EU parliament says Turkey must recognise "genocide"

[Hovik]

Financial Times, UK
Oct 1 2005

Talking Turkey
Published: October 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2005 03:00

It is no surprise that the European Union's plan to start membership
talks with Turkey on Monday should be a cliff-hanger right to the
end. The desultory courtship between Brussels and Ankara, over nearly
40 years, reflects the controversy surrounding Turkey's candidacy.
For, if or when Turkey takes its seat in Brussels in a decade or
more, it would be the Union's poorest and most populous member, with
the biggest vote in the Council of Ministers. To complicate matters
further, the onus on Turkey to prove its European values will be
heavier than it was for previous accession candidates within the
conventional boundaries of Europe


The cliff-hanger arises from Austria's insistence that, in the
negotiating mandate that EU governments must agree for accession
talks to open, Turkey should be offered an explicit "partnership"
alternative to full membership. All 24 other EU states, and the Turks
themselves, are content for the mandate to contain only a vaguely
worded fall-back to create the "strongest possible bond" between
Ankara and the EU if in the end full membership talks fail. Britain,
desperate to chalk up the first achievement of its half-year EU
presidency by launching Turkish accession talks, has called a special
foreign ministers meeting tomorrow night to press Austria to back
down.

Austria's behaviour is part tactical; it is holding out for parallel
accession talks with its neighbour, Croatia. But it is also visceral
for some Austrians who see themselves saving Europe from the Turks,
as at the gates of Vienna in 1683, and certainly share an allergy to
further enlargement with voters in the French and Dutch referendums.

But diluting the potential prize for Turkey would be a serious
mistake. The only way the EU can exert full leverage on Turkey to
reform is to keep the carrot of full membership dangled in front of
it.

At the same time, however, the Turks must realise at the outset what
EU full membership means. Some of them seem to be under the illusion
that negotiating it is a bit like bargaining in the bazaar: haggle
and then split the difference. But in accession talks EU policies and
rules are largely non-negotiable; the main argument concerns only how
long the applicant is given to adopt them.

In Turkey's case, it is particularly important the EU stands firm in
three areas. First, Turkey must show itself a functioning democracy
that upholds human rights and freedom of religion and non-belief.
Ankara has taken big strides in this field recently, but still has
far to go. Second, it must have a working market economy. Turkey has
a decade-old customs union with the EU, but is hardly
corruption-free. Third, it must settle minority and historical issues
better than it has so far managed to come to terms with its Kurds and
the Armenian question.

No one can now know if Turkey will make it into the EU. But Brussels
has designed its mandate to ensure Turkish progress along the way. It
will wait for reforms to be adopted and implemented in Turkey before
closing each part of the negotiations.

This is undoubtedly a tougher approach to Turkey than to previous
applicants. But the challenge is tougher; Turkey is too big for
Brussels to botch its incorporation. The times, too, are tougher. At
least one EU country, France, will make its final verdict on Turkish
entry by referendum. And if Turkey's application has not been
thoroughly tested by EU negotiators, it will not survive such a vote.

[Hovik]

The Independent, UK
Oct 1 2005

Analysis: Turkey - on Europe's doorstep, but still so far from
joining the club
By Peter Popham
Published: 01 October 2005
Joining the European Union is the great Turkish dream.

However distant the goal, however bitter many Turks may feel about
the disdain in which their country has been held since it first
applied 40 years ago, that dream has endured.

Membership could transform the economy of this still impoverished
nation. The process of qualifying for membership has already changed
much in the country and will change more before it's over.

Even if the diplomatic waters can be smoothed for negotiations to
begin on Monday, it will be at least 10 years before the 70
million-strong, predominantly Muslim nation becomes one of us: a
fully-fledged member of the EU.

Like the accession of any new member, the arrival of Turkey on
Europe's doorstep is all about economics, trade, social reform,
democracy, criminal justice, media freedom - everything that
constitutes a modern state.

Many of these factors are already in Turkey's favour: it is in many
ways far better prepared for membership than the former Warsaw Pact
countries. It was on our side of the Iron Curtain for all those
years. It is a key member of Nato.

It has had a customs union with the EU since 1996: trade in goods has
already been liberalised, and more than half of Turkey's trade is
already with the EU. It has already adopted many EU rules, such as
those regarding intellectual property and competition. There is no
wholesale privatisation that must be undertaken. The democratic
system is looking increasingly stable and mature. The death sentence
has been abolished.

But uniquely in the case of Turkey, membership is not just about the
nuts and bolts of belonging to the EU. It is also a profoundly moral
issue, for both sides. Whether we admire or despise the EU we don't
often think about it in moral terms. But with Turkey, the moral
questions cannot be dodged.

One week ago, a group of scholars in Istanbul braved the eggs and
rotten tomatoes of protesters to attend an extraordinary conference.
They were there to discuss the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in the
dying years of the Ottoman empire.

Raising this subject has been taboo in Turkey ever since. It is as if
Germany had risen again after the Second World War with no public
admission, ever, of how the Nazis murdered six million Jews, and as
if they had lived and prospered in denial for the best part of a
century. But despite hitches, threats, two cancellations by judges
and all-round hysteria, Turkey last Saturday finally got round to
discussing "the first genocide of the 20th century".

