Clashes add
to Turkey’s political tension
By
Vincent Boland in Ankara
Published: September 7 2005 18:10 | Last updated: September 7
2005 18:10
While Turkey’s attempt to join the European Union has run into
resistance because of Ankara’s unwillingness to recognise the divided island of
Cyprus, clashes between Turkish nationalists and Kurds have increased political
tensions at home.
In spite of
attempts by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, to reach out to the
separatist Kurds, a rise in demonstrations and violent incidents involving
nationalists and Kurdish separatist sympathisers has led to hundreds of arrests
in recent weeks.
Turkey’s
political leaders and the military have called for restraint after clashes in
Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city and economic capital, as well as towns across
eastern Turkey, where many Turks of Kurdish origin live.
The violence has
been sparked by provocation from both sides as well as a power struggle in the
Kurdish separatist movement that has simmered since a bloody conflict with the
security forces petered out in 2001 after the jailing of the movement’s leader.
The unrest
coincides with a rising sense of political tension inside Turkey as it
approaches the start of its long-cherished goal of beginning talks to join the
EU.
Although the
focus of the unrest appears to be Kurdish separatism, some diplomats in Ankara
say it is symptomatic of efforts by Turkish nationalists to embarrass the
Islamist-oriented, pro-EU government ahead of the beginning of the talks, which
are due to open on October 3.
“Now you can see
why this government cannot make any more concessions on Cyprus,” a diplomat
said, referring to intense pressure on the Turkish government from some of its
counterparts in the EU to recognise the government of Cyprus, an EU member,
before the accession process begins, or as soon as possible after that.
Mr Erdogan and
Abdullah Gul, foreign minister, have both rejected the demand and threatened to
walk away from the EU if Ankara is forced to make more concessions.
The political
clashes have overshadowed an attempt by the government in recent weeks to show
that it is adopting a fresh approach to the south-east.
Analysts and
diplomats say the political leadership of Turkey’s Kurdish separatist movement
remains riven by a power struggle and that many of its existing leaders are
either still in thrall to Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader, or fearful of
his acolytes.
FT 08/09/2005
EU split on Turkey-Cyprus ultimatum
By
Vincent Boland in Ankara
Published: September 8 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 8
2005 03:00
Ambassadors
to the European Union met yesterday in Brussels in a continuing attempt to
agree on a statement calling on Turkey to seek to normalise relations with
Cyprus in coming years.
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Cyprus wants a tough statement on recognition, but the UK, which
currently holds the EU presidency, fears a tough ultimatum could prompt Turkey
to walk away before the start of the October 3 talks.
Meanwhile, clashes between nationalists and Kurds are adding to
domestic tensions in Turkey. In spite of attempts by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
prime minister, to reach out to the separatist Kurds, a rise in demonstrations
and violent incidents involving nationalists and Kurdish separatist
sympathisers has led to hundreds of arrests in recent weeks.
Turkey's political leaders and the military on Tuesday called for
restraint after clashes in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city and economic
capital, as well as towns across eastern Turkey, where many Turks of Kurdish
origin live.
The violence has been sparked by provocation from both sides as
well as a power struggle in the Kurdish separatist movement that has simmered
since a bloody conflict with the security forces petered out in 2001 after the
jailing of the movement's leader.
Although the focus of the unrest appears to be Kurdish separatism,
some diplomats in Ankara say it is symptomatic of efforts by Turkish
nationalists to embarrass the Islamist-oriented, pro-EU government ahead of the
beginning of the talks.
"Now you can see why this government cannot make any more
concessions on Cyprus," a diplomat said, referring to intense pressure on
the Turkish government from some of its counterparts in the EU to recognise the
government of Cyprus, an EU member, before the accession process begins, or as
soon as possible after that.
Mr Erdogan and Abdullah Gul, foreign minister, have both rejected
the demand and threatened to walk away from the EU if Ankara is forced to make
more concessions.
The political clashes have overshadowed an attempt by the
government in recent weeks to show that it is adopting a fresh approach to the
south-east.
Analysts and diplomats say the political leadership of Turkey's
Kurdish separatist movement remains riven by a power struggle.
FT 08/09/2005
EU stance on Turkey will make 'clash of civilisations' a
reality
By
David Barchard
Published: September 8 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 8
2005 03:00
From Mr
David Barchard.
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Sir, You are clearly right to insist both that the European Union
must keep its promises to Turkey and that events such as the prosecution of the
novelist Orhan Pamuk are incompatible with Turkey's bid for EU membership
("EU must honour its promise to Turkey", September 5).
But if there is a "conspiracy of silence" about the
human cost of the clashes in the Balkans and the Caucasus in the 19th and early
20th centuries, it is not simply Turkish, but Christian European also.
About 5.5m European Muslims died as a result of the activities of
Christian ethno-nationalists in the late Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1923.
Many more were driven from their homes, with the acquiescence of the western
powers, and their descendants make up about half the population of Turkey
today. Between 1912 and 1923, about 2.3m Muslims died in Anatolia as a result
of war.
Western European opinion consistently ignores that, just as it
ignores the expulsion of about 1m Azeris from their homes in or around Nagorno
Karabakh after 1990, and it currently seems to have forgotten the Turkish
Cypriots. Instead it focuses on the grievances of Christian ethno-nationalist
groups and makes them into live political issues. Is the EU bent on turning the
"clash of civilisations" into reality?
David Barchard,
FT 08/09/05
Violent clashes add to political tension for Turkey
By
Vincent Boland in Ankara
Published: September 8 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 8
2005 03:00
Ambassadors
to the European Union met yesterday in Brussels in a continuing attempt to
agree on a statement calling on Turkey to seek to normalise relations with
Cyprus in coming years.
|
|
Cyprus wants a tough statement on recognition, but the UK, which
currently holds the EU presidency, fears that a tough ultimatum could prompt
Turkeyto walk away before the beginning of the talks, scheduled for October 3.
Meanwhile clashes be-tween nationalists and Kurds are adding to
domestic tensions in Turkey. In spite of attempts by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
prime minister, to reach out to the separatist Kurds, a rise in demonstrations
and violent incidents involving nationalists and Kurdish separatist
sympathisers has led to hundreds of arrests in recent weeks.
Turkey's political leaders and the military on Tuesday called for
restraint after clashes in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city and economic
capital, as well as towns across eastern Turkey, where many Turks of Kurdish
origin live.
The violence has been sparked by provocation from both sides as
well as a power struggle in the Kurdish separatist movement that has simmered
since a bloody conflict with the security forces petered out in 2001 after the
jailing of the movement's leader.
Although the focus of the unrest appears to be Kurdish separatism,
some diplomats in Ankara say it is symptomatic of efforts by Turkish
nationalists to embarrass the Islamist-oriented, pro-EU government ahead of the
beginning of the talks.
"Now you can see why this government cannot make any more
concessions on Cyprus," a diplomat said, referring to intense pressure on
the Turkish government from some of its EU counterparts to recognise the
government of Cyprus, an EU member, before the accession process begins, or as
soon as possible after that.
Mr Erdogan and Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, have rejected
the demand and threatened to walk away from the EU if forced to make more
concessions.
But Turkey has also indicated it is ready to recognise the Cypriot
government as part of a wider settlement to the island's division into Greek
and Turkish areas.
The political clashes have overshadowed an attempt by the
government in recent weeks to show that it is adopting a fresh approach to the
south-east.
Analysts and diplomats say the political leadership of Turkey's
Kurdish separatist movement is riven by a power struggle and many of its
leaders are either in thrall to Abdullah Ocalan, jailed PKK leader, or fearful
of his acolytes.
