EU, Turkey Clinch Deal to Launch Entry Talks

[Gavur]

Ra Hopes

Today the EU-Turkey talks have opened. How does the Armenian Foreign Ministry comment on the situation?

“The negotiations with Turkey applies a new quality to the EU-Turkey relations. Drastic changed are expected to take place in Turkey. Consequently Armenia hopes that the possibility of the EU membership will urge Turkey to open the borders with Armenia and undertake serious measures for securing the rights of the national minorities, freedom of speech and other democratic values.

We also hope that Turkey will acknowledge the Armenian Genocide as it was recognized as a precondition by the European parliament, RA MFA Spokesman Hamlet Gasparyan said.

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[Reincarnated Am]

Turks need 'cultural revolution' to join EU

Turkey must undergo a "major cultural revolution" if it is ever to join the European Union, France's President Jacques Chirac insisted yesterday.

That effort would take "at least 10 to 15 years", Mr Chirac said after a British-led diplomatic marathon cleared the way for Turkish accession talks in the early hours of yesterday.

His words captured the mixed mood of alarm and relief among EU leaders as the historic process of entry talks began. Several said that another rejection by Europe would have pushed Turkey towards "hate" and Islamic fundamentalism.

But the same leaders - many of whose electorates are strongly opposed to Turkey's entry - gave a warning that it would take at least a decade of reforms before the Muslim nation of 70 million would be ready for Union membership.

Mr Chirac, an increasingly equivocal supporter of Turkish entry, danced around the question of whether Turkey would ever make it into the EU. "Will it succeed? I cannot say. I hope so," he said. "But I am not at all sure."

France and Austria have both promised their citizens referendums on Turkish entry. A recent European Commission opinion poll showed 70 per cent of French voters opposed to Turkish entry, and 80 per cent of Austrians.



The talks opened only after weeks of intense British diplomacy. Austria fought to the bitter end to have the EU agreement with Turkey rewritten to play down the chances of full membership, only giving way an hour and a half before the scheduled start of talks.

The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said a rejected Turkey would have felt like a spurned lover.

He said: "If love is rejected, it can turn to hate."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/05/weu05.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/05/ixnewstop.html

[Gavur]

How the dreaded superstate became a commonwealth

The question to ask is not what Europe will do for Turkey, but what Turkey has done for Europe

Timothy Garton Ash
Thursday October 6, 2005
The Guardian


This week, the European Union did something remarkable. It chose to become an all-European commonwealth, not the part-European superstate of Tory nightmares. You see, the main effect of the bitterly contested opening of membership negotiations with Turkey is not to ensure that Turkey becomes a member of the European Union, which it may or may not do 10 or 15 years hence. The main effect is to set the front line of enlargement so far to the south-east that it ensures the rest of south-eastern Europe will come into the EU - and probably before Turkey. There's a nice historical irony here. Turkey, which in its earlier, Ottoman, form occupied much of the Balkans, and therefore cut them off from what was then the Christian club of Europe, is now the European door-opener for its former colonies.

Bulgaria and Romania are joining the EU in 2007 anyway. What was Austria's price for finally agreeing to the opening of negotiations with Turkey? A similar promise for Croatia! One thing leads to another. When those Balkan countries are in, they will immediately start agitating for their neighbours to join them, just as Poland is now agitating for a promise to Ukraine. No matter that those neighbours are former enemies, with bitter memories of recent wars and ethnic cleansing. The mysterious alchemy of enlargement is that it turns former enemies into advocates. Germany was the great promoter of Polish membership, and Greece remains one of the strongest supporters of Turkish membership.
When Serbia and Macedonia come knocking at Brussels' door, they will exclaim: "What, you have said yes to Turkey, but you say no to us, who are closer to you and obviously more European than Turkey?" Since these countries are mainly small, and since the EU already takes responsibility for much of south-east Europe's security and reconstruction, as a quasi colonial post-conflict power, the reluctant older members of the EU will sigh: "Oh, what the hell, one or two more small countries won't make that much difference anyway - our big headaches are Turkey and Ukraine." So they'll slip in.

The result is that, whether or not Turkey achieves membership over the next decade, by 2015 the European Union will cover most of what has historically been considered to constitute the territory of Europe. And it will have some 32 to 37 member states -for Switzerland, Norway and Iceland may eventually choose to come in, too. The frontline cases will then be Turkey and Ukraine, while Russia will have a special relationship with this new European Union.