Orhan Pamuk, the celebrated Turkish novelist, told a Swiss newspaper
earlier this year: "Almost no one dares speak about these things but
me." To his country's lasting shame, he is to go on trial in December
for mentioning what Turkey did to the Armenians and the Kurds. But
now at least he is not quite so alone.

The conference was the work of the EU. "This is a fight of 'can we
discuss this thing, or can we not discuss this thing?'" a member of
the organising committee said at the start of the conference. Well,
the discussion finally went ahead. It was the EU's - and Turkey's -
finest hour for some time.

The question posed at last week's conference was: "Is this country
forged out of the Ottoman empire's ashes less than a century ago
mature enough to admit the ugly stains in its history and move
forward?"

If it's not, the EU's door will undoubtedly be slammed on it. But if
it can find those inner resources, the dream of Ataturk may finally
be realised.

Turkey, whose inhabitants down the centuries were masters of empires
as far-flung as the Mogul empire in India, the Safavids in Iran and
the Mamelukes if Egypt, can become a modern secular state to compare
with any in the West. For Europe the moral dimension is even greater
- intimidatingly large for many. How big is Europe, in its heart and
soul? Is it a cosy, well-heeled, Christian, white man's club,
devoted, through things like the Common Agricultural Policy, to
keeping happy those who are already fat; keeping the Old Continent
looking picture-postcard perfect, while accepting with ever worse
grace a fraction of the huddled masses battering at the door? If
that's what Europe is, it is obviously doomed, as all the latest
demographics make clear. It's on the way out, as obviously and
miserably as was the South Africa of apartheid.

Or does it have the courage and the wit to avoid that fate? Most of
Turkey will never be European the way Vienna, Paris and Prague are
European. But Seville, Palermo and Venice are also European cities;
and in all of them, Christian and Islamic strands are interwoven just
as in Istanbul.

The identities of Europe and Islam are the products of more than a
millennium of bitter conflict. But Britain and France were enemies
for centuries as well: the European project is all about banishing
war and the threat of war.

Never before has a huge Islamic nation asked for Europe's recognition
the way Turkey has been asking these past decades. Turkey is the
peaceful bridge to Islam of which the West is in desperate need.

Sticking points in Turkey's progress towards full EU membership

Turkey's status

Austria wants Turkey to negotiate "privileged partnership" instead of
full EU membership as advocated by the rest of the EU. Turkey has
warned it will not accept "second class" status.

Croatia

The Balkan state has become a bargaining chip in negotiations.
Austria wants talks on Croatian accession to begin immediately, but
issue is linked to co-operation with the war crimes tribunal.

Muslim issue

Austria isolated in opposing entry of a Muslim nation to the
"Christian" EU after France switched position to ally itself with UK
and Germany, which favour embracing Turkey.

Joining the European Union is the great Turkish dream.

However distant the goal, however bitter many Turks may feel about
the disdain in which their country has been held since it first
applied 40 years ago, that dream has endured.

Membership could transform the economy of this still impoverished
nation. The process of qualifying for membership has already changed
much in the country and will change more before it's over.

Even if the diplomatic waters can be smoothed for negotiations to
begin on Monday, it will be at least 10 years before the 70
million-strong, predominantly Muslim nation becomes one of us: a
fully-fledged member of the EU.

Like the accession of any new member, the arrival of Turkey on
Europe's doorstep is all about economics, trade, social reform,
democracy, criminal justice, media freedom - everything that
constitutes a modern state.

Many of these factors are already in Turkey's favour: it is in many
ways far better prepared for membership than the former Warsaw Pact
countries. It was on our side of the Iron Curtain for all those
years. It is a key member of Nato.

It has had a customs union with the EU since 1996: trade in goods has
already been liberalised, and more than half of Turkey's trade is
already with the EU. It has already adopted many EU rules, such as
those regarding intellectual property and competition. There is no
wholesale privatisation that must be undertaken. The democratic
system is looking increasingly stable and mature. The death sentence
has been abolished.

But uniquely in the case of Turkey, membership is not just about the
nuts and bolts of belonging to the EU. It is also a profoundly moral
issue, for both sides. Whether we admire or despise the EU we don't
often think about it in moral terms. But with Turkey, the moral
questions cannot be dodged.

One week ago, a group of scholars in Istanbul braved the eggs and
rotten tomatoes of protesters to attend an extraordinary conference.
They were there to discuss the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in the
dying years of the Ottoman empire.

Raising this subject has been taboo in Turkey ever since. It is as if
Germany had risen again after the Second World War with no public
admission, ever, of how the Nazis murdered six million Jews, and as
if they had lived and prospered in denial for the best part of a
century. But despite hitches, threats, two cancellations by judges
and all-round hysteria, Turkey last Saturday finally got round to
discussing "the first genocide of the 20th century".

Orhan Pamuk, the celebrated Turkish novelist, told a Swiss newspaper
earlier this year: "Almost no one dares speak about these things but
me." To his country's lasting shame, he is to go on trial in December
for mentioning what Turkey did to the Armenians and the Kurds. But
now at least he is not quite so alone.

The conference was the work of the EU. "This is a fight of 'can we
discuss this thing, or can we not discuss this thing?'" a member of
the organising committee said at the start of the conference. Well,
the discussion finally went ahead. It was the EU's - and Turkey's -
finest hour for some time.
The question posed at last week's conference was: "Is this country
forged out of the Ottoman empire's ashes less than a century ago
mature enough to admit the ugly stains in its history and move
forward?"