FT 08/09/05
Warm welcome on the island of love
Published on 17/09/2005
Hidden treasures: Kyrenia’s back streets, left: the town’s harbour, above, where Liz and Tilda enjoyed the sun, below
Cyprus is the birthplace of
Aphrodite, the goddess of love. So it came as no surprise that many families we
spoke to on our holiday in Kyrenia (or Girne) in northern Cyprus talked of a
long-standing love affair with this paradise of an island.
Within hours of settling into our hotel and taking an evening promenade along
the enchanting horseshoe-shaped harbour with its many bars and restaurants, we
felt relaxed and completely welcome.
The Turkish Cypriot people are exceptionally warm and friendly and their
hospitality made for one of my most enjoyable holidays yet. We could happily
have stayed in the seaside town without venturing beyond – there’s plenty to
do.
Days can easily be filled with simply enjoying the blissful weather (perfect
either side of the summer months), clear seas and high standards of the hotels,
while sipping on a brandy sour (the local cocktail) or two.
A massage, sauna or the ultimate experience of a shave at the local barber’s
(which my partner said was the highlight for him) can form part of your holiday
pampering.
The standard of the food is excellent and everything is reasonably priced – as
well as the locals serving mezes, salads, kebabs and freshly caught fish, we
also enjoyed eating at a selection of the growing number of international
restaurants.
Kyrenia is a working town, and the streets and bars are filled with a mix of
locals, ex-pats and tourists, which makes for a more interesting experience
than a resort could provide.
We made a lot of friends over a drink at the many bars (once carob warehouses)
at the harbour and were made equally welcome at the lesser known locals’ bars
in the Old Town.
Those who enjoy visiting historical sites will find plenty to see here. Just 40
miles off the southern coast of Turkey, northern Cyprus has long been a
stepping stone between East and West and has a long and illustrious history
spanning more than 9,000 years.
It was once part of the empire of Alexander the Great and was captured by
Richard the Lionheart on his way to the third crusade. In 1878 it was leased by
the Ottoman empire to the British and later became a British crown colony.
Remnants of the island’s long and chequered past can be seen in the many
palaces, castles, mosques and abbeys.
The most breathtaking are the remains of the gothic Abbey built by Augustinian
monks in 1205 AD in the mountain village of Bellapais, which was the inspiration
for Lawrence Durrell’s The Bitter Lemons of Cyprus.
Girne Castle dominates the harbour and warrants a day’s visit. Its shipwreck
museum contains the remains of a boat that sank off the coast in the third
century BC, with hundreds of retrieved amphora, cutlery and crockery on
display.
Because we were travelling with our young baby, Tilda, we chose not to venture
too far from Kyrenia, and my biggest regret about the holiday is that we only
discovered the unspoilt nature and unbelievable beauty of the Karpaz Peninsula
on our last day there.
As we drove for miles without seeing a soul apart from donkeys, a shack selling
refreshments and basic beach huts for rent, we really felt like we had arrived
at the edge of the world.
We found Turtle Beach by chance and our few hours there, spotting the turtles
it’s obviously named for and playing on the miles of golden sands, were
magical.
Northern Cyprus is such a beautiful place it is no surprise that more and more
Brits (including my mother!) are making it their second home.
Whatever the hype (and changing political situation), I’m sure it will remain
an unspoilt, uncommercialised paradise.
Liz McGlynn went to Northern Cyprus in May and stayed at the four-star Dome
Hotel in Kyrenia, courtesy of Anatolian Sky Holidays.
For more details and to view their current offers for winter sun holidays go to
www.anatolian-sky. co.uk.
Offers include: October 15 departing Manchester, staying at the three-star BB
Santoria Villas in Kyrenia, North Cyprus, seven nights from £359; or staying at
the five-star HB Club Acapulco Hotel, Kyrenia, seven nights from £409.
News & Star 17/09/2005
Regime change, European-style, is a
measure of our civilisation
European self-interest must not be trumped by the politics of identity
on the road to Turkey's accession to the EU
Madeleine Bunting
Monday September 26, 2005
Guardian
A week from today,
barring a last-minute upset, there will be a small, quiet signing ceremony,
probably in Strasbourg. Not even the UK Foreign Office seems entirely sure of
the venue or its format. But no one is questioning the scale of the ambition
nor the risks which underpin this event - the opening of the accession process
for Turkey's membership of the European Union. Welcome to regime change, European-style.
The parallels are inescapable: the US launched
its regime change in a Muslim country with shock and awe, an unprecedented
onslaught of military power. The EU quietly initiates its regime change in the
Muslim country next door with the shock of 80,000 pages of EU regulations on
everything from the treatment of waste water to the protection of
Kurdish-minority rights. While one sends in its Humvees and helicopters, the
other sends in an army of management consultants, human-rights lawyers and
food-hygiene specialists.
The more the US model of regime change
disintegrates into violent chaos in Iraq, the more the EU glows with discreet
pride in its own unparalleled record of successful regime change, from
post-dictatorship Spain and Portugal to the more recent enlargement countries
such as Hungary and Estonia.
The EU model uses the incentive of membership to
insist on dramatic change - once a country is a member, the leverage is lost.
So Turkey will have to jump through a number of hoops on issues such as
corruption and sewerage, which might trip up many of the oldest EU members.
It's a style of regime change which is "cheap, voluntary and hence
long-lasting", points out Steven Everts in a new pamphlet,Why Europe
Should Embrace Turkey.
This kind of regime change is the only way in
which the EU can lay claim to being a serious global player - on almost every
recent international crisis, from Bosnia to Iraq, internal squabbles crippled
an effective response. No wonder then that there are plenty of Europhiles,
particularly in the UK, whose eyes glitter at the prospect of Turkey in the EU
queue. They rattle off the long list of advantages: the geostrategic
significance of Turkey in relation to the Caucasus and the Middle East; the key
gas supplies that now run through Turkey; the demographic advantages of a much
younger population; the dynamic Turkish economy - grown by a quarter since
2001; securing Europe's back door against drugs and people-trafficking.
Besides, Turkey has aspired to EU membership for
over 40 years, and such has been its enthusiasm in the past few years that, to
win Brussels' favour, it has agreed to the most ambitious political and
economic reform programme since the great secular moderniser Kemal Ataturk.
Regime change is already well under way in Istanbul, but not irrevocable; the
prospective trial of the novelist Orhan Pamuk for his comments on the Armenian
massacre indicate that some in Turkey are only too keen to torpedo the whole
process. If Europe was to turn truculent with Turkey, an extraordinary
opportunity to strengthen human rights and ensure stable democracy would be
lost. The conclusion is clear: Turkish membership is a "no-brainer",
insist Britain's Euro elite - commentators, government and analysts alike.
What fuels this British enthusiasm is that
Turkey offers the tantalising possibility of exorcising the "clash of
civilisations" ghost. If there was a secular, democratic, economically
successful Muslim state it would kill off intense arguments about the incompatibility
of Islam with democracy or Islam with human rights and modernity. Furthermore,
80 million Turks within the EU would also kill off the EU's credibility deficit
in the Muslim world, where it's seen as a Christian, white club with a dodgy
imperial past (although the latter is as much a Turkish problem as a European
one in the region). Finally - the coup de grace - it would strengthen the claim
of Europe's 15 million-strong Muslim minority to a home in Europe. In sharp
contrast to the US, Europe could shape a new, prosperous and peaceful
accommodation between Islam and the secular west.