Now only someone possessed of the deliberate obtuseness of a Daily Mail leader writer could suppose that such a broad, diverse European Union will ever be a Napoleonic, federal (in the Eurosceptic sense of the F-word), centralised, bureaucratic superstate. That's why those who do still want something like a United States of Europe think Monday was a terrible day for Europe.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the main author of the EU's stillborn constitutional treaty, was in despair, while Britain's Jack Straw was grinning ear to ear. Roughly speaking, the British hated the constitution because they thought it would create a French Europe, while the French hate enlargement because they think it will create a British Europe. Thus Giscard laments that these further enlargements "are obviously going to transform Europe into a large free-trade zone". That is what continental Europeans classically charge the British with wanting.

Indeed, that is what some Brits do want Europe to be. That's one reason Margaret Thatcher loved enlargement. I recently heard a leading member of the Conservative shadow cabinet say explicitly that he likes the prospect of further widening because it will make the EU what it should be, a large free-trade area. But they do not represent the thinking of the British government; and anyway they are wrong.

This larger Europe will be much more than a free-trade area, or it will be nothing. It already is much more. And most of these new members care passionately that it should be. To be just a free-trade zone, the EU would have to take a large step backwards even as it takes a large step forwards, and that it will not do. The prospect, rather, is of an entity that is as far beyond a free-trade zone as it is short of a centralised superstate. For want of a better term, I describe this unprecedented continent-wide political community as a commonwealth - but I have in mind something more like the early modern Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth than today's British commonwealth.

Meanwhile, I don't want you to think I'm ducking the question of Turkish membership. If we were starting from scratch, I would say that the European Union should have a special partnership (Angela Merkel's term) with Turkey, as also with Russia. Why? Because at its eastern and south-eastern borders Europe does not end, it merely fades away. It fades away across the great expanses of Turkey and Russia. Somewhere between Moscow and Vladivostok, somewhere between Istanbul and Hakkari, you find yourself more in Asia than in Europe. This only partly European character of the two countries' geography and history suggests a special partnership, for the sense of belonging to a geographical and historical unity is important for any political community of Europe.

However, we are not starting from scratch. We have promises to keep. For more than 40 years we have assured Turkey that it will belong to our European community. We have repeated, strengthened, made concrete these promises over the past decade. The example of Turkey, reconciling a mainly Islamic society with a secular state, is vital for the rest of the Islamic world - and not insignificant for the 15 to 20 million Muslims already living in Europe. When I was recently in Iran, a dissident mullah, who had been imprisoned for 18 months for criticising his country's Islamic regime, told me: "There are two models, Turkey and Iran." Which should we support? The answer is what Americans call a "no-brainer". And so the European Union, although it has no brain - that is, does not take decisions like a nation-state - has made the right choice. Turkey is an exception: not a precedent for Morocco or Algeria. For good reasons, the European Union has just decided to include a chunk of Asia.

Before that happens, however, we have to ensure two things. First, that Turkey really does meet the EU's famous Copenhagen criteria, having a stable liberal democracy, the rule of law (with full equality for men and women), a free market economy, free speech (also for intellectuals who say there was a Turkish genocide against the Armenians), and respect for minority rights (notably those of the Kurds). Turkey still has a long way to go. Second, and quite as demanding, public opinion in existing member states, such as France and Austria, must be prepared to accept Turkish membership. Between those two, you have at least 10 years' work ahead.

So, characteristically, the European Union has done something very important this week, without itself really understanding what it has done. It has not decided to make Turkey a member. It has decided that Europe will be a commonwealth and not a superstate. www.freeworldweb.net

[Gavur]

