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  • EU talks on Turkey threatened by disputes

    EU talks on Turkey threatened by disputes
    By Dan Bilefsky

    International Herald Tribune

    THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005




    ISTANBUL Just days before European leaders gather to decide whether to begin
    talks with Turkey about its entering the European Union, Austrian resistance
    to Turkey and unresolved disputes over Armenia and Cyprus risk derailing
    negotiations.

    As representatives from EU governments prepared to meet in Brussels on
    Thursday to decide on a framework for negotiations with Turkey, people close
    to the talks said that Austria remained determined to push for a "privileged
    partnership" with Turkey that falls short of full membership. They said this
    opposition could result in an emergency meeting of foreign ministers on
    Sunday to try to salvage negotiations.

    "Of course, we are hoping that talks will begin Monday as scheduled, but
    right now tempers are high, Austria refuses to budge and the outcome is not
    at all a done deal," said a British official close to the talks. Under EU
    rules, a decision to start talks must be unanimous.

    The European Parliament gave grudging approval to the opening of talks
    Monday, but it also said that Turkey must recognize the killing of Armenians
    under Ottoman rule in 1915 as genocide or risk being left out of the EU. The
    nonbinding resolution is largely symbolic, but it was met with a frosty
    response in Ankara, which insists there was no genocide and is adamant that
    no further conditions be attached to Turkey's EU bid.

    The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, also postponed a vote that
    was to have taken place Wednesday, to approve Turkey's extended customs
    union with the EU. Ankara has agreed to extend its free trade agreement with
    the EU to all 25 member states, including Cyprus. But it refuses to
    recognize Cyprus formally and denies Cyprus access to its airfields and
    ports. In a heated debate, members of Parliament said this was unacceptable.

    "Turkey has to recognize members of a club if it wants to join it," said Jan
    Marinus Wiersma, vice president of the Parliament's influential Socialist
    group.

    The Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, warned Wednesday that forcing
    Turkey to recognize Cyprus before the island's division was resolved could
    destroy prospects for peace and lead to civil war. Cyprus has been divided
    since 1974 into a Greek-Cypriot controlled south and a Turkish-occupied
    north.

    In Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey publicly dismissed
    the European Parliament's statements. But people close to the prime minister
    said he had been stung by them and had momentarily considered boycotting the
    talks. Erdogan has reiterated forcefully over the past few weeks that he
    would walk away from the talks if Turkey were offered anything less than
    full membership.

    Turkish analysts said Turkish public opinion was growing increasingly
    frustrated with the EU's stance and Erdogan could not afford a deal deemed
    humiliating by many Turks. "Erdogan will not agree to talks if Turkey is
    forced to make more sacrifices," said Selcuk Gutalesi, a commentator for
    Zaman, a conservative newspaper close to the government. Already, Turkey has
    accepted unprecedented conditions to open EU negotiations, including an
    open-ended halt to the movement of Turkish workers into the bloc.

    While the EU's invitation to Turkey last December was greeted with euphoria
    in Turkey, the anti-Turkey sentiment expressed in recent votes on the EU
    constitution in France and the Netherlands has prompted some Turkish
    newspapers to splash headlines on their front pages accusing the EU of
    double standards and calling on it to obey its own high moral laws. Turkish
    officials say they fear the EU will try Monday to impose even tougher
    conditions on Turkey's EU entry to placate its own skeptical citizens.

    The idea of accepting a poor, agrarian country into the bloc has been met
    with deep resistance across the EU. Recent polls show a majority of French,
    German and Austrian voters oppose admitting Turkey, and a majority of Danes
    would rather see non-EU candidate, Ukraine, in the EU than an "Islamic
    country" like Turkey.

    That skepticism is likely to intensify in coming years, because leaders
    viscerally opposed to Turkey's entry are on the rise in two of the EU's most
    important countries, Germany and France. The Christian Democrat leader,
    Angela Merkel, who may lead a German coalition government after finishing
    ahead of the party in power in this month's elections, favors a "privileged
    partnership" for Turkey. In France, a likely presidential candidate, Nicolas
    Sarkozy, also opposes Turkish membership.

    Sinan Ulgen, a political analyst at Istanbul Economics, an Istanbul research
    institution and consultancy, said Turkey was bracing itself for a long road
    ahead. "The talks are likely to last at least 10 years, so this is only the
    beginning."




    http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/28/news/union.php
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