But this is the nub of the problem - vast swaths
of Europe don't buy it. Either they don't believe a peaceful accommodation with
Muslims is possible or they fear it requires such a dilution of European
identity that they don't want it. Britain's enthusiasm is echoed in only a few
countries such as Poland and Spain, while across the rest of the continent the
"clash of civilisations" argument is flourishing. Hence the quietness
of the short ceremony next Monday. No one has any desire to launch this project
of regime change with a fanfare - it fills European populations with horror.
The figures from a recent Eurobarometer poll tell it all: 80% of Austrians are
against, and only 10% in favour; 70% of the French are against and 74% of the
Germans. It's going to need a very hard sell to convince millions of people
that Turkish membership is in their interests, and after the failure of a
previous Euro elite project - the constitution - no one's relishing the
challenge.
The accession process will take at least a
decade and over that time both the EU and Turkey are likely to change
dramatically, but what will make the process so fascinating is that as the rows
rumble on (no one denies that it's going to be rocky - the Turks are allegedly
"terrible negotiators", every detail becoming a point of national
honour) it will be the canvas on which will be projected all of Europe's
crucial choices.
Will self-interest - put crudely, young Turks
might pay for ageing Europe's pensions - be trumped by the unpredictable
politics of identity as an insecure Europe, aware of its shrinking demographic
and economic weight in the world, pulls up the drawbridge and opts to define
itself more narrowly around its historical Christian identity?
This self-interest isn't obvious: it will need
European politicians to do a lot of explaining. Geostrategic thinking doesn't
come easily to your average voter and they'll need reassurance that they are
not going to be swamped by cheap Turkish labour. Free movement of labour can be
staggered, as it is for the new eastern European members, and is unlikely to
come before 2022. Similarly, structural funds are not going to be swallowed up
whole in the peasant hinterland of Anatolia and probably won't be accessible by
Turkey until after 2020.
But the reticence about taking on the advocacy
role for Turkish membership has been evident across the political spectrum in
Germany as politicians fear being ambushed by the visceral emotions stirred up
by Turkey. Austria and Germany are still thinking of the geese whose honking
woke the army when Vienna was under siege from the Ottoman Turks in the 16th
century, commented one seasoned observer.
Can such history be laid to rest when it has
sunk such long and deep roots into the national identity? All over the world,
in places such as Rwanda and South Africa, there are many grappling with
different formulations of just that question. The EU ploughs funds and
diplomacy in to achieve an affirmative. How hollow does that ring if Europe
itself, despite all its vaunted values of freedom and tolerance and its envied
prosperity, fails the test and lets history win. Watch Turkey's accession
process in the years to come as the barometer of Europe's degree of
civilisation.
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THE TIMES 29/09/05
Austria claims 'double standards' on Turkish talks
By Haig
Simonian in Vienna, Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Raphael, Minder in Strasbourg
Published: September 29 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September
29 2005 03:00
Wolfgang
Schüssel, Austria's chancellor, yesterday sent an uncompromising message on
Turkey's bid to join the European Union, increasing the likelihood that talks
will only begin if the EU also moves towards starting negotiations with Croatia
Some western
diplomats warn that such a deal, in which Turkey would begin its membership
talks on time next Monday and Croatia would follow soon after, could hurt
efforts to track down war criminals in the former Yugoslavia.
In an interview
with the FT, Mr Schüssel called for the EU to abandon the idea that the talks
with Turkey should be exclusively aimed at membership.
He also
denounced the EU's "double standards" over Croatia, whose membership
bid is stalled because of a dispute over Ante Gotovina, an alleged war
criminal. "We need an alternative that would ensure that Turkey would
remain bonded as strongly as possible to the EU," he said.
"If we
trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia too . .. It is in
Europe's interest to start negotiations with Croatia immediately."
Austria denies
it is linking the cases of Turkey and Croatia in any way.
However, EU
diplomats now believe a deal on Turkey will only be possible if the EU moves
closer to starting talks with Croatia.
Most EU
governments say Vienna's demands on Turkey - particularly its call to delete a
reference to EU accession as the goal of the talks - are unacceptable. But
Austria, like all EU states, needs to give its assent if talks are to begin.
The dispute is
expected to go to an emergency meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday night,
hours before the scheduled start of talks.
Diplomats say
such a high-profile meeting could make it impossible for Austria to give up its
position on Turkey without gaining ground on Croatia, with which it has
cultivated close relations.
"It is not
fair to leave Croatia in an eternal waiting room," said Mr Schüssel.
"I don't understand the logic."
Carla del Ponte,
chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, has recently indicated that Croatia has stepped up its efforts
against Mr Gotovina.
But some western
officials argue that beginning talks with Croatia while Mr Gotovina is at large
will set a bad precedent for efforts to track down Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic, the Bosnian Serb indicted war criminals.
* Concerns about
Ankara's bid to join the EU were underlined yesterday by a non-binding
resolution on Turkey approved by the European parliament. In a move likely to
increase resentment in Ankara, MEPs urged Turkey to recognise that the killing
of Armenians in 1915 amounted to genocide. MEPs also delayed approval of a
customs union agreement between Turkey and the EU, in an attempt to increase
pressure on Turkey to normalise political and economic ties with Cyprus.
FT 29/09/05
EU set for emergency talks over Turkey
Staff and agencies
Thursday September 29, 2005
EU
ministers are to hold emergency negotiations this weekend after Austria today
objected to starting entry talks with Turkey.
A 24-1 vote meant
ambassadors failed to agree on a mandate to start entry negotiations with
Ankara. All 25 member states had to back the proposal before entry negotiations
could begin.
The talks had been due to
start on Monday, but Turkey now has to wait to learn whether its application to
join the EU will be considered. Emergency discussions on the Austrian objection
could continue up to Monday morning.
Austria
insists Turkey should be offered the option of a lesser partnership within the
EU rather than full membership. The northern European country is also trying to
link the talks with Ankara to the stalled entry negotiation for Croatia.
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish
foreign minister, is due to fly to Luxembourg to begin the talks over the
weekend.
Ankara's refusal to
recognise fellow EU member Cyprus could be another stumbling block to Turkish
entry. The European parliament says failure to do so could mean entry
negotiations do not go ahead.
In July, Turkey signed an
agreement to widen its customs union with the EU to include Cyprus and nine
other new EU members. However, Ankara said this did not amount to recognition
of the Greek-Cypriot government.
Greek diplomats today said
they supported Turkey joining the union, but that full membership would mean
Ankara had to give "full compliance" to the EU's demands.
Austria is now the only
member of the EU not to have agreed to beginning entry negotiations for Turkey.
A spokesman said the
Austrian people did not support full membership for Turkey, prompting some
analysts to speculate that Austria's resistance was part of a domestic election
campaign.
Austria wants to see the
EU do more to review Croatia's efforts to join the union. Brussels has demanded
that Zagreb pushes for the capture of a war crimes suspect wanted by the UN war
crimes tribunal before entry talks can begin.
Turkey's entry
negotiations are expected to last at least a decade, and several countries,
including France, have vowed to hold referendums on the issue, reflecting
growing concern over allowing a predominantly Muslim country join the union.
The French prime minister,
Dominique de Villepin, today said he supported a "clearly controlled"
negotiating process leading to Turkish membership, but that France would decide
the issue with a referendum. Turkey has been campaigning to join the EU since
1963.
· Serbia-Montenegro today began the
long path to EU membership after EU envoys agreed to launch preparatory talks
with the fragile state union salvaged from the collapse of Yugoslavia.