Armenians Should Squeeze Concessions Out of Turkey During EU Negotiations

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Turkey finally embarked on a journey that it had been anxiously awaiting
for more than 40 years. The long and arduous negotiations for Turkey's
membership in the European Union officially started last week and are
expected to last 10 or more years.
Armenians are of two minds over the benefits of Turkey joining the EU. Some
of them are of the opinion that Armenia is better off if its old nemesis is
kept under check by EU's strict code of conduct. Armenians in this camp
believe that a "civilized Turkey" is more apt to recognize the Armenian
Genocide, lift its blockade of Armenia, and conduct peaceful relations with
its neighbors.
Other Armenians believe that Turkey is simply going through the motions of
transforming itself, without having any honest intentions of doing so.
Besides, these Armenians believe that there are no guarantees that "an
enlightened Turkey" would be more inclined to recognize the Genocide.
Turkey could well become an EU member, and like Britain, still refuse to
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Even worse, should Turkey not change its
denialist policy after joining the EU, Armenians would be deprived of
whatever clout they may have had in creating obstacles for its EU
membership. Furthermore, Turkey would have by then the largest population
among the EU countries, and thus be entitled to have the largest number of
votes in various EU councils. Turkey could thus block pro-Armenian
initiatives and help pass pro-Turkish and pro-Azeri resolutions in the EU.
Therefore, the time to get any possible concessions out of Turkey is now,
before it joins the EU.
Whether or not Turkey eventually becomes an EU member in 10 or 15 years
from now is very difficult to determine in advance. To begin with, no one
really knows with any degree of certainty the domestic and foreign
developments that would shape Turkey's decisions and as well as the
attitudes of Europeans about Turkey years from now. Here are some of the
factors that could influence the outcome of Turkey's EU membership
negotiations:
1) The social, economic and political conditions within Turkey that would
impact its government's desire to make the extensive changes required by
the EU negotiations framework;
2) The stability of neighboring Iraq and the repercussions on Turkey
arising from Iraqi and Turkish Kurds pursuing their national aspirations;
3) The social, economic and political conditions within various EU member
states, particularly the attitude of their citizens towards the influx of
more foreign workers at a time when they may be suffering from high
unemployment and social unrest;
4) The state of negotiations on the settlement of the Cyprus problem;
5) The clout of the US government in terms of its ability and willingness
to influence the EU on Turkey's membership;
6) Whether or not more terrorist acts are committed by radical Islamist
groups, particularly in Western Europe;
7) The results of the referendums that are to be held in several European
countries on whether to allow Turkey to join the EU; and
8) The status of Armenian-Turkish relations that are partly linked to the
outcome of the negotiations on the Karabagh conflict.
While Turkey will most probably have to lift its blockade of Armenia, since
"the EU-Turkey negotiation framework" document requires that it
unequivocally commit to "good neighborly relations," the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide by Turkey is not certain at all. Aside from the repeated
non-binding resolutions adopted by the European Parliament demanding
Turkey' s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the EU itself has not made
such acknowledgment a part of its requirements for membership.
It would be naďve, if Armenians believe that they could block Turkey's EU
membership because of its non-recognition of the Armenian Genocide. If
several years from now, Turkey successfully fulfills all EU requirements
and settles the conflict in Cyprus, its EU membership would be just about
guaranteed. Armenians should not expect European countries to rise to their
defense, at the expense of their own self-interests. The Europeans would
care about Armenian issues only when they happen to coincide with or serve
their own national interests.
To be able to squeeze the maximum concessions out of Turkey, Armenia and
the Diaspora would need to make common cause with the majority of Europeans
who are strongly opposed to Turkey's EU membership. Turkish officials must
realize that unless they sit down at the negotiating table with Armenians
and try to accommodate some of their grievances, Armenians would work
tirelessly for the next 10 or more years to ensure that Turkey's membership
is delayed indefinitely. It is not in Armenians' interest to block Turkey's
EU membership, but to drag it out as long as possible. The longer the
negotiations take, the more concessions can be squeezed out of Turkey. This
is the logic behind the positions of Cyprus and Greece. Despite the fact
that they could have vetoed the start of Turkey's EU talks, Cyprus and
Greece allowed the talks to go forward with the aim of extracting
concessions from Turkey during the negotiating process. Had they used their
veto last week, they would have deprived themselves of the opportunity to
get any concessions from Turkey.
The interest of Armenians requires that, on the EU issue, Turkey remain a
bridesmaid, as long as it refuses to pay the dowry to become a bride!

[Gavur]

Interview With Patrick Devedjian:"Turkey Has Given No Evidence Of Democracy"

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg125243.html

[Gavur]

Discussions On Turkish Membership Of The Eu Have Sparked A Heated Debate.

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg126393.html

[Gavur]

Turkey: Prove It

By Hugh Fitzgerald

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008658.php#more

October 22, 2005

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the present
Western stance toward Turkey, as epitomized by former General Brent
Scowcroft, and recommends an alternative:

"Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc has said, 'we have always
felt contributions of the United States to Turkey`s EU process.' Arinc
hosted dinner in honor of Brent Scowcroft, chairman of the Board of the
American-Turkish Council (ATC), and accompanying delegation in Ankara
on Thursday." - from this article, October 21, 2005 Brent Scowcroft,
chairman of the Board of the American-Turkish Council (ATC). Well,
of course. It makes sense. Hard-on-Israel ergo soft-on-Islam Brent
Scowcroft. The chocolate soldier who rose through the ranks, like the
Gilbert-and-Sullivan admiral who polished up the handle of the big
front door and became a captain in the Queen's navee, Scowcroft has
a lifetime of polishing, apple-polishing for his civilian superiors.

