EU, Turkey Clinch Deal to Launch Entry Talks

[Hovik]

H. Tchoboian: Eurocommission Should Demand That Turkey Recognize Armenian Genocide

H. TCHOBOIAN: EUROCOMMISSION SHOULD DEMAND THAT TURKEY RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Pan Armenian
10.11.2005 20:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ November 9 the Eurocommission published its
recurrent report on Turkey. In spite the document composed of 150
pages addresses the Armenian issue several times, it consistently
avoids use of the term "genocide". "The European Commission avoids a
major component of the Armenian issues - determining the stand over
the Turkish denialist policy.

The Genocide issues is considered merely as xxxxxle of freedom of
speech and a national minority problem. The European Commission does
not put forward any requirements that Turkey recognize the Genocide
and compensate the damage," stated President of the European Armenian
Federation Hilda Tchoboian. Concerning the blockade against Armenia a
reference to the negotiation process is made, while it, like the Cyprus
issue, should cause EU unease over regional security and stability,
she also remarked. "We expect that the European Commission will finally
take into account demands of European citizens and especially European
Parliament resolution instead of providing demands convenient to
Ankara," Hilda Tchoboian stated. Within the framework of the talks the
EC should put forward clear and true political demands of recognition
of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish state," H. Tchoboian summed
up, reported the Yerkir newspaper.

[Gavur]

Storm warning over Turkey's economy

By Vincent Boland

FT
November 12 2005 02:00


Turkey suffered devastating financial crises in 1994 and 2001 caused,
among other things, by an out-of-kilter balance of payments and an
overvalued lira.

But although the economy is now riding high and foreign investment
beginning to arrive, Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, says another crisis may be on
the horizon.

The country's balance of payments today, he told Yased - the Turkish
Foreign Investors Association - this week, was eerily similar to 1994
and 2001. The lira was perhaps 50 per cent overvalued, and it was all
happening at a time when the US Federal Reserve was raising interest
rates. Turkey was "potentially set up" for another balance of payments
crisis. "I'm not predicting it," he said. "I'm just pointing out that
Turkey is undergoing the same general pattern as prior to [the crises
of] 1994 and 2001."

If Turkey were to suffer another self-inflicted financial collapse it
would cause a political crisis that would almost certainly bring down
the government - as happened after the last one - and derail its
economic recovery. It could also raise a question mark over the
country's aspiration to join the European Union. That is why both the
government and Turks more generally appear ready to accept, for now,
the strictures of the International Monetary Fund, w hich has helped
to engineer the country's recovery. The current stability is clearly
producing results: the Turkish economy expanded at 8.9 per cent last
year.

The most worrying factor for Turkey, Mr Hanke said, was the current
account deficit, which is likely to be 6.3 per cent of gross domestic
product in 2005.

Rising portfolio investment is financing much of this deficit, but
such short-term capital inflows may not be sustainable, especially if
the global environment turns against investing in emerging markets.

A report from Lehman Brothers this week warned that Turkey was
vulnerable to external shocks.

"The deficit is financed through debt and portfolio flows, even though
FDI is starting to pick up. Furthermore, notwithstanding the central
bank's aggressive buying of dollars through its interventions, its
reserves are falling in relation to the country's import bill," the
report said.

Mr Hanke is a well-known critic of the IMF. He also took a swipe at
the Turkish central bank, which is moving to explicit inflation
targeting from January. A foe of inflation targeting, he said the bank
was adopting "the latest fad" among central bankers, which would leave
Turkey with "punishingly high interest rates if the bank is to meet
its inflation target". Real interest rates in Turkey were already the
second-highest among emerging markets, after Brazil, he said. (The
central bank cut its borrowing rate yesterday to 13.75 per cent from
14 per cent.)

His comments sparked some swift rebuttals, although the Finance
Ministry did not comment. "I think he's completely mistaken about
Turkey," said Mustafa Alper, Yased secretary-general. "Our financial
balances are not perfect, but they are far better than they were four
years ago."