GUARDIAN 29/09/05
Young Turks choose Atatürk over Europe
By
Vincent Boland in Ankara
Published: September 30 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September
30 2005 03:00
Above
the blackboard in every classroom at the Hasan-Ali Yucel high school is a
poster of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, alongside the words of
the national anthem and a statement by the former leader addressed to the
nation's children. There are pictures of him on the corridor walls and his bust
greets visitors at the door.
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So when a
British member of the European Parliament was reported this week to have said
that Turkey should abandon its cult of Atatürk before it joins the European
Union, it generated a heated response among Turks, including youngsters such
as the 526 pupils who attend this school in the fast-developing Ankara suburb
of Balgat. "If they
have opinions like this, then Turkey should not join the European
Union," says Alp, a 16-year-old who, like nearly every pupil at the
school, has ambitions to be a teacher. Kemalism, the
ideology of nationalism and self-reliance developed with the founding of the
republic in 1923, "is the path Atatürk drew and we need to follow his
path because people who follow his principles are successful people",
Alp says. In a straw
poll a little later, only about half of the 20 pupils in this Turkish
literature class raise their hands when they are asked whether Turkey would,
or should, join the EU. Bircan, a
bright girl of 17 who wants to teach English, was not even sure how many
countries were now in the union until Mucahit Tutar, the school's director,
whispered "25". As Turkey
prepares on Monday to begin formal accession negotiations to join the EU,
even Turkey's brightest young people seem less than certain about what the
bloc is or does. This suggests
that the vast gulf in knowledge about the EU inside Turkey is not going to be
narrowed any time soon. Then again, the misconceptions and ignorance within
the EU about Turkey may be just as great. The children
in this classroom come from all over the country and are among Turkey's
brightest: they all passed exams to get here. Just over half of them are
girls. Hasan-Ali
Yucel, named after the man who stripped the modern Turkish language of its
Arabic and Persian trappings in those early revolutionary days, is a state
boarding school. It looks and feels well-funded, above the general run of
schools in Turkey, which cater to an estimated 20m pupils and are constantly
short of resources. The school
specialises in preparing youngsters to be teachers, which explains the
increased prevalence of Atatürk's portraits. Teachers in Turkey, though
wretchedly paid, are respected members of society, almost like soldiers. It
is not coincidental that Turkey has both a ministry of "national
defence" and a ministry of "national education". As Mr Tutar
puts it, "The republic is explained and passed on to our children by the
schools." The children
in this classroom have lessons on the EU as part of their European history
class, where it is taught alongside the history of the world wars and the
fall of communism. Ali, who is 17, says they have been taught that "all
the member states of the EU are independent but have some common rules". Some of the
children say that they would like to know more about the EU and its
institutions before making up their minds about whether Turkey should join or
not. But they seem more interested in learning English and science than in
discovering more about Europe. "Maybe
the quality of education will increase if we join the EU, but our education
system is not so different to the rest of Europe," 17-year-old Ilke
says. Turkey's
education system is devoted to producing model citizens along Kemalist lines,
not aspiring Europeans. As Mr Tutar
says of the EU negotiations: "We can't make concessions on the unity of
the country, on Atatürk and his principles, or on the republic. Everything
else we can sit and talk about." |
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FT 30/09/2005
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THE TIMES 30/09/05
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THE TIMES 30/09/05
Turkey's future lies in EU, says Blair
Mark Oliver and
agencies
Friday September 30, 2005
Tony Blair
today insisted Turkey's future was in the EU as British officials in Brussels
worked to dispel a looming crisis over next week's talks on its membership.
In an interview with
Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper, the prime minister said he would work hard to help
Turkey realise its EU ambitions.
"I sincerely believe
that EU membership is Turkey's future," Mr Blair - a long-time supporter
of Ankara joining the 25-nation bloc - told the paper. "We shall work
towards achieving that.
"How
quickly Turkey's EU train reaches its destination will depend on how fast
Ankara can make changes."
Turkish officials reacted
angrily after Austria yesterday blocked an EU agreement on the ground rules for
formal talks on the country's entry.
Last December, EU leaders
agreed that Turkey - which first applied for membership more than 40 years ago
- had taken the necessary steps towards qualifying for the talks to begin.
The negotiations had been
due to begin on Monday after EU states said Ankara had worked on its human
rights record as well as economic and social reforms.
But while the other 24
other member states were happy with the terms, Austria said it wanted a
downgraded and associate EU membership for Turkey to be an option.
It is already the case
that the start of talks - due to take place in Luxembourg - would not guarantee
Turkish EU entry.
The Turkish foreign
minister, Abdullah Gul, angered by Austria's stance, said he would not travel
to Luxembourg before being sent a copy of the ground rules for the
negotiations.
Yesterday, Turkey's prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: "If the EU is not a Christian club,
this has to be proven. What do you gain by adding 99% Muslim Turkey to the EU?
You gain a bridge between the EU and the 1.5 billion-strong Islamic world. An
alliance of civilisations will start."
In his interview with
Hurriyet, Mr Blair backed Mr Erdogan's argument. "Europe will benefit from
opening up, not from being introverted," he said.
With Britain currently
holding the EU presidency, it was down to the UK's ambassador to the EU, Sir
John Grant, and other officials to attempt to resolve the situation.
EU foreign ministers will
hold emergency talks in Luxembourg on Sunday night prior to Monday's
negotiations.
However, there were
expectations that Austria - whose government faces tricky regional elections at
the weekend, and where 80% of voters oppose Turkey's entrey into the EU - would
back down.
Commentators said the
country was holding up the agreement because it wanted a positive signal about
the EU ambitions of its closest ally, Croatia.
Entry talks were suspended
in March after the EU decided Croatia was failing to co-operate properly with
the international war crimes tribunal in attempts to put Ante Gotovina, a
convicted war criminal, on trial.
Reaching any deal with
Austria over Turkish entry negotiations before Monday could require a new
commitment from the EU over Croatia's membership chances.
The Europe minister,
Douglas Alexander, today acknowledged there was a "diversity of opinion
across Europe" about Turkey. He said there would be intensive discussions
on Sunday and Monday as part of an effort to find a solution acceptable to all
sides.
"I believe that we
will be able to move forward, although there is clearly a lot of work still to
be done," he added.
Speaking on the BBC Radio
4 Today programme, Mr Alexander said it was vital that the talks began. He said
integrating Turkey into the EU "would help us tackle many of the most
difficult problems that we face in the modern world, whether that is
international crime, drug smuggling, terrorism or migration”.
GUARDIAN 30/09/05
Time to talk to Turkey
Leader
Friday September 30, 2005
The Guardian
Turkey has
already waited more than 40 years to join the European mainstream, but there
are still a few more tense days left before there can be certainty that its
ambition will eventually be realised. The hope is that last-minute hitches will
be resolved by EU foreign ministers on Sunday, allowing the accession talks to
begin the following day, as promised. Since the rules require such big
decisions to be agreed by all 25 member states, Austria alone has been able to
block this one, demanding that instead of negotiating full membership like
every other country seeking to join the club, Turkey should be offered only a
"special partnership". Ankara rejects such an approach as
discriminatory. So, to their credit, does everyone else, including the
governments of France, the Netherlands and Germany, despite the strong
anti-Turkish feeling that played a big role in the paralysing rejection of the
EU constitution this summer.
