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EU parliament says Turkey must recognise "genocide"

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  • #31
    DAILY MAIL (London)
    September 30, 2005

    EU REBELLION COULD SLAM DOOR ON TURKS

    by BENEDICT BROGAN. POLITICAL EDITOR


    TONY Blair's European presidency was under strain last night after
    Britain was forced to call an eleventh-hour crisis summit on Turkey's
    entry to the EU.

    Austria yesterday threatened to scupper the whole process by holding
    out for Turkey to be offered an alternative to full membership,
    something rejected by Ankara as 'second class'.

    It forced Britain to call a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
    Luxembourg on Sunday to try and break the deadlock.

    Landmark accession talks with Turkey are due to begin the following
    day.

    Mr Blair has championed Turkey's entry as an example of the West's
    positive engagement with the Muslim world at a time of heightened
    tension, and the failure of talks to get off the ground would be a
    devastating blow to his presidency.

    Mounting grassroots opposition to Turkish membership in several
    countries has jeopardised the whole accession process, which would
    see the EU expand beyond Europe's historical frontiers.

    Polls show 80 per cent of the Austrian electorate opposes the move.

    In France the public is overwhelmingly opposed, causing President
    Jacques Chirac to pledge a referendum on the issue. Likely German
    chancellor Angela Merkel is firmly against Turkey joining.

    Public opposition was fuelled this week by accusations that mental
    health patients in Turkey have been subjected to serious abuses,
    including the use of electric shock treatment without anaesthesia.

    Several countries have also been pushing Turkey to recognise EU
    member Cyprus, and the European Parliament this week called on it to
    recognise the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning
    of the 20th century as genocide.

    Yesterday, ambassadors were unable to agree even a negotiating
    framework for the accession talks - which themselves are expected to
    take ten years.

    Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul said that his country will not
    send its delegation to Luxembourg for talks on Monday unless his
    officials have seen the details of the EU's negotiating positions.

    'Of course there is a possibility that negotiations will not start,'
    he said.

    Comment


    • #32
      The Independent (London)
      September 30, 2005, Friday

      LEADING ARTICLE: ACCESSION TALKS MUST GO AHEAD;
      TURKEY


      It didn't rate a mention in his speech to the Labour Party
      conference, although it did produce an impassioned plea from his
      Foreign Secretary in Brighton. But Turkey's application for
      membership of the European Union is likely to be the first major test
      of Tony Blair's presidency of the EU. And a crucial challenge to his
      and Jack Straw's powers of persuasion.

      The UK has always been strongly in favour of accession talks with
      Turkey, and rightly so. If the Union is to keep expanding to its
      geographic and historic shape, if it is to act as a catalyst for
      democratic change in the surrounding regions, and if it is to prove a
      means of bringing Islam into cohabitation with the Christian West,
      then there could be no better candidate for inclusion than Turkey. It
      straddles the straits between East and West, it has a strong secular
      and pro-Western tradition dating from the time of Kemal Ataturk, it
      has been a stalwart member of Nato alongside the Western European
      countries, and it has made a clear policy decision and started on the
      steps necessary to join the Union.

      A year ago the road seemed fairly straight and even. The Commission
      was in favour, most of the member states had expressed approval and,
      with a final meeting of the EU foreign ministers next Monday, a start
      to negotiations (expected to last 10 years, it should be added) would
      be under way.

      All that has now been jeopardised by growing dissension in the
      European Parliament, the open opposition of Angela Merkel in Germany
      and Nicolas Sarkozy in France, and now the Austrian refusal to go
      along with a vote in favour at the meeting of permanent
      representatives of the member states this week. An emergency meeting
      of foreign ministers has been called in Luxembourg on Sunday in a
      last-ditch effort to save the talks.

      Agreement will be far from easy. Quite aside from the thorny issues
      of Turkish responsibility for the Armenian massacres and its refusal
      to recognise Cyprus, there is Austria's last-minute demand that
      Turkey be offered partnership rather than full membership " a
      suggestion which Turkey indignantly and understandably refuses as
      changing the rules of the game at the last moment.

      The real worry is that time is slipping away from these talks.
      Opposition to Turkish membership is building in the Union, while
      nationalist antagonism to Europe's prevarications and changes of mind
      is rising in Turkey. If negotiations are to proceed, then the
      timetable has to be kept. If ever there was a time for Tony Blair to
      exercise his undoubted skills of charm and persuasion, it is now.
      Otherwise an historic opportunity may be lost, with incalculable
      effect on future relations with the Muslim world.