Erhan Aslanoglu, a professor of economics at Marmara University, said
the lira's overvaluation might be 25 to 30 per cent against the euro,
but it might not be very important. "I accept that it is a risk," he
said. "But what is different in Turkey now is that the lira is
free-floating, so its overvaluation is not guaranteed. A correction is
likely because of international and specifically Turkish factors, but
it is not going to cause a crisis."

He said a big increase in productivity in Turkey since 2001 also
justified a highly valued lira.

Mr Hanke said his gloomy scenario depended on China's bowing to US
pressure to revalue its currency, a development he said would cause
"very serious deflation and a major slowdown in China".

Mr Hanke said emerging markets were living on borrowed time. "It can't
get any better than it has been in the past four years and there is a
very high probability that it will get worse in this Fed tightening
cycle," he said.

[Gavur]

NATO PA President Says Turkey Must Recognize Genocide of Armenians before EU Entry

COPENHAGEN (Combined Sources)--NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) president Pierre Lellouche told a gathering of legislators from North America And Europe that while NATO supports Turkey's membership in the European Union, Ankara must first resolve its human rights issues, as well as the issue of the Armenian genocide and Cyprus.

In fact, according to the Turkish NTV channel, Lellouche specifically told the 51st Annual PA Session that Turkey should recognize the Armenian genocide.

The PA Session opened on Saturday with more than 300 lawmakers from nearly 40 countries gathered in the Danish capital to discuss security issues.

The Turkish station also reported that the head of Turkey's commission in NATO Vahid Erdem disseminated a letter to the delegates rejecting the "allegations" about the Armenian genocide. Edrem told NTV that the Armenian genocide was included in the agenda after Turkish historian Halil Berktay told the NATO Secretariat General last month that the events of 1915 constitute genocide.

The PA will meet through Tuesday to discuss a variety of issues including defense, security, science and technology; its future role in "post-conflict" operations; NATO-EU security co-operation; and regional issues including the Persian Gulf, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Central Asia.

Lellouche is scheduled to address the PA Plenary Session on Tuesday, which will also feature Turkish Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
[email protected].

[Gavur]

Kocharian: Armenia was Never against Turkey Accession to EU

22.11.2005 12:10 GMT-08:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «Armenia has never been against Turkey's accession to the EU,» stated Armenian President Robert Kocharian in Ljubljana during today's joint news conference with Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek. “We only said that the process of accession and conditions put forward by the EU should be unified for all candidates. There should be no beneficial terms, conditioned by the strategic position of any country, its size or population number,” the Armenian leader said. Countries working for EU membership should establish good relations with all their neighbors and recognize their past, he also said. «As for the process of Turkey's accession to the EU itself, it will be favorable to us, as we will have a more predictable neighbor, and Armenia's border with Turkey will be our border with the EU,» Kocharian stated, reported Mediamax.

[Gavur]

“There is no shortcuts to EU membership”

No respite in EU criticism over slowdown in reforms
Tuesday, November 29, 2005




EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn calls for steps to improve freedom of expression, describes police treatment of demonstrators in Eđitim-Sen protest over the weekend as worrying

YUSUF KANLI

BRUSSELS - Turkish Daily News


The European Union stepped up its criticism of Turkey's reform efforts to meet the membership criteria of the 25-nation bloc and said that the honeymoon period was now over, and urged Turkish authorities to get back to work to improve freedom of expression in Turkey, as well as women's and trade union rights and the elimination of torture.

Olli Rehn, the EU's enlargement commissioner, said the bloc had kept its promise to Turkey by opening accession talks on Oct. 3, bluntly adding, “The ball is in your court now.”

The EU Commission's annual progress report, released on Nov. 9, complained of a slowing down of the rate of reform in 2005, and particularly expressed discontent with what it sees as persisting deficiencies in freedom of expression following legal action brought against novelist Orhan Pamuk, Turkish-Armenian daily Agos' Editor Hrant Dink, Turkish Daily News columnist Burak Bekdil and other authors and activists.