And here is Turkey, the country that wishes to enter the E.U., feting
Scowcroft. And here is the government of the United States pushing
for Turkey's admission to the E.U., which is a clear sign to all
those who think that this Administration "secretly" understands Islam
and is "just playing a clever game" (which includes all those who so
tiresomely keep defending the wonderful Light-Unto-the-Muslim-Nations
Project in Iraq). And Scowcroft is getting how much from the Turkish
government, directly or indirectly, for his new post, one no doubt
among many?

And who cares if the E.U. has as its largest member Turkey, so
that all Turks can, by the rules of the E.U., move freely anywhere
within that same E.U, and set up doner kebab shops, and mosques,
and swell the ranks still further of those ever-swelling ranks of
Muslims who, almost without exception, have everywhere they have
settled within Europe made life more unpleasant, more expensive,
and more physically insecure for the indigenous Infidels (and for
other non-Muslim immigrant groups who, unlike the Muslims, settle in
Europe without making life more unpleasant, expensive, and physically
dangerous for everyone else)? Brent Scowcroft doesn't. From desk-job
after desk-job, he rose high. And now he lives the life of comfort,
paid for by those who do not so much wish Turkey and Erdogan well,
but those, and there are so many of them, who simply want the money,
whether from Turkey pushing in its own way at the Gates of Vienna,
or Saudi Arabia trying to prevent any understanding of what Saudi
Arabia is and does and always will be and always will do.

He's a type. Brent Scowcroft. He has nothing to do with the officers
and men who were in Iraq, and some of whom are paying with their lives
for the decades of misunderstanding of Islam that these well-heeled
denizens of official Washington receive, in a thousand ways, in order
to misinform and misdirect the government, the media, and us.

Were those well-heeled denizens of official Washington suddenly to
snap to their senses, here are the three things that must be required
of Turkey before negotiations can be continued:


1. Formal recognition of the mass-murder of Armenians in 1894-96, and
the mass-murder, amounting to genocide as that term is often applied,
in the period 1915-1920.

2. Removal of the green flag of Islam from Hagia Sophia, allowing
Western (and Turkish) artisans to restore, as much as possible,
the building, and permitting the holding, in Hagia Sophia, of church
services -- so that, as a working church, Western and Turkish visitors,
both among the permanent residents and tourists, can participate in, or
observe, what was the first church in what for a thousand years was the
most largest and most important city in all of Eastern Christendom and,
for much of that time, the most important city in Christendom, period.

3. Withdrawal of Turkey from the "Islamic club" of the O.I.C. For
while the charge that the E.U. is a "Christian club" is nonsense,
the O.I.C. is definitely and openly based entirely on Islam as the
unifying and animating force. Turkey should not expect as a member of
such an "Islamic club" to be admitted into the E.U. -- see the speech
of Mahathir Mohamed to the assembled worthies of the O.I.C. to get
a sense of what goes on at these meetings.

These are not demands to be met AFTER admission. They are not demands
to be met in a few years. They should be the sine qua non, the initial
and minimal requirements that must be met.

They can't? Turkey just can't own up to its treatment of the Armenians
(not to mention its massacres of Maronites and Assyrians and others,
not to mention the mass exile of Greeks and mob violence against the
much-diminished Greek remnant in 1955, not to mention the devshirme,
not to mention the...). Too bad.

Turkey simply can't can't can't open up the Hagia Sophia and allow
it to be used again as a church, though there are mosques in every
major and minor city in Europe and North America? Why not?

Turkey can't leave that aggressive and menacing O.I.C. (see - again --
that Mahathir Mohamed speech, and the ecstatic reception it received)?

No?

Too bad. We have been told in the E.U. repeatedly that Turkey is
not like those other Muslim countries. Turkey, we are told, is a
"secular" state, Turkey is a "modern" state, Turkey is a state that
does everything it can to be a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state.

Really?

Three easy ways to begin to prove it.

If even those three steps cannot be taken, then there is no point in
further discussions. And it will be hard to make the case that any
of these requests were unreasonable -- at least in the rest of the
non-Islamic world. Although Scowcroft and his ilk will never make
even these reasonable requests.

You remember that business on television a few years ago, declaring
someone the weakest link, and wishing him (or her) an abrupt goodbye?

Well, goodbye.

[Gavur]

Netherlands to Release Report on Turkish Armed Forces

By Suleyman Kurt
Published: Monday, October 31, 2005
zaman.com


The report ‘Turkey’s Expectations of EU membership – the role of the Armed Forces,’ financed by the Netherlands Foreign Ministry will be released next month in Ankara, although one of the Turkish partners has resigned from the project.