      Comment


      • #33
        EIU European Voice
        September 29, 2005 Thursday Turkey

        Turkey talks move closer, but MEPs postpone customs deal


        The opening of accession negotiations with Turkey moved closer
        yesterday (28 September) after the European Parliament backed plans
        to start talks next week. But in a serious political blow to Turkey,
        MEPs decided to postpone a vote on an EU-Turkey customs agreement, as
        a sign of frustration with Ankara's refusal to recognise Cyprus.

        MEPs demanded a guarantee that the Turkish parliament, when it
        ratifies the extension of the customs union with the EU's ten newest
        member states, including Cyprus, will drop the Turkish government's
        unilateral declaration that this would not amount to recognition of
        Cyprus.

        Some MEPs reacted angrily to the decision to postpone approval of the
        protocol. Dutch Green deputy Joost Lagendijk, chairman of the
        Parliament's Turkey delegation, said: "It sends a very bad signal."

        UK Liberal MEP Andrew Duff said: "The decision is short-sighted and
        mean-spirited and will particularly affect the ten new member states.
        It sows distrust between the two sides and delays the possibility of
        relaxing the financial and trade embargo against Turkish North
        Cyprus."

        The European Commission said that it deplored the Parliament's
        decision to withhold approval of the customs protocol, describing it
        as "an own goal" for the EU.

        The protest was led by the centre-right European People's Party
        (EPP-ED) but was supported by a cross-party coalition of MEPs.
        Socialist deputy group leader Jan Marinus Wiersma said: "We deplore
        the stance Turkey has taken on Cyprus and the way it has cast serious
        doubt on its willingness to implement the protocol extending the
        Ankara Agreement to the ten new member states." The Socialist leader
        Martin Schulz said that Turkey should recognise Cyprus during the
        negotiations. "This cannot be at the end of the negotiations. It must
        take place immediately, within the first one or two years," he said,
        adding that without such recognition, accession talks should be
        broken off.

        Parliament also said that it considered Turkish recognition of the
        Armenian genocide "to be a prerequisite for accession".

        During the debate Hans-Gert Pottering, the EPP-ED leader, attacked EU
        leaders' tolerant attitude towards Turkey and their tough stance on
        Croatia. Talks with Croatia, initially planned to start last March,
        have been postponed because of the government's alleged failure to
        help bring a war criminal before international justice. The
        Socialists' leader hit back accusing Pottering of religious
        discrimination: "You don't want Turkey in because it is Islamic and
        far away. Croatia is closer and is Catholic," Schulz said.

        Comment


        • #34
          Agence France Presse -- English
          September 30, 2005 Friday

          Turkish press angered, frustrated by EU deadlock

          ANKARA

          Turkish newspapers Friday wondered whether the country's decades-old
          efforts to integrate Europe are going down the drain as simmering
          tensions on the eve of Turkey's accession talks appear to exasperate
          even the staunchest proponents of EU membership.

          In a front-page "Historical Warning" to the European Union, the
          mass-selling daily Sabah appealed to European leaders to leave aside
          domestic political concerns and clear the way for membership talks
          with Ankara, scheduled to start on Monday.

          "We hope EU leaders, politicians and bureaucrats will realize the
          gravity of the situation," Sabah said. "It is not too late to return
          to common sense."

          Newspapers highlighted a warning by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
          that he would not go to Luxembourg for the opening of the talks if
          the accession terms the EU outlines are unsatisfactory and Ankara is
          presented with any last-minute offer other than full membership.

          Tensions mounted Thursday when the EU failed to agree on Turkey's
          negotiating conditions and called an emergency meeting for Sunday,
          leaving Ankara on the edge and doubtful of the pledges the EU made at
          its December 17 summit inviting Turkey to begin accession talks.

          The deadlock in the EU was blamed on Austria's insistence to offer
          Turkey "partnership" as opposed to full membership.

          "Are we nearing the end of the road?" asked the pro-government Yeni
          Safak, while the popular Aksam said relations were teetering "on the
          brink of a breakdown."

          The liberal Milliyet said the European Parliament threw "yet another
          bomb" into an already demoralized Turkish public opinion by calling
          on Ankara earlier this week to acknowledge that the Ottomans
          committed "genocide" against Armenians in World War I as a condition
          for accession.

          "Is the EU aware that it is playing with fire?" Milliyet said. "Even
          supporters of the EU have begun saying that enough is enough."