“There is no shortcuts to EU membership,” the enlargement commissioner said, who warned that Turkey needs to take the shortfall in the freedom of expression and other areas seriously. “The only entry is through fulfillment of the criteria,” he said.

Rehn also highlighted EU concerns over the beating by police of protestors from the teachers' union Eđitim-Sen at a weekend demonstration held to demand better working conditions and pay.

Rehn said the police treatment of the protestors was worrying.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Aydýn Dumanođlu admitted the shortcomings. “We take the criticism into consideration in order to reach EU levels in fields such as democracy, human rights and freedom of expression. We are still not at the place we want to be.”

[Hovik]

Having To Learn Fast On The Job

HAVING TO LEARN FAST ON THE JOB
By Vincent Boland

Financial Times (London, England)
November 29, 2005 Tuesday

INTERVIEW: Vincent Boland meets Abdullah Gul, Turkey's foreign minister
and the country's best-known face in Europe's corridors of power
Turkey's government has been on a steep learning curve in its three
years in power. In November 2002 it was an unknown quantity, with
much to prove not just to Turkish voters but to the rest of the world.

Abdullah Gul, who was prime minister for a few months in the early
days of the government - because Recep Tayyip Erdogan was banned from
political activity - has arguably had to learn the most on the job,
given that so much of the agenda in the past three years has been
consumed by foreign affairs.

In a recent interview, fresh from his inaugural meeting on the
European Union accession process in Luxembourg on October 3, Mr Gul
looked relaxed and confident. He has become Turkey's most recognised
face abroad - certainly in Europe's corridors of power.

He has been at the forefront of the negotiating process that led to
the securing of the accession process and has become a seasoned and
respected diplomat in Brussels on first-name terms with his colleagues.

Still, diplomats say, he was ready to abandon the accession
negotiations in the run-up to October 3 because he felt the terms were
unacceptable. It fell to Mr Erdogan to make the historic decision to
go ahead.

For Mr Gul, the start of the accession process represents a significant
achievement for Turkey although, as he points out, the country "has
met European standards before".

When Turkey joined Nato in the 1950s, the Council of Europe and
the European Court of Human Rights at later dates and signed the
customs union with the EU in the 1990s,much was also expected of it,
and it delivered.

"We passed these tests and we have proved our leadership again,"
he says. Turkey's long-standing membership of various European
institutions and of Nato is often overlooked in the debate about
whether it is "European" enough to join the EU.

As befits a senior member of a government with its roots in political
Islam, he also stresses the benefits of the accession process for
Muslim Turkey. "We proved that a Muslim nation is comfortable with the
wider world," he says. The EU's agreement to open talks with Turkey
"sends an important message to Islamic nations." He expresses pleasure
at the scale of the coverage of the EU decision in the Muslim media.

Now comes the hard part - a 10-year accession process full of fraught
debating points and excuses on one side or the other for a suspension
or even an end to the adventure.

For Turkey, such a challenge will come as early as next year, when
the vexed issue of Cyprus comes on the agenda, and not for the first
time. Diplomats say the issue of Turkey's refusal to recognise the
Greek Cypriot government, which the rest of the world acknowledges
as the divided island's only legitimate representative, will have
to be addressed soon and the Greek Cypriot administration has made
clear that it is ready to veto Turkey's accession process at every
turn until Ankara complies.

Mr Gul says that if Cyprus "is approached fairly and objectively there
should not be a problem". But he also points out that the EU has not
yet fulfilled its part of the bargain from the 2004 reunification
referendum on the island, which the Greek Cypriots rejected but the
Turkish Cypriots accepted.

"The EU must fulfil its obligations and responsibilities" to the
Turkish Cypriots in terms of trade and aid, he says. "The EU cannot
be blind to the interests of the Turkish Cypriots."