If it's not, the EU's door will undoubtedly be slammed on it. But if
it can find those inner resources, the dream of Ataturk may finally
be realised.

Turkey, whose inhabitants down the centuries were masters of empires
as far-flung as the Mogul empire in India, the Safavids in Iran and
the Mamelukes if Egypt, can become a modern secular state to compare
with any in the West. For Europe the moral dimension is even greater
- intimidatingly large for many. How big is Europe, in its heart and
soul? Is it a cosy, well-heeled, Christian, white man's club,
devoted, through things like the Common Agricultural Policy, to
keeping happy those who are already fat; keeping the Old Continent
looking picture-postcard perfect, while accepting with ever worse
grace a fraction of the huddled masses battering at the door? If
that's what Europe is, it is obviously doomed, as all the latest
demographics make clear. It's on the way out, as obviously and
miserably as was the South Africa of apartheid.

Or does it have the courage and the wit to avoid that fate? Most of
Turkey will never be European the way Vienna, Paris and Prague are
European. But Seville, Palermo and Venice are also European cities;
and in all of them, Christian and Islamic strands are interwoven just
as in Istanbul.

The identities of Europe and Islam are the products of more than a
millennium of bitter conflict. But Britain and France were enemies
for centuries as well: the European project is all about banishing
war and the threat of war.

Never before has a huge Islamic nation asked for Europe's recognition
the way Turkey has been asking these past decades. Turkey is the
peaceful bridge to Islam of which the West is in desperate need.

Sticking points in Turkey's progress towards full EU membership

Turkey's status

Austria wants Turkey to negotiate "privileged partnership" instead of
full EU membership as advocated by the rest of the EU. Turkey has
warned it will not accept "second class" status.

Croatia

The Balkan state has become a bargaining chip in negotiations.
Austria wants talks on Croatian accession to begin immediately, but
issue is linked to co-operation with the war crimes tribunal.

Muslim issue

Austria isolated in opposing entry of a Muslim nation to the
"Christian" EU after France switched position to ally itself with UK
and Germany, which favour embracing Turkey.

[Hovik]

Financial Express, India
Oct 1 2005

No key in sight for Turkey's EU bid

Why is so much going wrong for a major western ally?

SUBHASH AGRAWAL
Posted online: Saturday, October 01, 2005 at 0028 hours IST

If there is a country even more buffeted than India by contradictory
geopolitical pulls and pressures in a post-9/11 and post-Iraq world,
it is perhaps Turkey. The country's painful quest for a clear
definition is mirrored in the sharp contrasts in Istanbul, an
amazingly beautiful and historical city which straddles two
continents with just the slightest hint of self-consciousness.

The Eurasian interface can often be sharp, with ancient mosques
sitting in proximity to nightclubs, or the burqa and bikini mingling
on Black Sea beaches. In the daytime, Istanbul is a visual collage of
majestic minarets, labyrinthine bazaars and winding alleys, all with
a rather Ottoman buzz, but in the evening large parts of the city
come to resemble Berlin or Stockholm, pulsating in a very
cosmopolitan way to the sound, sight, smell and rhythm from hundreds
of shops, restaurants, bars and art galleries.

Turkey is a happening and waiting-to-happen place all at once, a
country that surprisingly finds itself still being viewed with
hesitation by the West even though it has travelled further than any
other to consciously jettison its historical baggage in fundamental
ways.

Under Kemal Attaturk, modern Turkey, coming out from under the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire, began its quest for a European
character and visage. It declared itself secular, replaced its
millennia-old Arabic script with the Roman script, and passed laws
obliging people to adopt western dress. This cultural big bang was
followed by quiet consolidation of its political links through much
of the 20th century. It joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
(Nato) and then the Council of Europe, and during much of the Cold
War, it was a key western bulwark against the dreaded might of the
Russian bear.

The end of the Cold War has not been very kind to what is perhaps the
only true westernised democracy in the whole Islamic world and what
is clearly a sizable military and economic power, even though its
importance has been reinforced by a growing network of hydrocarbon
pipelines from the oil-rich Caspian region that pass through it.

A range of political issues are dangerously poised against Ankara
these days: the Kurdish problem has revived, the country is under
renewed global pressure to accept, if not atone, its Armenian
history, and relations with its single biggest ally, the US, remain
frosty over the Iraq war.

However, Turkey's single biggest concern at this time is its bid for
EU membership, a doggedly pursued and emotionally charged enterprise
over which formal negotiations are to begin this coming week in
Brussels. This is once again in trouble, this time strongly opposed
by Austria and not just by France, Poland and the Vatican. Turkey
even risks losing its biggest supporter, Germany, if Angela Merkel,
the CDU/CSU leader, manages to head the next government, as is widely
expected under a fragile coalition. Merkel is firmly opposed to
Turkish entry into the EU, favouring a privileged partnership, which,
of course, Turkey sees as an insulting downgrade and will not accept.


While the cultural nuances and discussion points of this
I-Am-European-No-You-Are-Not are endless, what is increasingly
evident is that Turkey now risks losing ground over the 30 year-old
Cyprus dispute. Turkish commentators and foreign policy experts are
now witnessing a horror in slow motion, with the possibility of an
externally forced solution (as a pre-condition for EU membership)
increasing every day.