          The newspaper also suggested that Turkey should be prepared for a
          "timeout" in its bid to join the bloc "until minds in the EU change
          in favor of putting relations with Turkey on the track of full
          membership, under equal conditions with the others."

          Comment


          • #35
            Associated Press Worldstream
            September 30, 2005 Friday 8:53 AM Eastern Time

            Chaos ahead of membership talks underscore hesitations about letting
            Turkey into EU

            by CONSTANT BRAND; Associated Press Writer

            BRUSSELS, Belgium

            In Austria, a far-right party has plastered walls with the slogan
            "Vienna must not become Istanbul!" Polls show that not one EU country
            has a majority who support Turkey's membership bid. Turks themselves
            are wondering if it's all worth the effort.

            As chaos swirls over last-minute obstacles set up by Austria,
            Turkey's hopes of one day joining the EU - or even of starting
            negotiations Monday as planned - are increasingly in doubt.

            The opening ceremony in Luxembourg - replete with champagne toasts,
            handshakes and a celebratory dinner - has been a moment Turkey has
            coveted for over four decades. But Austria's sudden insistence that
            the EU offer Turkey a lesser partnership instead of full membership
            has thrown the process into disarray.

            Diplomats were scrambling to achieve a breakthrough Friday, as Turkey
            threatened to keep its delegation home until it saw a document
            outlining exactly what it would be negotiating for.

            The Austrian position may reflect a growing resistance on the
            continent to welcoming a poor, mainly Muslim nation whose population
            is soon set to overtake the 80 million of Europe's largest nation,
            Germany.

            "I don't think Turkey should join the EU. There's the religion - they
            still are quite fanatic - and I don't think Turkey is European
            enough. It's more Asian," said Martin Maikisch, a 23-year-old
            bookkeeper from the small eastern Austrian town of Guessing.

            In London, 42-year-old zoologist Dave Clarke was worried about
            extending Europe's borders indefinitely, saying: "I have nothing
            against Turkey per se, but the EU has to decide how far it extends.
            There has got to be a limit."

            Recent surveys across Europe have found a majority of Europeans
            oppose Turkish membership. An EU survey published this week found
            only 10 percent of Austrians support Turkey's membership, while
            support across the 25-nation bloc stood at just 35 percent.

            For EU nations struggling with high unemployment and worried they
            might have to scuttle time-honored social protections, Turkey was
            always going to be a hard sell. But the rejections by France and the
            Netherlands of the draft EU constitution have put Europeans in an
            even more inward-looking mood.

            The stinging repudiations in May and June were largely seen as a cry
            of alarm about the bloc's rapid expansion; they have even called into
            question of membership for Romania and Bulgaria, which are expected
            to join in 2007.

            Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Danish media this
            week that the EU had to heed public concerns. "My overall conclusion
            is that we must lower the pace and consolidate the EU," he said.

            Advocates of Turkish membership argue that welcoming Turkey would
            send a positive signal to the Muslim world and strengthen a crucial
            security alliance as Europe confronts the problem of terrorism on its
            own soil. The European deadlock threatens to alienate Islamic nations
            - fueling bitterness and suspicions that the West isn't willing to
            accept Muslims on equal footing.

            Turkish newspapers reflected growing anxiety that the EU is about to
            break its word. Daily Sabah newspaper devoted its entire front page
            Friday to "a historic warning" to EU leaders.

            "Does the EU realize that it is playing with fire," wrote daily
            Milliyet columnist Hasan Cemal. "There is no end to the dynamites
            being thrown" on Turkey's EU path. "They think that the Turkish
            public opinion is a stone of patience."

            Even if negotiations open on Monday, they will be tough: The EU has
            made clear the talks offer "no guarantee" of success and they are
            likely to continue for up to 15 years.

            Cyprus has raised threats of blocking the talks once they start if
            Turkey does not move quickly to recognize the island during the
            talks. Nicosia grudgingly backed off from demands earlier this month
            that Turkey recognize the EU member before the start of negotiations.

            The European Parliament this week added new demands that Turkey
            recognize the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning
            of the 20th century as genocide during the talks. And France - where
            polls show deep resistance to Turkish membership - has vowed to hold
            a referendum on Turkey's bid if negotiations begin.

            "Evidently there are cold-feet," said Fadi Hakura, a Turkey
            specialist at London's Chatham House think-tank. But he warned that
            by rejecting Turkey, the EU "would lose all influence over the
            Turkish reforms that Turkey is undergoing at the present."