The other issue that animates Mr Gul is the question of freedom
of expression, and specifically the prosecution of Orhan Pamuk,
the celebrated novelist, who is charged with "insulting Turkey"
in comments he made about Ankara's attitude towards the deaths of
Armenians and Kurds.

The foreign minister acknowledges the potential embarrassment
of the case, given that Turkey has made repeated commitments to
honouring minimum standards of free speech, and the difficulty of
spreading the spirit of liberal reform through the Turkish judicial
system. "The judiciary is conservative, and the prosecutors are even
more conservative," he says.

Still, he does not agree that the case is a standing rebuke to the
pace of reform or the sincerity of those reforms. "There still are
many problems and we will continue with our reforms," he says.

"We are not perfect. But if you examine what we have done - I
would say it is a silent revolution. From time to time a prosecutor
opens the file in a case and it is dismissed by the court. I'm sure
the court (that will hear Mr Pamuk's case) will give the correct
decision. Similar cases have already been dismissed."

Mr Gul is certain that the writer will not go to jail, although he says
there is nothing the government can do to affect the outcome, since
the judicial system is independent of the political system. In any
case, he asserts, there are other issues in Turkey besides Mr Pamuk's
trial that deserve attention. "There are so many things happening that
are more important," he says. "This is a transformation process. Our
ultimate aim is to transform Turkey."

[Hovik]

EU: Torture Not Removed Yet

EU: Torture Not Removed Yet

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg131451.html

[Hovik]

Turkey Wants In To Eu Club

TURKEY WANTS IN TO EU CLUB
By Andrea Domaskin, The Forum

In-Forum , ND
Dec. 11, 2005

Two flags flew above this city's Grand Bazaar, the covered marketplace
where thousands of shopkeepers hawk carpets, tea, hookahs and anything
that appears Turkish to foreigners.

One flag, the white star and crescent on a red background, is the
Turkish flag. It's a symbol of the Turkish nationalism that perhaps
rivals our own. The other, a dozen gold stars circled on a blue
background, is the flag of the European Union.

Turkey, a country that straddles both Europe and Asia, wants
desperately to join the EU, a 25-member body that cooperates on
economic, justice and other issues. Earlier this year the European
Union agreed to start membership talks with Turkey, a milestone for
the predominantly Muslim nation of 67.8 million. Discussions are
expected to last more than 10 years.

But Turkey's path toward possible membership won't be easy, despite
its decades-old relationship with European countries and its status
as a relatively stable country in an unstable region that includes
Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Europeans have mixed feelings about how big the European Union should
get - it added 10 states last year - and what it means to be European.

A few weeks after the EU's historic decision, two busloads of German
and American journalists, including me, were on a whirlwind tour of
teeming Istanbul and the capital city, Ankara. If you believe Kansav,
one of our Turkish tour guides, joining the EU has become something of
a national obsession (though it can't possibly top soccer). "People are
much more sensitive now," he said as our bus lumbered along streets
jammed with cars. So sensitive, our guide said, that litterers are
rebuked by fellow citizens just in case a stray wrapper could hurt
Turkey's chances.

We journalists, kept to a tight schedule of meetings with diplomats,
foreign ministers and cultural experts in conference rooms of Western
hotels, didn't have much chance to meet those people. But judging
by the recent changes the experts touted, the Turkish government,
at least, is wooing its European neighbors ardently.

Prompted by a desire to meet EU standards, the country in the last
several years adopted a new constitution, new civil and penal code,
and guarantees of more freedoms and rights for citizens. The economy
is growing.

"Obviously these changes are for the man in the street," and secondly
for the EU, Ambassador Ahmet Acet, acting secretary general for EU
Affairs, told us.

Still, the new systems don't work perfectly. Turkish author Orhan
Pamuk, for example, is being persecuted for defaming the country's
honor. According to National Public Radio, Pamuk remarked to a Swiss
newspaper that Turks don't talk about the Armenian massacre during
World War I.