Austrian
opposition to Turkish membership is a toxic blend of historical prejudice and
contemporary fear, of Ottoman janissaries at the gates of Vienna, of Habsburg
nostalgia, and Muslim gastarbeiter flooding in from deepest Anatolia. Wolfgang
Schüssel, the conservative chancellor, does not say openly that the EU is a
Christian club, but has signalled that he will only back the talks if there is
a parallel launch of accession negotiations with neighbouring - and Catholic -
Croatia. That process has rightly been on hold because of Zagreb's failure to
cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal. If as expected, prosecutors report
cooperation has improved, then it can resume.
Next Monday should be a
big day, but even a positive result is unlikely to end rancour over double
standards. Turkey, once plagued by military coups, torture and hyper-inflation,
has met the EU's criteria for membership - democracy, the rule of law, human
rights, protection of minorities, a market economy and the capacity to manage
competition. Even if implementation of new laws has been patchy in Kurdish
areas the very prospect of EU membership has been a powerful spur to
unprecedented reform. More will take place and the country will become richer
in the 10 or more years it will take to complete the negotiations. Outstanding
issues over Cyprus should not block them. It is to be hoped too that calls on
Turkey to recognise the Armenian genocide of 1915 will at least promote a more
mature attitude to the country's past. But Turkey's secular Muslim democracy
has demonstrated that it is ready to join a tolerant, multicultural Europe. Let
the final deal be done and the talks commence.
THE GUARDIAN 30/09/05
Turkey furious as EU talks stall
Nicholas Watt in
Brussels
Friday September 30, 2005
The Guardian
Turkey
signalled its growing impatience with the EU last night by warning that its
ministers would not turn up in Luxembourg for membership talks until they are
sent a copy of the ground rules.
Irritated by the EU's
failure to reach agreement on a framework for the talks, Turkey's foreign
minister, Abdullah Gul, declared he would remain in Turkey until he is sent a
copy. "Everyone knows there's no point in going to Luxembourg without
seeing this document," Mr Gul said, warning warned that the talks may fail
to begin as planned on Monday
Turkey furious as EU talks stall
Nicholas Watt in
Brussels
Friday September 30, 2005
The Guardian
Turkey
signalled its growing impatience with the EU last night by warning that its
ministers would not turn up in Luxembourg for membership talks until they are
sent a copy of the ground rules.
Irritated by the EU's
failure to reach agreement on a framework for the talks, Turkey's foreign
minister, Abdullah Gul, declared he would remain in Turkey until he is sent a
copy. "Everyone knows there's no point in going to Luxembourg without
seeing this document," Mr Gul said, warning warned that the talks may fail
to begin as planned on Monday.
Mr Gul
spoke out after Austria blocked an agreement on the ground rules for Turkey's
membership talks in a last-ditch attempt to downgrade it to associate EU
membership. At a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, Austria demanded the
talks should include - from the outset - "alternatives" to full EU
membership.
This forced Britain, which
is chairing the talks, to convene an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers
in Luxembourg on Sunday night. Britain, which is Turkey's leading champion in
the EU, will be placed in the embarrassing position of telling Mr Gul on Sunday
night not to board his plane until the EU sorts out its differences. "You
can't ask the Turks to turn up and then tell them to hang round in the waiting
room while Europe sorts out its differences," one EU diplomat said.
Turkey's irritation had
been mounting all day. Earlier the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called
on European leaders to prove they are not running an exclusively
"Christian club". "If the EU is not a Christian club, this has
to be proven," Mr Erdogan said during a visit to the Gulf.
There is speculation that
Austria will cave in at the last minute. It may give ground if the EU is able
to make encouraging noises about Croatia's EU membership talks. These were
suspended in March after the EU concluded that the country was failing to
co-operate properly with the international war crimes tribunal in its attempts
to put on trial a convicted war criminal, Ante Gotovina.
Carla del Ponte, the
tribunal's chief prosecutor, will visit Zagreb today to assess whether Croatia
is cooperating. Mrs del Ponte will then report to a special taskforce of EU
foreign ministers on Monday. The taskforce will then interview Croatian
ministers.
Austria says there is no
link between Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, and Austria's near
neighbour, Croatia. But Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian chancellor, accused
the EU of "double standards". "If we trust Turkey to make
further progress, we should trust Croatia too," Mr Schuessel told the FT. "It
is in Europe's interest to start negotiations with Croatia immediately."
The chancellor also made
clear that Austria wants Turkey to be offered less than full membership.
"We need an alternative that would ensure that Turkey would remain bonded
as strongly as possible to the EU," he said. His remarks infuriated other
EU countries. "I don't think anyone is impressed by Austria's attempts to
blackmail us," one source said.
But Austria's hardline
stance forced Britain to convene Sunday's meeting because Austria is
effectively asking the EU to rewrite the deal that European leaders offered
Turkey last year. At their annual winter summit in December EU leaders raised
the possibility of associate membership for Turkey but only if the talks fail
after 10 to 15 years. Austria wants to turn last December's deal on its head by
spelling out associate membership from the start. Britain is hoping Austria
will give ground on Sunday night, either because it is encouraged by movement
on Croatia or because it does not want to be in a minority of one.
Mr Erdogan pleaded with
sceptics to see the benefits of admitting Turkey. "What do you gain by
adding 99% Muslim Turkey to the EU?" he asked. "You gain a bridge
between the EU and the 1.5bn-strong Islamic world. An alliance of civilisations
will start."
THE GUARDIAN 30/09/05
Emergency talks to save Turkey EU entry
(Filed: 30/09/2005)
The British Government, which currently holds the EU presidency, is desperately trying to ensure talks begin on Turkish entry to the 25-member bloc next week.
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Talks were due to begin on Monday, but a series of setbacks in the European Parliament this week threatens to keep Ankara out in the cold.
The major stumbling blocks have been parliament's insistence that Turkey recognises as genocide the death of 1.5 million Armenians during Ottoman rule in 1915.
It also says Ankara must recognise Greek Cyprus - a member of the EU.
Britain is keen for Muslim Turkey to join the 25-nation bloc, saying failure to do so will see it turn eastwards for support.
But opposition comes from Austria, France and Germany, who say the cultural differences are too extreme.
Austria, where 80 per cent of voters say they do not want Turkey in the EU club, is calling for the membership offer to be downgraded to make clear the Turks may end up with a "partnership" deal instead.
The Austrian government is facing tricky regional elections this weekend.
Officials in Brussels are also furious that the Austrian stand has been partly triggered by Vienna's efforts to advance the EU membership hopes of Croatia, Austria's close ally.
Ankara refuses to recognise the Armenian deaths as genocide, and only acknowledges Turkish Northern Cyprus. It insists on full membership talks only.
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EU leaders agreed last December that Turkey - which first applied for membership more than 40 years ago - had made the necessary start on human rights, social and economic reforms to qualify for official EU membership talks to start. The date was set for October 3.
Turkish entry talks were supposed to be a high point of the British presidency of the EU and one of Tony Blair's top political priorities for Europe.
Emergency talks of EU foreign ministers will be held in Luxembourg on Sunday night, with the Turks refusing to fly in until it is assured that no new provisos are added to the entry negotiation terms.
DAILY TELEGRAPH 30/09/05
Austrian resistance threatens Turkey's EU bid
By
Vincent Boland in Ankara and Daniel Dombey in Brussels
Published:
September 30 2005 19:31 | Last updated: September 30 2005 19:31
Turkey's 42-year quest to join the European
Union is in the balance this weekend as Austria and its EU partners engage in
brinkmanship over Vienna's calls to offer Ankara less than full membership.
EU foreign ministers will
meet on Sunday night to resolve the impasse, just hours before membership talks
begin on Monday. Ankara has repeatedly warned that it will not begin the talks,
expected to last 10 years, unless the EU offers only full membership, as it has
promised in the past.