            Comment


            • #36
              EuroNews - English Version
              September 29, 2005

              EU prevarication affects Turkish membership enthusiasm

              Rising nationalist sentiment in Turkey is accompanying the
              reservations expressed in Europe towards whether the Union can
              successfully take the vast mostly Muslim country of 70 million
              people. Pro-European Radikal newspaper said 'Europe is stretching
              patience to the limit'.

              Readers discovered what looked like a new pre-condition: The European
              Parliament demanding that Turks recognize as genocide the mass
              killing of Armenians 90 years ago.

              Turkish support for joining the EU has fallen from 73 percent a year
              ago to 63 percent in a recent survey. Establishment and army pride in
              the modern Turkey forged by Kemal Ataturk, still a hero for most
              Turks, remains strong. Yet reformers insist that to transform a
              Kemalist state into a democracy respecting individuals the EU
              provides the way.

              Comment


              • #37
                Kathimerini, Greece
                Oct 1 2005

                An EU stretched too far
                By Petros Papaconstantinou

                The looming collapse of Turkey's EU talks before they have even
                started confirms that, for European governments, Ankara's refusal to
                recognize Cyprus was merely a pretext used to revise their
                wrongheaded strategy. Vienna is once again halting the Sultan at the
                gates of Europe - a role that Athens and Nicosia could not afford to
                play. But the loose-tongued Austrians do not speak only for
                themselves. The recent setback in the European Parliament and French
                calls for a `clearly controlled' application process for Turkey
                indicate the change of mood.

                For how can one explain the shift of big states which - after
                pressuring Athens for years to lift its Turkey veto - have now, at
                the 11th hour, unearthed the problem of Cyprus, the Kurdish issue,
                the Armenian killings, even the cases of torture in Turkey's
                psychiatric clinics. In Turkish eyes, that can only be a sign of
                growing reluctance to let Ankara hop on the EU train.

                What the expanding alliance of Turkey-skeptics fail to see is that
                the rushed expansion of the bloc was a blunder of mammoth
                proportions. Enlargement was decided in the wake of German
                reunification as Berlin reckoned that its unmatched economic leverage
                would turn the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe into
                satellites. Britain wanted the same thing for different reasons.
                Eastward enlargement, it was believed, would put European plans for
                political and military emancipation from the US on the back burner
                and take the dismantling of Europe's social state a step further.

                In the end, it was London, not Berlin, who smiled. In this context,
                the clamor over Turkish membership has catapulted onto center stage
                the concerns over Europe's geographical stretch, which threatens to
                unravel its social and political cohesion.

                Comment


                • #38
                  Xinhua, China
                  The People's Daily, China
                  Oct 1 2005

                  Turkey expects EU to fulfill duties: FM



                  Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey had fulfilled its
                  responsibilities on the road to the European Union membership,
                  expecting the EU to do the same and conclude Turkey's entry process
                  positively.

                  Gul made the statements as Britain, which currently holds the
                  six-month rotating EU presidency, has called an emergency meeting of
                  EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Sunday in a bid to end the
                  bickering over the guiding principles of Turkey's accession talks.

                  "I cannot say anything definite about whether negotiations will be
                  opened in a few days. They may or may not be launched," Gul told
                  reporters late Friday.

                  Turkey's entry talks are scheduled to start on Oct. 3. EU foreign
                  ministers must agree on a negotiating mandate for Turkey to begin
                  talks at the Sunday emergency meeting, less than 24 hours away from
                  the scheduled negotiation date.

                  EU member state Austria insists that the ministerial talks aim for a
                  "privileged partnership" with Turkey instead of full membership.

                  Ankara rejects any second-class treatment. Gul warned that the
                  Turkish government did not think Turkey should join the EU in this
                  case.

                  "A partnership between the EU and Turkey would not be established if
                  the EU did not keep its promises, if leaders of the EU member states
                  forgot they had signed several documents or neglected their
                  signatures due to some reasons, and if they brought forward new
                  conditions which could never be accepted by Turkey," said Gul.

                  "We want to start negotiations, and we are working for this but
                  within the framework of the realities," Gul added.

                  The foreign minister also said Turkey had held meetings with leaders
                  of several EU member states, including Britain.

                  "I hope that this honest attitude of Turkey will be responded in the
                  similar way. And the entry process will go in the right track in the
                  end," he concluded.

                  EU leaders agreed last December that Turkey had carried out necessary
                  reforms on human rights, society and economy, which qualify Ankara
                  for official EU membership talks.