Dr. Rudolf Adam, president of the Federal College for Security
Studies in Germany, said Turkey has three obstacles to joining the EU:
Turkish-Armenian relations, its relationship with Cyprus and treatment
of the Kurds.

Actually, it's not clear whether Europeans really want Turkey in
their club. That changed the mind of Ali, another guide.

On our way to catch a flight out of Turkey, the guide said he was
all for joining the EU a year ago. Now, he doesn't think it really
will happen. But the negotiations will go on.

Forum reporter Domaskin traveled in October to Berlin and to Ankara and
Istanbul in Turkey on a weeklong trip organized by the German-American
Fulbright Commission and sponsored by several organizations. E-mail
[email protected].

[Gavur]

New EU Leader Warns Turkey about Tough Talks ahead

ASBAREZ Online [01-09-2006]
VIENNA (AFP)--Incoming European Union (EU) leader and Austrian Chancellor
Wolfgang Schuessel, known to be skeptical about Turkey's bid to join the bloc,
said that the door remains open to Ankara but warned that talks will be
tough.
The large, mostly Muslim state began negotiations with the EU in October and
is hoping to begin the first formal talks during Austria's six-month EU
presidency.
"The door remains open, in line with past decisions. But we have got to pay
close attention to compliance with European rules," Schuessel told
reporters as
he launched Austria's plans for its half-year at the EU helm.
"We cannot overtax Europe," he said.
The start of talks with Turkey in October was almost derailed by Austria's
resistance to offering full EU membership to a huge country which is so
different economically, politically, and culturally from the rest of the
bloc.
Austria pushed hard for Ankara to be offered something less than full EU
membership, such as a "privileged partnership."
Vienna gave its 11th-hour approval only after its EU counterparts agreed to
also start talks with Austria's neighbor Croatia.
The negotiations with Turkey are expected to last at least a decade. But said
Schuessel: "It is not helpful to attempt to set out time plans for the end of
negotiations. That would not... be realistic in any way."

[Gavur]

New Organization for Border Security Born

By Sedat Gunec, Ankara
Published: Monday, March 27, 2006
zaman.com


The “Border Security” organization will comprise of 70,000 people, including high ranking soldiers and will be launched in two days and spread to all borders within eight years. Sponsored also by the General Staff and the Security Directorate, the project will be implemented at a cost of €3 billion.

The security of land and sea will be procured by a special unit in accord with European Union norms.

The “Integrated Border Administration,” will be put into practice with a ceremony on March 29.

In the project expected to be completed by 2014, the borders will be projected by a professional security unit.

The most comprehensive action plan of Turkey on its journey to the EU was prepared by the Integrated Border Administration Project Execution Directorate. With its implementation, border security provided by the General Gendarmerie Headquarters, Land Forces Command and Coast Guard Command will be placed under one umbrella body, and the gradual shift is expected to last eight years.

Law enforcement officers maintaining border security will be comprised of ranking officers, and soldiers will not be part of this unit.

The initiative was joined by 20 public bodies in addition to the Interior Ministry. Justice, Health, Transport, Labor and Social Security, and the National Defense ministries supported the preparations for the project.

Officials met with experts in France and Britain before deciding to adapt the French model for the country’s border security in line with EU standards.

The total cost of the project supported by the EU, with €685,000 initially, is €3.7 billion. Nearly 60 percent of it will be afforded by the EU.

According to the project:

• Turkey will take steps for modernization after determining the need for substructure and equipment in order to bring Turkish borders up to EU standards.

• The borders will be monitored by thermal cameras and satellite surveillance systems.

• New patrol roads will be constructed along the border regions.

• Shelters will be established for kidnap cases.

• Factories and production plants will be established at the border to help prevent the smuggling of fuel products and animals.

• Veterinarians and representatives of the relevant institutions will be appointed.