Omer Sabanci, head of the
powerful Turkish business lobby, said anything less was a “red line for
Turkey”. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, called for the EU to show
“honesty” in its approach.
The last-minute poker is
reminiscent of last December 17, when the leaders of the EU's 25 member states
approved October 3 as the start date for talks.
“The negotiations and
talks are ongoing,” Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian chancellor, said yesterday.
In Brussels, the
expectation is growing that Austria will only lift its block on beginning talks
with Turkey if the EU moves towards membership negotiations with Croatia,
stalled by a dispute over an alleged war criminal.
“In the end, there will
have to be some kind of a link,” said an EU diplomat.
Although many governments
object to deals on issues as fundamental as opening EU membership talks, they
have occurred in the past most notably when Greece insisted that Cyprus join at
the same time as eight ex-communist states.
A deal on Turkey and
Croatia will also depend on Carla del Ponte, the United Nations' chief
prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, who has to certify Croatia's co-operation
with her court.
Yesterday she said it was
“disappointing” Croatia had not sent Ante Gotovina, who has been indicted for
war crimes, to her Hague-based tribunal, but she has also recently indicated
that the country has improved its co-operation.
Britain, which will chair
the foreign ministers meeting, has sought to increase the pressure on Austria
by scheduling the discussion on Turkey for Sunday night, leaving the debate on
Croatia for Monday.
Abdullah Gul, Turkey's
foreign minister, has also said he will not travel to Luxembourg until the EU
has agreed the negotiating framework for the membership talks.
Turkey has sought to join
the EU since it became an associate member in 1963, but has been rebuffed
before. The current government has made extensive reforms at the request of
Brussels, but public hostility to the prospect of Turkey joining the EU appears
to be growing in parts of Europe.
Hasan Unal, an academic
at Bilkent University in Ankara, said: “If you look at the history of EU
enlargement, and leaving aside the UK, no country has stirred as much
accusation, discussion and resentment among the EU public as Turkey.”
FINANCIAL TIMES
Austrian resistance puts Turkey's bid to join EU in the
balance
By
Vincent Boland in Ankara and Daniel Dombey in Brussels
Published:
October 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2005 03:00
Turkey's 42-year
quest to join the European Union is in the balance this weekend as Austria and
its EU partners engage in brinkmanship over Vienna's calls to offer Ankara less
than full membership.
EU foreign ministers will
meet tomorrow night to resolve the impasse, just hours before membership talks
begin on Monday. Ankara has repeatedly warned that it will not begin the talks,
expected to last 10 years, unless the EU offers only full membership, as it has
promised in the past.
Omer Sabanci, head of the
powerful Turkish business lobby, said anything less was a "red line for
Turkey". Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, called for the EU to show
"honesty" in its approach.
The last-minute poker is
reminiscent of last December 17, when the leaders of the EU's 25 member states
approved October 3 as the start date for talks.
"The negotiations
and talks are ongoing," Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian chancellor, said
yesterday.
In Brussels, the
expectation is growing that Austria will only lift its block on beginning talks
with Turkey if the EU moves towards membership negotiations with Croatia,
stalled bya dispute over an alleged war criminal.
"In the end, there
will have to be some kind of a link," said an EU diplomat.
Although many governments
object to deals on issues as fundamental as opening EU membership talks, they
have occurred in the past - most notably when Greece insisted that Cyprus join
at the same time as eight ex-communist states.
A deal on Turkey and
Croatia will also depend on Carla del Ponte, the United Nations' chief
prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, who has to certify Croatia's co-operation
with her court.
Yesterday she said it was
"disappointing" Croatia had not sent Ante Gotovina, who has been
indicted for war crimes, to her Hague-based tribunal, but she has also recently
indicated that the country has improved its co-operation.
Britain, which will chair
the foreign ministers meeting, has sought to increase the pressure on Austria
by scheduling the discussion on Turkey for Sunday night, leaving the debate on
Croatia for Monday.
Abdullah Gul, Turkey's
foreign minister, has also said he will not travel to Luxembourg until the EU
has agreed the negotiating framework for the membership talks.
Turkey has sought to join
the EU since it became an associate member in 1963, but has been rebuffed
before. The current government has made extensive reforms at the request of
Brussels, but public hostility to the prospect of Turkey joining the EU appears
to be growing in parts of Europe.
Hasan Unal, an academic
at Bilkent University in Ankara, said: "If you look at the history of EU
enlargement, and leaving aside the UK, no country has stirred as much
accusation, discussion and resentment among the EU public as Turkey."
FINANCIAL TIMES
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.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Links with Armenia reinforce
French fears
By John
Thornhill
Published:
October 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2005 03:00
Every
year France celebrates another country by organising bilateral visits and
cultural exchanges. In 2004 it was China, and the Eiffel Tower was briefly lit
up in red. This year it has been Brazil - hence the samba dancers at Paris
plage.
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Next
year it will be Armenia. The choice of a small Caucasian country of 3m people
highlights the importance France attaches to Armenia. This is mostly due to
France's 450,000-strong Armenian community, which has grown increasingly rich
and influential. But
the timing of Armenia Year could hardly be more discordant for President
Jacques Chirac if, as expected on Monday, France and the European Union's
other 24 members signal the start of accession talks with Turkey. Armenians
in France and elsewhere have been opposing Turkey's entry into the EU -
unless and until Ankara acknowledges that the death of Armenians during the
break-up of the Ottoman empire was an act of genocide. Armenians claim up to
1.5m people died in 1915-18. Turkey denies genocide, and admits only that
hundreds of thousands of both Armenians and Turks died, largely as a result
of civil war and famine. The
French parliament has already declared the massacres to have been a genocide.
And Mr Chirac has himself been sympathetic to the Armenian cause. Harout
Mardirossian, president of the Paris-based Committee for the Defence of the
Armenian Cause, says Turkey has been a "a country in denial" for 80
years that does not conform with the values espoused by the EU. "How
can you imagine Germany being integrated into the European Union in the 1960s
if it did not recognise the Holocaust?" he says. In
spite of Mr Chirac's support for accession talks with Turkey, most of his
compatriots are against the move. A recent Eurobarometer poll showed that 70
per cent of French respondents opposed Turkey's entry into the EU with only
21 per cent in favour. Opposition to Turkish entry boosted the victorious No
vote during May's referendum on Europe's constitution. Those
opposed to Turkey's accession range from Islamophobic nationalists to
Armenian campaigners to fervent pro-Europeans who believe the entry of such a
large country would kill off the dreams of a federal EU. Earlier
this month, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president and father
of the European constitution, said French voters had clearly expressed their
opposition to Turkey's entry. He
noted: "There was a clear contradiction between the pursuit of European
political integration and the entry of Turkey into European institutions.
These two projects are incompatible." Mr
Chirac has argued that Turkey's entry into the EU would recognise a great
civilisation, extend Europe's hand to the Muslim world, and help energise the
EU's economy. But he has also guaranteed French voters a referendum on
whether to accept Turkey's entry into the EU once accession talks are
completed. However,
Sylvie Goulard, a Europe expert at Sciences-Po university, says this move
deceives the French and Turks. "Resistance to Turkey's accession is not
going to disappear in 15 years. Even if the Turks have successfully reformed
themselves, they will still share a border with Iran and Iraq. You cannot
change the nature of the EU without a proper democratic debate." Whatever
the EU leaders decide, the issue of Turkey will loom large through the 2007
presidential elections and beyond. Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the ruling
UMP party and a strong presidential contender, has already stated his firm
opposition to Turkey's accession. Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister
and rival presidential contender, has doggedly defended Mr Chirac's line. |
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FINANCIAL TIMES
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The long-running battle between government
forces and the PKK, the rebel Kurdish group, has claimed an estimated 37,000
lives since 1984. The PKK recently resumed hostilities, but the level of
violence is nowhere near what it once was. Largely in response to EU pressure,
discrimination against the Kurdish minority has diminished. Kurds can now teach
and broadcast in their own language. The eerie, delightful sound of Kurdish
singing wafts up from a nightclub in Beyoglu; a few years ago, the singer would
have been arrested.