Turkey's bid to wrest a separate state based on ethnicity was always
unviable and without any global support, but till last year there
were hopes that the Turkish and Greek sides of the divided island
state might get more or less equal status. That now looks
increasingly unlikely.

The irony is that this overcharged debate over EU membership has
distorted many pragmatic attempts to find a reasonable and
face-saving solution over Cyprus. Now, it just may be that by pushing
Turkey on this issue, the EU will unwittingly erode much of the
pro-western sentiment in a country already internally divided among
the modern Istanbul elite and the rural Anatolian masses. As a recent
op-ed in the International Herald Tribune put it: `Turkey is still
just muddling through toward modernity' and is delicately poised,
pulled in two different direction by its two different social
classes.

The whole nature, tenor and direction of European debate about
Turkey's membership in the EU is very important for India because of
the multiple layers of cultural, geopolitical and Kashmir-related
issues. First, how the world settles a bitter dispute like Cyprus may
be a curtain raiser on their positions over Kashmir, should we allow
the issue to become international instead of bilateral. Second,
Turkish membership in EU will test the true limits and sincerity of
European multi-culturalism. And lastly, it will have an indirect and
but eventual fallout on the debate over the clash of cultures and
moderate versus radical faith.

The writer is editor, India Focus

[Hovik]

ARMINFO News Agency
September 30, 2005

UNION OF GEORGIAN ARMENIANS HOSTS ACTION FOR RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE BY TURKEY


YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30. ARMINFO. The Union of Georgian Armenians "Nor
Serund" ("New Generation") held an action in Tbilisi, Thursday. The
action demanded recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey as a
precondition for the latter's joining the European Union.

"Nor Serund" press-service informs ARMINFO that about 100
participants of the action carried lighted-candles in commemoration
of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and notes
of gratitude in the languages of all the EU member-states, as well as
in Georgian and Armenian.

"Nor Serund" Co-Chairwoman Marie Mikoyan read out an appeal to the EU
addressed to the Head of the European Commission Mission to Georgia
Torben Holtze and handed over the letter to the local Office of the
European Commission. For conclusion, the action participants put the
posters of gratitude in front of the EU building and encircled them
with the lighted candles.

[Hovik]

The Sunday Times (UK)

October 02, 2005

Turkey cools on joining club Europe

Gareth Jenkins, Istanbul and Nicola Smith, Brussels

SIPPING a latte at a cafe in a leafy Istanbul suburb, Inci Can, 34,
looks as if she should be a natural supporter of European Union
membership for Turkey. A graduate of Exeter University, she wears
fashionable western clothes, leaves her shoulder-length hair uncovered
and travels frequently to western Europe on business.

Yet as EU foreign ministers meet today to resolve an impasse that
threatens to prevent formal talks on Turkish entry from starting on
schedule tomorrow, Can and increasing numbers of her compatriots are
questioning whether they really want to join after all.

`If the EU doesn't want us because we have a large population or an
undeveloped economy, then fair enough,' she said. `But it should say so,
not keep hiding behind new excuses. All my life I've wanted Turkey to
join the EU but in the past few weeks I've begun to think that maybe we
should stay outside.'

That Can's views are shared by many of her compatriots is evident from a
poll yesterday that showed 57% of Turks wanted to join the EU - down
from 68% a year ago. Support among workers is even lower: only 44% of
trade unionists are in favour and a mere 24% believe that Turkey will
ever be admitted.

They may be right to feel unwanted: just over half of people in the EU's
25 countries oppose Turkish entry. In Austria, the country leading the
opposition to full EU membership for Turkey, eight in 10 are against.

At an emergency meeting in Luxembourg tonight, Jack Straw and other EU
foreign ministers will put pressure on the Austrians, who have insisted
the Turks be told from the outset they have to make do a `privileged
partnership' that stops short of full membership. Diplomats say the hard
line taken by Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian chancellor, has been
dictated in part by regional elections today and hope he will soften his
stance once polls close.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has refused to proceed
with membership talks if there is any downgrading of his country's
prospective EU status.

For Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country of 70m people, it is the
apparent whiff of racism - coupled with suggestions that it is not fit
to join a `Christian club' - that especially rankles.

One of the main stumbling blocks is Turkey's refusal to recognise the
Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia with which it has been at odds since
a breakaway Turkish republic was established in the north of Cyprus in
1974. Many Turkish nationalists also fear that they might be obliged to
make their country's 13m Kurds equal partners in a federal state.

The mood has been further soured by a European parliament resolution
last week making it a precondition for membership that Turkey should
formally recognise the killing of 1.5m Armenians between 1915 and 1923
in the last days of the Ottoman empire.

Turkey's poor human rights record also remains a matter of contention. A
two-year investigation by Mental Disability Rights International, a
Washington-based lobby group, revealed last week what it described as
`inhuman and degrading conditions of confinement' in Turkey's mental
health and social services system. A recent report by Amnesty
International, the human rights group, found torture and ill-treatment
continue to be a widespread problem.

While Can is seething quietly at European attitudes to her country,
Turkish politicians and businessmen are finding it difficult to contain
their anger.

At a rally on Friday Erdogan gave one of his strongest hints yet that
Turkey might walk away if the EU continues upping the ante. `They should
behave as honestly as Turkey,' he said. `If we don't see this honesty
then the response we shall give will be very very different to the
responses we have given to date.'

