb approx 30M Ukrainians.

Should be easy, no?

Not right now, no!

The EU is deep in crisis....as is the world around us, reforms are needed and we are broke!

Not a good time to join....

2004 was the end of a process that gradually took 14 years for those countries to be molded more or less into shapes acceptable for the members.
To take in out of the blue from Sunday to Monday a country like Ukraine without adjustment of laws, and regulations and without shaping its economy would be disastrous. Only their agriculture would blow away all EU production and so on.
Also as BB said there are issues in the EU that need to be addressed, admitting another country right now will only destabilize the EU further.
---
BB would you like to add something?

The big question - I suppose - is does it produce a net positive gain for Germany over the long run.

The Euro is essentially the Deutschmark in disguise. Germany has managed to avoid having an extremely strong currency, by diffusing it across the entire continent. While things became substantially more expensive for Greeks and Portuguese, before they were able to meaningfully compete - the Germans were rewarded with a "weak" Euro which turbocharged Germany's exports to number 1 in the world.

We can look at the example of Poland, no? In 2004, Polish German bilateral trade was approx €25B. In 2022, it was already €167B. Since 2020, Poland has overtaken Italy as Germany's 5th biggest trading partner.

Germany now sells Poland almost $100B of goods annually. This is good for Germany - I would think.

So the question then, is could Ukraine be a similarly good "investment" for Germany? There are arguments for and against.

Many people have argued the "for", so I will argue against:

1) Ukraine in 2025 and Poland in 2004 are different animals. First and foremost demographically. Poland in 2004 was a much younger country, with a structurally larger labor pool than modern Ukraine. Ukraine is now a land of pensioners.

2) Ukraine is destroyed by war, and Poland in 2004 was not.

3) Ukraine is substantially more corrupt than Poland in 2004, or even Bulgaria and Romania in 2004 - and that's saying a lot.

...sorry....


Alone the fact that admission would mean total open borders to millions of move-willing Ukrainians must be the stuff of nightmares in the Reichstag right now.....even if the Industry would cheer that would mean the AfD ruling afterwards.