The economy is still far behind what is needed
for EU entry, but Turkey’s commitment to get it there is beyond doubt. After
years of stagnation and periodic crises under the military, the economy is
roaring (though from a low starting point): GDP is up by more than 9 per cent,
one of the highest growth rates in the world, unemployment is falling, and
inflation has been reduced to single digits for the first time in 30 years. Mr
Erdogan has pledged to reduce inflation to 5 per cent by next year, in line
with the Maastricht criteria.
Some Europeans fear an influx of cheap Turkish
labour, but Turkey’s supporters point instead to a workforce that is youthful,
energetic, enterprising and vast. With the EU workforce ageing and shrinking, a
new generation of young Turks might be the saving of Europe, while the
fast-growing Turkish population will create poten- tially huge new markets.
Bringing 70 million Muslims into the EU would
send a clear message (not least to the 20 million Muslims in Europe, where
racial tension is rising), offering tangible proof that a democratic, secular, moderately
Islamic country is not only feasible and peaceable, but profitable. That would
offer a beacon to the rest of the Muslim world, and show that the EU is not a
cosy, exclusive club, but a body committed to diversity and change.
Strategically, Turkey would give Europe a border
with the unstable regimes of the Middle East. For some, that is cause for fear,
but having Turkey within Europe may be the best way to face up to that
challenge. With Turkey inside the tent, Nato and EU interests would align more
closely, and a secure eastern border would help to control the illegal westward
flow of drugs and people. The knock-on effect of EU admission has already been
demonstrated in Eastern Europe: where Turkey led, neighbouring Georgia would
surely be the next to cast envious eyes westward.
Another reason for accelerating the accession
process — one seldom openly discussed in EU circles — is the danger of applying
the brakes now that Turkey is on the road. No country that has applied for
membership in the past has failed to meet the criteria and gain admittance,
eventually; Turkey is the largest and most strategically important country to
apply, and whenever new conditions have been set for starting negotiations,
Turkey has met them.
If Europe were now to reject Turkey, this would
certainly be seen by Turks as cultural, religious and racial discrimination,
and a rank betrayal. The reformers would be undermined, perhaps ushering in the
very Islamic fundamentalism many Europeans fear. The 1990s were, for Turkey, a
lost decade, marred by military-style authoritarianism, secular-Islamic
polarisation and economic crisis. It would not take much to turn the clock
back.
This negative argument may be Turkey’s trump
card: the belief that the EU, after holding Turkey at arm’s length for 40
years, dare not turn away now. On the eve of opening negotiations, Mr Erdogan
was blunt: “If the EU is not a Christian club, it should prove it . . . By
doing so, the EU could build a bridge with the 1.5billion Muslims of the
world.”
The building of that bridge, like the building
of the Bosphorus tunnel, is a complex and demanding task, likely to involve
intense frustration over many years. Both projects have already run into
historical problems: the tunnel engineers recently had to stop digging after
they came across a 600-year-old Byzantine water cistern; supporters of Turkish
admission to the EU must overcome centuries of antagonism between European and
Turk, Christian and Muslim. Doubtless other obstacles will be dug up in the future.
The membership rules of this particular club are
strict, detailed and, at 80,000 pages, voluminous. But Turkey is no stranger to
bureaucratic small print. The recent construction of a marina on the Aegean
coast required an estimated 12,000 official signatures; the tunnel project will
require many more than that, before it links Europe and Asia across the
Bosphorus. On Monday, Turkey and the EU will sign a document to begin talks on
accession, the first of perhaps a decade of signatures that could eventually
bring Turkey into the EU club, and change that club entirely.
Perhaps the greatest potential benefit would be
to undermine the belief that Europe and Asia cannot and should not be linked. A
European Turkey, say the backers of Ankara’s effort, would show that there is
nothing inevitable about a “clash of civilisations” between Islam and
Christianity, between Western and Eastern values.
On the contrary, the melding of cultures might
just evolve into a Europe that is more rich, robust and varied, like the
extraordinary musical medley blowing through the night streets of Istanbul.
THE TIMES 01/10/2005
So, what have the
Turks ever done for us?
On the eve of crisis talks over Turkey's bid to join the EU, here is why Europe should embrace its Muslim neighbour
Published: 01 October 2005
Multiculturalism
Though its rulers became Muslims, the Ottoman empire was home to Christians, Jews and Buddhists co-existing in peace and prosperity with Muslims from Anatolia to Algeria, centuries before the word multiculturalism was thought of. No other partner offers the West a better bridge to Islam or a more promising exit from the clash of civilisations.
Trade
Sitting astride the most strategic crossroads in Asia, the Ottomans, with their ships and caravans, achieved domination of the silk road and taught the West everything it knew about trade before the advent of ocean-going ships. Today, it offers a huge market and unrivalled connections to the resources of the Caspian and the Middle East.
Politics
A genius for statecraft took a band of nomads from the barren steppe of central Asia to the gates of Vienna. The pioneers of a disciplined bureaucracy and inventors of a standing army, they awed their enemies and seduced the Christian peasants meant to fight them, who could see a better life under the Ottomans.
Art
Turkey has brought us some of the finest works from calligraphy and metalwork to illuminated manuscripts and glass. Chinese pottery, Persian textiles and Venetian painting all flourished at Turkey's imperial court. It was that openness and synthesis that powered a humanist enlightenment centuries ahead of Europe's.
Military know-how
Known as the "storm on horseback" the heirs to Genghis Khan brought their cavalry sweeping across the plains of Anatolia into the Balkans and beyond. Their enemies only matched them with the advent of sea power and by copying their techniques. Today's Turkey, a Nato stalwart, lends credibility to the notion of a European defence force.
Style
They sat on divans on beautiful carpets, smoking hookahs and eating lakoum (Turkish delight). Their tired bodies were steamed back to harmony in ornate baths. Ottoman luxury was a fascinating scandal to the hardy puritans of northern Europe. Now we've learnt to lounge, and oriental comforts are part of our lives.
THE INDEPENDENT 01/10/2005
Turkey's talks
with EU blocked
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
Published: 01 October 2005
Britain was locked in frantic last-ditch diplomacy last night to avert the collapse of plans to start European Union membership talks with Turkey.
With Austria stubbornly refusing to give the green light for the historic negotiations, one senior EU diplomat said there was no more than a 50 per cent chance of them starting on Monday as scheduled.
The deadlock is the biggest challenge yet faced in Britain's presidency of the EU.
The UK strongly backs moves to start negotiating with Ankara, which has been knocking on Europe's door for four decades, and all EU governments last year agreed to go ahead with talks. But since then referendum "no" votes on the constitution in France and the Netherlands have hardened opinion against Turkish accession.
EU foreign ministers will hold an emergency session to try to break the deadlock tomorrow evening. But so unpredictable is the outcome that the UK presidency has rescheduled the planned start of talks with Turkey for late afternoon on Monday so that the Turkish Foreign Minister need not leave Ankara until he knows the negotiations will definitely go ahead.