Omer Sabanci, chairman of the Turkish Businessmen's and Industrialists'
Association, said those supporting a `privileged partnership' were
`exhibiting a 19th century mentality'.

This morning the ultra-militant Nationalist Action party (MHP) will bus
tens of thousands of demonstrators to Ankara, the capital, to protest
against what it regards as the EU's unacceptable demands. `Membership
should be honourable,' said Mehmet Sandir, its vice-chairman. `It should
not convene our national interests or distort our history.'

For Straw, finding a way out of the impasse at tonight's meeting is of
vital importance. The successful launch of entry talks would be one of
the few tangible achievements of Britain's six-month EU presidency.

However, matters have been further complicated by the entanglement of
the Turkish issue with Croatia's bid to join the EU. This was suspended
in March over Croatia's failure to co-operate fully with the
international war crimes tribunal over the search for Ante Gotovina,
indicted as an alleged war criminal.

Austria is one of the strongest backers of the Croatian application.
Carla del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, who visted Croatia
this weekend, was due to make a statement to ministers tomorrow.
Indications this weekend were not positive.

Even if entry talks do begin tomorrow, many more hurdles remain. Angela
Merkel, expected to become Germany's next chancellor, has misgivings,
while France has promised a referendum before the Turks are finally
admitted.

Diplomats fear the last-minute hitches could reduce Turkey's enthusiasm
for the long and costly reforms that it must make to everything from the
regulation of industry to the judicial system as a precondition for
eventual membership.

Equally important, however, is the effect on the attitude of Can and
other Turks who are rapidly losing faith in an organisation they once
saw as a key to the modernisation and development of their country.

`Of course we are not perfect. We still have a lot of things to do
before we finally join,' said Can. `But we have done everything that was
asked of us in order to begin negotiations. When you join a club you
have to abide by its rules. But adding new rules only for us just isn't
fair.'

[Hovik]

Pan Armenian News

ARMENIANS OF EUROPE TO RALLY IN LUXEMBOURG ON DAY EU-TURKEY TALKS START


01.10.2005 03:26

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 3 some 3000 Armenians of Europe will hold a rally
in Luxembourg, where the official opening of the talks on Turkey's accession
to the EU is scheduled on that day. Armenians from France, Belgium, Holland,
Germany, Italy, Cyprus and Greece will arrive in Luxembourg for the event.
As noted by Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of Western Europe
Murad Papazyan, «thousands of Armenians should join the rally to confirm the
well-known fact that if talks continue for 10-15 years, during all of these
years we will keep struggling to make Turkey recognize the Armenian
Genocide.» «We come against accession of Turkey to the EU. Turkey has to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, to withdraw troops from Cyprus, to respect
human rights,» he noted. When commenting on the resolution adopted by the
European Parliament that urged Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide
before accession to the EU, Murad Papazyan called it an «important step».
The item was reflected in the resolution owing to efforts of Armenian
organizations of Europe, he added.

[Hovik]

AZG Armenian Daily #176, 01/10/2005


Turkey-EU

ARMENIA WANTS A NEIGHBOUR THAT REVALUES ITS HISTORY AND RESPECTS DEMOCRATIC
VALUES

On the eve of the EU-Turkey negotiations on 3 October, the National Press
Club organized discussions with the participation of central political
parties of Armenia.

Representative of the Republican Party, Samvel Nikoyan, said that Armenia is
not the only country that is interested to see Turkey revaluing its history
and adhering to democratic values, respecting human rights and rights of
national minorities. Khosrov Harutyunian, chairman of the
Christian-Democratic Party, thinks that in order to have such a neighbor,
Armenia has to use the created situation and to put certain Armenian issues
into the European bunch. Representative of Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, Kiro Manoyan, stated that what is important in Turkey-EU
relations is that the former carries out reforms before becoming a member
but not post-factum.

Chairman of the Democratic Party, Aram Sargsian, is sure that Armenia should
view Turkey's accession to EU not only in the context of the Armenian
Genocide but also in the context of geopolitical developments, considering
the prospects of Iran-Turkey rivalry and Israel's interests that Turkey
voices.

Political analyst of daily Azg, Hakob Chakrian, reminded of the New
Neighborhood project realization of which supposes Turkey's membership.
Armenia, being supporter of the project, cannot meanwhile oppose Turkey's
bid.

Arsen Avagian, adviser of RA foreign minister, informed about official
Yerevan's stance on the issue, according to which Turkey's membership will
be viewed as positive if it stems out of materialization of the foreseen
reforms and not of a political decision.

By Nana Petrosian

[Gavur]

Admission Before Admission

ADMISSION BEFORE ADMISSION: EU PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR TURKEY TO ADMIT GENOCIDE
BEFORE MEMBERSHIP
By John Hughes, Suren Musayelyan and Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporters

Reaction to the European Parliament's call for Genocide recognition came
quickly and with predictable approval yesterday from Yerevan, as well as
abroad from long-time campaigners for acknowledgement of Turkey's crimes
against humanity nearly a century ago.

`I am confident that the discussion of Armenian issues within the context of
the EU-Turkey talks will unequivocally have a positive effect on the process
of improvement of the Armenian-Turkish relations,' said Minister of Foreign
Affairs Vartan Oskanian. `If Turkey wants to enter the European Union, then it
should be like other participants of the EU and settle its relations with its
neighbors. Of course, I regard the adoption of the resolution as a positive
phenomenon. It was supposed to be like this.'

