Lisa Lampinelli was funny even with her sex jokes . Amy is not . <| sep |> He is wrong . A secular Turkey integrated into the politics and economy of Europe would have done more than anything else I have been able to think of in ten years of trying to ' normalise ' Muslims in Western Europe . Prior to Erdogan , in the late 90 s there was a real and concerted effort from both sides to help Turkey prepare for formal accession negotiations and they were making slow progress . The Timetable for Entry back then had Turkey finalising compliance around 2020 , allocated two years for a comprehensive EUled effort to find some sort of ultimate solution to Cyprus , and then formal accession in ~ 2025 . All of that essentially stopped in ~ 2006 early in Erdogan ' s first term as he rolled back reforms and cancelled plans for new ones . The fact that since then looking in from outside he ' s made a series of hilariously blatant powergrabs shifting powers from the PM to the President just as he switched jobs , removal of term limits , limitations on executive liability , quashing corruption investigations which have just given endless ammunition to the actual farright crazies who roll their eyes and say that Islam is a danger to democracy . How do I answer those people now ? I could , in the past , have pointed to Turkey . I had hoped that a secular Turkey inside the EU would kill off that argument forever . Instead , I look at the Islamist President for Life and have to seriously ask myself if perhaps they weren ' t right .