Yesterday, Tony Blair told Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper: "I sincerely believe that EU membership is Turkey's future. We shall work towards achieving that. How quickly Turkey's EU train reaches its destination will depend on how fast Ankara can make changes."
Most diplomats have assumed that, since it is isolated, Vienna will back down. But one EU diplomat said: "We are still assuming there will be a solution on Sunday, but I would only give it a 50-50 chance."
In Austria, which has regional elections tomorrow, none of the main political parties backs Turkish membership of the EU, and the Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, has enjoyed a positive domestic press for his stance.
Ursula Plassnik, Austria's Foreign Minister, said her concerns as to "whether the European Union is ready and capable to accept Turkey as a full member, whether all implications of full membership have been sufficiently examined", are shared "all over Europe". She said that Austria is proposing "an option in case membership does not work out", adding that full membership is possible "one day - if Turkey fulfils the requirements and if the European Union is also in a position to absorb Turkey".
With its mainly Muslim population of 70 million, many of whom live in relative poverty, integration of Turkey within the EU would pose an unparalleled task. Its supporters argue that to reject Turkey would send a negative message to the Muslim world. Austria wants to change the language of the negotiating mandate for the talks and, according to diplomats, to remove a reference to accession as the objective. Its preference is to make it clear that the talks could lead to a lesser form of "privileged partnership".
Ankara has made it clear it will walk away from the negotiations if the possibility of second-class status is included in the text. Already the mandate for talks, expected to last a decade, are the toughest ever laid down for an enlargement and stress that negotiation are "open-ended".
Austria, meanwhile, is pressing for the start of EU membership talks with Croatia. These have been put on hold pending a verdict on whether Zagreb has achieved full co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Carla Del Ponte, its chief prosecutor, arrived in Croatia yesterday to renew pressure on authorities to arrest and extradite a top war crimes suspect, Ante Gotovina, who she says is hiding in the country. She will make a recommendation to the EU after her visit, and is likely to conclude that co-operation is improving.
Many diplomats believe Austrian opposition on Turkey could be bought off by a giving Croatia a date to start talks, although that idea was played down yesterday by the UK presidency.
THE INDEPENDENT 01/10/2005
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.
THE INDEPENDENT 01/10/2005
EU warns Austria on Turks
Nicholas Watt in
Brussels
Saturday October 1, 2005
The Guardian
Austria
will be given a blunt warning tomorrow that it will be blamed for rupturing 40
years of relations between the European Union and Turkey if it scuppers
membership talks. In a sign of widespread irritation with Vienna, which wants
to downgrade Turkey's links with the EU, Britain's foreign secretary, Jack
Straw, has summoned his Austrian counterpart for a one-to-one meeting tomorrow
night.
As EU foreign ministers
arrive in Luxembourg for emergency talks, Mr Straw will warn Ursula Plassnik
that Vienna's demands would prompt the Turks to throw in the towel. Austria was
isolated 24-1 at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels on Thursday after it
demanded a clear indication that the talks would be open-ended; an undertaking
that membership would depend on the EU's ability to absorb such a large
country; and a warning from the outset of talks that Turkey may be offered an
"alternative" to full membership.
Vienna
wants to delete a reference from a deal agreed last December by EU leaders that
Europe's "shared objective" is to offer full membership. Its stance
forced EU foreign ministers to schedule emergency talks tomorrow night to try
to agree on a framework for the membership talks. One diplomat said:
"Every Austrian suggestion centres on the points that ensured Turkey
didn't walk away last December. Change that wording and they'll probably
walk."
Britain, which is chairing
the talks, made it clear that it was determined to ensure membership talks
started as scheduled on Monday. Tony Blair, who wants the process to be well
under way by the time Austria assumes the presidency of the EU in January, told
the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet: "I sincerely believe that EU membership is
Turkey's future."
But the Austrians are
digging in their heels. Ms Plassnik told the Associated Press news agency that
Vienna had a "reasonable and moderate position" because it was merely
echoing the fears of European voters about Turkish membership. "We should
listen to the concerns voiced by so many people across Europe.
Britain hopes that Austria
will climb down when it considers the consequences of being isolated on one of
the biggest strategic decisions in the EU's history.
Vienna's task may also be
made easier if ministers are able to give positive signals to Croatia about its
EU membership talks. These were suspended in March after Carla del Ponte, the
chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal, ruled that Zagreb
was failing to help track down an indicted war criminal, General Ante Gotovina.
The EU made the question of cooperation with the tribunal in The Hague a
condition for starting entry talks.
Mrs del Ponte said last
night she was disappointed that Croatia's top war crimes suspect remained at
large. "We have always [the] same problem, Gotovina is still at large,"
she said.
The EU foreign ministers
are due to discuss Turkey over dinner tomorrow night. The timing of the talks
in Luxembourg may make a Croatia-for-Turkey deal difficult, as Mrs del Ponte is
only due to deliver her assessment of Croatia's performance to a special
taskforce of EU ministers on Monday. But Austria is a member of the taskforce,
so should have a strong idea of her thoughts by the time the Turkey talks take
place on Sunday.
Mrs del Ponte's remarks
may not dash Croatia's hopes, because Zagreb does not have to hand over
Gotovina, but merely has to offer her full cooperation.
GUARDIAN 01/10/2005
Yet another obstacle to Turkey's EU plans
(Filed: 01/10/2005)
Poor
Turkey. Its hopes of opening membership talks with the EU, entertained at least
since it signed an association agreement in 1963, have, at the eleventh hour,
received yet another blow.
Claiming
to speak for a wide swath of opinion within the union, Austria is demanding
that talks between Brussels and Ankara should open next Monday only if a clear
alternative to membership is offered. Britain, which holds the EU presidency,
has called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg tomorrow in
a last-ditch attempt to reach consensus on a negotiating mandate.
Last
December, an EU summit concluded that Turkey had carried out sufficient reform
to qualify for membership talks. Since then, however, Ankara's prospects have
darkened: France and Holland have rejected the EU constitution, and Angela
Merkel, who favours a "privileged partnership" over membership, has
emerged as frontrunner to be Germany's next chancellor. The reservations of
Austria, where Ankara's EU ambitions are widely unpopular, come on the eve of a
Land election in Styria.
It falls
to Britain, a long-time advocate of Turkish membership, to deal with the latest
impediment to the promise made last December and reaffirmed in June. The
Austrians are hinting that acquiescence over Turkey is conditional on
restarting membership talks with Croatia. But these depend on Zagreb's
co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague, in
particular bringing to justice the indicted Croatian general Ante Gotovina.
While a deal with Vienna over Croatia cannot be ruled out, it would run into
strong opposition from Holland and Sweden if the tribunal's chief prosecutor,
Carla del Ponte, fails to give Zagreb a clean bill of health.
Burdening
Ankara with specious new obligations, a divided Europe is seeking to backtrack
on a solemn undertaking. The Turks might be best advised to keep their distance
from such an organisation, opting for something less than membership that would
nevertheless allow them to exploit their competitive edge in the world's
largest single market. But they have long set their hearts on full integration
and, having co-operated with the EU over internal reform and the partitioned
island of Cyprus, do not deserve to be thwarted at the last moment.
The EU
has a strategic choice. Either it patiently works at absorbing a large, Muslim
country over the next 10 to 20 years, or it turns it away. The first promises a
unique bridge between the West and the Islamic world. The second risks
converting a well-intentioned but proud applicant into a radical foe.
Daily Telegraph 01/10/2005