                  But strains flared anew after Ankara reaffirmed in July its refusal
                  to recognize the Greek Cypriot government, which joined the EU on
                  behalf of the whole island. Ankara recognized the breakaway Turkish
                  Cypriot in the north.

                  Turkey has also come under pressure to recognize what Armenians call
                  a genocide against their people by the Ottoman Empire during and at
                  the end of World War I -- an event that remains highly sensitive for
                  Turks.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Kathimerini, Greece
                    Oct 1 2005

                    At Turkey's heart, a major paradox


                    A letter by Turkish Ambassador to Paris Uluc Ozulker that was
                    published yesterday in the French daily Le Figaro in which he
                    portrayed Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, who is
                    based in Istanbul, as a local religious leader is one more piece of
                    evidence that our eastern neighbor is far from ready to come under
                    the European Union roof. Turkey has a long path to tread before
                    reaching the EU's political and institutional standards. European
                    political culture is even further away.

                    The letter by the Turkish envoy pales in comparison to the legal suit
                    against acclaimed novelist Orhan Pamuk (after his comments about
                    Turkey's killing of Armenians and Kurds) and the court decision
                    halting a conference on the Armenian massacre under Ottoman rule. But
                    the political origins of the incidents are common - they are all
                    products of Ankara's state ideology. Although clouds are gathering
                    over Turkey's EU ambitions, Ankara continues to provoke people's
                    democratic sensitivities. Sure, Turkey is not trying to put
                    additional obstacles in its path; its reaction is in keeping with its
                    character - and it is not willing to change mentality and practices.

                    True, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken significant
                    steps in introducing EU-minded legal reforms. But their
                    implementation has been sorely lacking. Moreover, Ankara seems more
                    interested in formalities than in real implementation. It all seems
                    to boil down to the big paradox at the heart of the Turkish
                    establishment: Ankara is, on the one hand, in favor of EU membership,
                    but, on the other, it fears that European principles could also
                    unmake Turkey.

                    Caught up in this internal contradiction, Ankara wants membership
                    without having to adapt. Above all, it insists on seeing itself as a
                    fortress state. Its diplomatic maneuvering underscores a desire to
                    join the bloc on its own terms. In short, Turkey wants the rights
                    without the responsibilities, which demonstrates that the candidate
                    country is a complete stranger to European political norms.

                    There is no such thing as Europe a la carte. As time goes by, Turkey
                    will be faced with an inescapable dilemma. It will either launch the
                    process that will transform it for good or the enterprise of full
                    membership will degenerate into a special partnership. Turkey has no
                    place in the European house unless it remakes itself.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Washington Times
                      Oct 1 2005

                      Turkey wary of EU intentions
                      By Sibel Utku Bila


                      ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey yesterday girded for a showdown with the
                      European Union as anger and frustration simmered over what Turks see
                      as European backpedaling on pledges to admit the Muslim country to
                      the bloc.
                      With just three days left before the start of membership talks,
                      EU countries were still wrangling over accession terms for Turkey,
                      leaving Ankara on edge and its decades-old dream of integrating with
                      Europe shrouded in uncertainty.
                      Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he would not go to Luxembourg
                      for the start of the talks Monday if Ankara is dissatisfied with the
                      EU's conditions.
                      "Undoubtedly, there is the risk of not starting membership
                      talks," Mr. Gul conceded late Thursday. "We are facing serious
                      problems."
                      In an 11th-hour bid for a breakthrough, the EU will hold an
                      emergency meeting of foreign ministers tomorrow to seek a compromise
                      on a negotiating framework -- the guiding procedures and principles
                      for the talks with Turkey.
                      The deadlock is blamed on Austria's insistence to offer Turkey
                      "privileged partnership" as an alternative to full membership, an
                      option Ankara flatly rejects.
                      Mr. Gul said he would not board the plane for Luxembourg before
                      seeing the final document, but remained hopeful of a compromise
                      despite the time pressure.
                      Turkey has been trying to join the EU since the 1960s, but its
                      place in Europe has come increasingly into question, especially since
                      French and Dutch voters rejected a planned EU constitution, partly
                      over concerns about the membership of this sizeable and relatively
                      poor Muslim country.
                      The European Parliament fueled angry accusations that the
                      admission bar is being deliberately raised for Turkey when it urged
                      Ankara earlier this week to acknowledge that the Ottoman Empire --
                      predecessor of the Turkish Republic -- committed "genocide" against
                      Armenians in World War I, as a condition for joining.

                      Comment

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