On Wednesday the Strasbourg-based EU legislative body reiterated its long-held
stance that Turkey should admit it committed genocide when a million or more
Armenians were massacred under Ottoman forces between 1915-18. By a vote of
356-181 (with 125 abstentions) Parliament passed a resolution stating that
Turkey's membership in the EU should be considered only if Turkey meets
certain preconditions. The 3 and a half page document has one short paragraph,
but one that holds volumes of thought for Armenia:

Point 5 of Section M of the European Parliament Resolution on the Opening of
Negotiations with Turkey, says that the Parliament: `Calls on Turkey to
recognize the Armenian genocide; considers this recognition to be a
prerequisite for accession to the European Union.'
(http://www.europarl.eu.int)

While the Parliament did not suggest a deadline for recognition (or other
conditions), it did call on the EU's Commission and Council to assess whether
Turkey had met membership protocol by the end of 2006.

Turkey's refusal to call the massacres genocide and Armenia's insistence that
it do so is the primary reason why borders are closed between Armenia and
Turkey.

Wednesday's vote is not the first time that the EU Parliament has favored the
Armenian position on the volatile and divisive issue that has been an
insurmountable obstacle to normal relations in the region. It comes, though,
at a significant time, just five days before negotiations for Turkey's
membership in the EU are scheduled to begin Monday (October 3).

As of today (September 30) the opening discussions are in doubt, as Austria
has said it will participate in the talks, only on condition that Turkey be
considered for an alternative (rather than full) membership -- a condition
that Turkey has said it will have no part of. Membership can be debated only
if all 25 member states agree on the agenda. A special meeting of EU
ambassadors has been called for this weekend to attempt a consensus.
(http://www.nytimes.com/)

Though the resolution has no binding obligations on the final vote for
membership, the Parliament's characterization of recognition as
a `prerequisite for accession' is seen by some as added weight to the Armenian
position.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is not among those holding such
a position, however. He called the EU Parliament resolution `not important'.

As preliminary debate on Turkey's suitability for EU membership has focused on
contentious issues such as its relation with Cyprus and on Turkey's
unflattering human rights record, some analysts in Turkey say that the public
and leadership in Ankara are already weary of the process. And, while it may
be that Turkey would be considered for a provisional membership in the EU,
Erdogan has repeatedly said that he will not participate in any talks that
offer anything but full membership.


According to a report in yesterday's International Herald Tribune
(www.iht.com), Erdogan is already at his limit on concessions. (The paper also
quoted a political analyst who said the membership talks are `likely to last
at least 10 years'.)

Yesterday, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan refrained from comment on the
Parliament resolution, when he appeared in public at the opening of a jewelry
trade show.

Others, however, were not as reserved.

Heikki Talvitie, the European Union's special representative for the South
Caucasus, was in Yerevan yesterday and, appearing in a joint press conference
with Oskanian said: `The adoption of this resolution testifies to the fact
that issues of Armenian-Turkish relations will by all means be discussed
during the EU-Turkey talks.'

For his part, Oskanian also added that the opening of borders should be put on
the table when membership discussions begin Monday in Luxembourg (pending this
weekend's emergency session).

In Tbilisi, the Nor Serund Association of Armenians of Georgia sent a message
of gratitude to head of the EU delegation there expressing gratitude to the
European Parliament and all EU citizens.

The politically powerful Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaks) Hay Dat
Committee in Europe Chairperson Hilda Choboyan told ArmeniaNow: `This last
call before the start of entry talks with Turkey should become a guideline for
the European (Union) Council and the European Commission.'

>From the United States, Harut Sassounian, publisher of the `California
Courier' (Armenian weekly) and a loud voice for Genocide recognition told
ArmeniaNow that he is pleased with Wednesday's resolution.

`I just hope that the EU leaders will take the European Parliament's
resolution seriously and include the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as
well as the opening of the border with Armenia, among many other issues
involving the recognition of Cyprus, amending the Turkish Penal Code, and a
major overhaul of Turkey's legal system . . .'

Meanwhile in the UK, the British Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group
(BAAPPG) told ArmeniaNow the resolution is `an excellent step', but added that
it needs to be `taken further' and that `the fight for recognition must be
pursued. In the UK, there is an immediate issue to follow up: the Turkish
Parliament has written formally to the British Parliament asking them to
repudiate the Blue Book (a document in which the massacres are reported as
genocide) as baseless wartime propaganda. BAAPPG will be working against any
such move and against the powerful Turkish lobby.'

But also in the UK (itself an EU member), George Jerjian, author of `The Truth
Will Set Us Free: Armenians and Turks Reconciled', (for whom its Turkish
publisher was prosecuted) voiced pessimism.

`While on the face of it, this sounds brilliant,' Jerjian said, `the European
Parliament deceives itself that it can actually stop Turkey from joining in 10
years time, by using the Armenian Genocide condition. Turkey will have been
integrated into Europe so deeply and vice versa and it would be impossible to
reverse it. That's the reality - all else is illusion and `group think'.'

The opening of membership talks will come in a climate of considerable
scrutiny, skepticism, and out-right disapproval from some stalwart member
countries, as reflected in editorials in European press
(http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk).