This report questions the link between civilians and the military, and it can be used as a reference for the European Union (EU), suggesting that the General Stuff should be bound to the Ministry of Defense.


The subject was brought to the table as part of the 2004 project initiated by the Center for European Security Studies, the Center for Istanbul Studies, and the Center for the Euro-Asian Strategic Studies (ASAM).


The ASAM resigned from the project complaining about the content of the prepared report at the end of one year.


“I am objecting to the content of this report. This report came out without any concern about the reality of Turkey,” said Professor Haluk Kabaalioglu regarding the resignation. He had taken part in the preparations for the report on behalf of the ASAM. Due to the decision of the ASAM to take no further part in the project, the CESS held off the release of the report so as not to affect the negotiations that were set to begin on October 3.


The disputed report will be publicized on November 14 in Ankara. The report gives a detailed picture of the link between civilians and the military; it also discusses the position of the General Staff. It asks for the re-arrangement of civilian-military relations so as to meet EU standards. The final form of the report is in fact the updated document of the previous report. The previous report highlighted the tasks of the armed forces was not to protect the regime, but to maintain national security. The process of writing the report was supervised by the Dutch Foreign Minister, Wim van Eekelen.

[Hovik]

EUROPEAN COMMISSION AVOIDS USING WORD "GENOCIDE" IN ITS DRAFT REPORT ON TURKEY'S DEVE

EUROPEAN COMMISSION AVOIDS USING WORD "GENOCIDE" IN ITS DRAFT REPORT ON TURKEY'S DEVELOPMENT

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 5 2005

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5. ARMINFO. The European Commission avoids using
the word "genocide" in its draft report on Turkey's development,
reports Zaman (Turkey).

The report has a paragraph about Armenian-Turkish relations
that does not use the word "genocide" despite the demands of the
Armenian lobby. Instead it twice mentions "the tragic events of
1915." The report mentions Turkey's blockading Armenia's borders and
Armenian-Turkish contacts in the last year. It specifies that there
were 9 bilateral contacts in 2004.

The report also mentions Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's
proposing in a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan that
independent experts study the evens of 1915 and Kocharyan's responding
that Armenia and Turkey should first establish diplomatic relations and
only then set up a commission for examining mutual problems including
the opening of borders.

The report lso speaks about the expected meeting of the Armenian
and Turkish presidents during the EU Summit in Warsaw that never
took place.

Also mentioned are the participation of Turkish historians in the
scientific conferences held in Yerevan on the occasion of the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the official visit of Armenian
ministers to Turkey and the forum "Armenians During the Crisis in
the Ottoman Empire."

[Gavur]

EU Calls for Reform in Turkey

BRUSSELS (EUPolitix.com)--Turkey must scrap draconian laws and speed up the pace of human rights reform if Ankara is to make the EU grade, Brussels has warned.

The European Commission signaled the need for faster reforms in an annual progress report released Wednesday.

"The pace of reform has slowed in 2005," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters on Wednesday. "It still remains uneven and significant further efforts are needed--especially on women's rights and religious expression."

Rehn set out a five-point plan for Turkey: zero tolerance on torture, improved women's rights, increased freedom of expression, acceptance of religious equality, and full trade union rights.

The commission has issued Ankara a red card on freedom of speech, citing laws that criminalize the "denigration of Turkish national identity."

"Prosecutors continue to open court cases against individuals who express non-violent opinion on the basis of the new penal code. If this trend continues…the penal code will need to be amended," the commission warns.

Rehn acknowledged that this warning is an "obvious reference to Orhan Pamuk"--the Turkish novelist prosecuted for his comments on the Armenian genocide in 1915. Ankara says his remarks insult his country's national character.

Wednesday's paper also calls for urgent reform in religious freedoms. Christians and minority Muslim sects continue to complain of restrictions on religious expression throughout Turkey.

"Despite some ad hoc measures, the problems encountered by non-Muslim religious minorities persist and there is an urgent need to adopt legislation in line with the EU," the paper says.

"This is certainly one of the long-standing issues for the European commission in the context of minority rights and religious freedoms," an EU diplomat explained.

However, Rehn congratulated Turkey for its economic progress. The commission confirms that Turkey may now be granted "market economy" status--a vital hurdle on the road to membership.

"The commission has duly rewarded progress by recognizing Turkey as a functioning market economy," he explained before adding, "as long as reform is maintained in the country."

Officials in Ankara hope the new status will enhance confidence in the country's economy.

"The financial sector remains relatively weak," the commission explained. "EU standards are not entirely adopted, but there is progress towards a more transparent and efficient legal framework."


GI-Photolur photo: Papoulias and Kocharian review a presidential guard in Athens.)