Outside Armenia and Diaspora, few raise the genocide question as part of their
concern over Turkery's membership application. Germany, for example,
(according to the `Frankfurter Rundschau') is unhappy over Turkey's refusal to
recognize Cyprus. `The negotiations,' the newspaper writes `are therefore on
the brink of failure even before the first talks have been held.'

In France, `Le Temps' voiced a similar opinion on the general mood surrounding
membership talks.

`Europe,' the Paris daily says `is moving towards the opening of negotiations
with a maximum of mistrust.'

Also of note: The Times (of London) began a two-part series on Turkey today.
The first report takes the view that Turkey should not be admitted to the EU,
which is to be followed by Saturday's report in favor of admission.

>From today's installment (www.timesonline.co.uk): "Nowhere in Turkey feels
less European than Lake Van, the starkly blue inland body of water on the
country's volcanic eastern edge. At dusk the muezzin calls the faithful to
prayer, barefoot Kurdish children herd ragged sheep, and a pair of women,
ageless and faceless in the all-enveloping burka, trudge through the dust to
their mud-brick home.

" An hour to the east is Iran; to the south is blood-soaked Iraq, and to the
north, beyond Mount Ararat, lie Armenia and Georgia. Ancient, biblical and
Middle Eastern, this is the land of Noah; but if Turkey gains admittance to
the EU, it will mark Europe's eastern border . . . "

TOUGH FORUM: GENOCIDE CONFERENCE HELD IN ISTANBUL DESPITE PROTEST
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Amid protests from Turkish nationalists, a lawsuit by the Union of Lawyers of
Turkey, and even objections by Turkey's Minister of Justice, a conference that
addressed the Armenian Genocide was held last week in Istanbul.
During two days, historians and others debated and discussed the fiery issue
(which two days ago became a focal point of attention by the Parliament of the
European Union. See Admission before Admission).

The conference `Ottoman Armenians in the Period of the Collapse of the Empire:
Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy' was originally planned for
last May, but activists and politicians were successful in having it stopped.

`Turkey's aspiration to become a member of the European Union requires
considerable democratic processes,' said one of the forum organizers, Turkish
historian Murad Begle. `But in Turkey, like in any society, there are forces
who are afraid to lose their strength and power. A front opposing Turkey's
integration into Europe is being formed this way.'

Turkish historians Halil Berktay, Selim Belingir, Begle and others who spoke
at the forum rather freely debated the subject of the Armenian genocide.

`The younger generation in Turkey knows nothing about the events in the early
20th century and the reason is the educational system,' said Begle. `The
Armenian Question is one of the darkest pages of our history, and naturally no
one wants to admit it. People who want to revisit and discuss the problem have
gathered in this university.'

Outside the University of Bilgi, though, several hundred demonstrators led by
representatives of the ultra-rightist Party of Nationalist Revival Kemal
Kerinciz expressed their protest over holding the forum. No specialists from
Armenia participated.

`Originally, Armenian specialists were also to participate,' says Professor of
the Yerevan University, historian Babken Harutyunyan. `However, it was
postponed through the efforts of Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek and
public organizations supporting him. I don't know whether this forum would be
held at all but for the reaction of the European Commission (who voiced
disapproval over May decision to postpone).'

`That Turkey, indeed, has traveled a long and serious path from the Turkish
republic it was in the middle of last century up to the state it is today is
beyond doubt,' said diplomat and specialist in Oriental studies David
Hovhannisyan. `With great effort Turkey is overcoming the incredible internal
resistance connected with the change of special traditions and with great
difficultly gives up even the most insignificant elements of its sovereignty.
But it still happens: several years ago nobody could even think of a
possibility of holding such a conference in Istanbul.'

Other Armenian experts hold a different opinion, as they assert that there is
nothing revolutionary in the holding of the Istanbul conference.

`Still in the late 1990s representatives of the U.S. Department of State
stated that the question of the Armenian Genocide is a subject of research not
for politicians but historians,' political analyst Armen Hakobyan said. `In
April of this year, a scientific forum took place in Yerevan in which Turkish,
Israeli and American experts participated. But scientific groups of other
countries - France, Russia, etc., where there are traditions of research of
the Armenian Genocide were not attending the conference. Obviously, the events
held in Istanbul are part of the same chain. Certainly, it was necessary for
the Turkish side to give a more complex form to this conference to show to the
world through what rigid public scrutiny they have to pass. Actually, Ankara
only benefits from such conferences during which no political tasks are put
forward.'

[Hovik]

US intervenes to rescue stalled EU Turkey talks

US intervenes to rescue stalled EU Turkey talks
By Marie-Louise Moller and Paul Taylor




The United States intervened on Monday to try to rescue membership talks between the European Union and Turkey as a diplomatic deadlock deepened hours before the historic negotiations were due to open.

EU president Britain said the 25-nation bloc was "on the edge of a precipice" after Turkish objections to a clause it fears could affect NATO membership piled on top of Austrian demands that the Muslim nation be offered an alternative short of full membership.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to assure him that the proposed EU negotiating framework would not impinge on NATO, diplomats said.

A presidency spokesman said Britain still hoped to hold the opening ceremony on Monday but it would clearly be later than the planned 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) start.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was waiting nervously in Ankara for the EU to adopt a negotiating mandate before he could set off for Luxembourg.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw telephoned Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to try to clinch agreement on a formula to satisfy Austrian concerns that the EU may not be able to absorb the vast, poor, Muslim country, diplomats said.

The United States had also contacted Vienna to try to overcome objections fueled by overwhelming public hostility to Turkish membership, they said.

Turkish financial markets yo-yoed amid the uncertainty. Stocks fell some 2.3 percent from Friday's close and the lira was down nearly 2 percent against the dollar, but both recovered in mid-afternoon amid hopes the problems would be resolved.

Rice's involvement was potentially embarrassing for the EU, highlighting its inability to solve its problems alone.

"CATASTROPHIC"

Straw told the 24 other EU foreign ministers upon resuming talks after only a couple of hours' sleep: "Yes, we are near (to a deal) but we are also on the edge of a precipice.

"If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands. If we go the wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union."

In Ankara, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of the ruling AK party that Turkey was not prepared to compromise further on the conditions for opening the long-awaited talks.

"Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU are against the alliance of civilizations. What I declare is this: the costs resulting from all this will be paid by them."

Turkey has frequently portrayed its entry to the EU as a way of bridging a gap between the Christian and Islamic worlds and easing tensions that may have fostered Islamic militancy.

Diplomats said Ankara had objected to a clause in the EU negotiating mandate that stipulates it may not block accession of EU states to international organizations and treaties.

Turkish nationalists and the powerful military argued that might prevent Turkey blocking a divided Cyprus from joining NATO. Cyprus refused to let the EU change the wording.

But diplomats said Straw and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hoped to assuage Ankara with a letter clarifying that the clause did not impinge on sovereign defense arrangements.

TIME RUNNING OUT

As the clock ticked down, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told ministers: "Time is running out. We have got to get this right. We seem so close. We cannot let this opportunity slip away."

Failure to start the talks could deal a blow to political reform and foreign investment in Turkey, a strategic country of 72 million people straddling Europe and the Middle East.

It would also deepen a sense of crisis in Europe, after referendum defeats for the draft EU constitution in France and the Netherlands, and an acrimonious failure in June to agree on a long-term budget for the enlarged bloc.

"If there is no deal, my personal judgment is that we are increasingly starting to look like a Union of failing states because we cannot make any decisions," Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks told Reuters.

Ratcheting up pressure on Austria, Straw postponed a planned review of Austrian ally Croatia's progress toward EU entry talks until the Turkey issue was sorted out.

A Turkish official said nerves in Ankara were "extremely stretched ... Every minute that passes is making things more bitter and it won't be nice starting negotiations with all these bruises."

The European Parliament compounded Turkish irritation last week by saying Turkey must recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule as an act of genocide before it can join the wealthy European family.

Several hundred Armenians staged a noisy demonstration outside the EU meeting, demanding that Turkey be forced to make amends for what they called the Armenian genocide.

[Hovik]

Turkey, EU Reach Deal for Opening Talks

Turkey, EU Reach Deal for Opening Talks
By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press Writer




Turkey and the European Union governments agreed Monday to open membership talks after Austria dropped a demand that the bloc come to some form of partnership with Ankara that would be less than full-fledged participation.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said his country had agreed to the EU's terms for opening the negotiations and that he would be coming to Luxembourg.

"We have reached agreement. Inshallah, we are departing for Luxembourg," Gul said as he left the governing party headquaters after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Foreign Ministry said Gul left immediately for the airport.

Gul earlier had delayed his departure from Ankara, insisting his country cannot accept second-class citizen status in the EU.

Austria had been resisting the bid by Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation, to join the EU and is demanding the EU grant Ankara something short of full membership in case Turkey cannot meet all membership obligations. Opening membership talks requires the unanimous approval of all 25 EU governments.

Diplomats said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik had relented, accepting language in the negotiating rules that state unambiguously that "the shared objective of the negotiations is (Turkey's) accession."

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. No specific details were released about the deal, reached after hours of arduous negotiations that began Sunday.

Failure to start the membership talks would be seen as a serious blow to the credibility of the EU, which made Turkey an associate member in 1963 with the prospect of future membership. This year, the bloc saw its proposed constitution collapse when Dutch and French voters rejected it, while a nasty spat between France and Britain over EU funding in June left it without a budget for the 2007-13 period.

In Ankara, Erdogan said he spoke to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who voiced support for Turkey's bid to start membership talks. Erdogan said he maintained "hope until the last minute" that EU leaders would overcome the deadlock.

The issue of EU member Cyprus — which Turkey refuses to recognize — complicated matters.

A French diplomat said Cyprus demanded stronger language in the negotiating mandate to ensure Turkey does not use international organizations to hinder Cyprus. The diplomat also spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

In the past, Ankara has vetoed EU-NATO military exercises involving Cyprus, where Turkey props up a renegade Turkish Cypriot state that no other country recognizes.

Cypriot officials denied they sought additional demands.

Turkey belongs to NATO, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe. But its shaky human rights and poor economic past have kept it from becoming a full EU member.

In recent years, Turkey has implemented key political and economic reforms, and now wants the EU to make good on its promise to bring it into the bloc.

The EU's 24 other foreign ministers spent eight hours Sunday trying to sway Plassnik to endorse a negotiating mandate for Turkey.

The membership talks for Turkey are expected to last a decade, at least.