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  • ASBAREZ Online [09-29-2005]

    ASBAREZ ONLINE
    TOP STORIES
    09/29/2005
    TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
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    1) EU Calls Emergency Talks as Austria Blocks Accord on Turkey
    2) Washington-Based Group Accuses Turkey of Abusing Mental Patients, Asks
    EU to
    Intervene Pre Negotiations
    3) Armenian-US Sides Review Defense Cooperation
    4) Georgia's PM Arrives in Armenia

    1) EU Calls Emergency Talks as Austria Blocks Accord on Turkey

    BRUSSELS (AFP)--The EU has called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers to
    try to end an impasse over Turkey's entry talks, as Austria insisted Ankara be
    offered less than full EU membership.
    A 24-1 vote on Thursday 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 British EU presidency called the talks for Sunday--the day before the
    Turkey-EU talks are due to start.
    "I can confirm that foreign ministers will meet on Sunday," said a British
    spokesman on Thursday. "Unfortunately it was not possible to agree [on] the
    negotiating framework today at [an] ambassadorial level, [but] efforts will
    continue."
    EU leaders agreed last December to open talks with Turkey on October 3. But
    the relationship became strained in July when Ankara reaffirmed that it would
    not recognize member state Cyprus.
    A dispute over how to respond to that was finally resolved last week, but the
    negotiating framework row will now be tackled at the emergency meeting of EU
    foreign ministers, probably over dinner in Luxembourg.
    One EU official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, explained that
    "the Austrians maintain their reservations about the negotiating framework."
    "Their demands involve an alternative or interim solution to membership
    should
    the EU be unable to integrate Turkey or should Turkey not fulfill all the
    criteria," he said.
    Turkey's parliament speaker Bulent Arinc charged that Turkey was being
    provoked to walk away from the talks.
    "It seems as if our patience is being tested. Looking at what is being
    done to
    Turkey one shows that there are some who hope to get rid of us by forcing
    us to
    walk away from the [negotiating] table," he said in an interview on Turkey's
    NTV television.
    Any hold up beyond Monday would be sure to further anger Turkey, which has
    had
    ties with the Union for more than 40 years but has seen its efforts to join
    consistently hampered.
    Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned that he will turn his back on the
    talks if the negotiating framework contains "any formula or suggestion other
    than full membership."
    Despite official denials, some diplomats allow that Austria's stance on
    Turkey
    could be linked with Croatia's hopes of starting EU talks, which depend on
    Zagreb's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal.
    Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel suggested as much in an interview in
    Thursday's Financial Times newspaper.
    "If we trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia too," he
    said. "It is in Europe's interest to start negotiations with Croatia
    immediately."
    Austria has been a strong supporter of Croatia's efforts to join the bloc and
    four out of five Austrians oppose Turkey joining.
    The EU official said a special EU task force would meet early on Monday with
    Carla Del Ponte, the head of the UN war crimes tribunal to discuss Croatia's
    candidature.
    That meeting would "probably be followed by a global decision on Turkey and
    Croatia during the morning," he affirmed.
    A spokeswoman for the EU's executive commission said the two candidacies were
    not linked from its point of view, but noted that: "The EU is ready to start
    accession negotiations with Croatia immediately once it has been established
    that full cooperation (with the tribunal) is there."
    The frustration in Brussels was palpable.
    "Twenty-four member states could accept the agreement," said another EU
    diplomat. "It is not a question of re-drafting but a political issue ... it's
    not about a tweak here, a tweak there."


    2) Washington-Based Group Accuses Turkey of Abusing Mental Patients, Asks
    EU to
    Intervene Pre Negotiations

    ANKARA (Combined Sources)-- A Washington-based human rights group has accused
    Turkey of subjecting mental health patients to serious abuses, including
    electric shock treatment without anesthesia, and is urging the European Union
    to demand an end to the practices.
    The report, by Mental Disability Rights International, came after several
    visits in the past year by the group's investigators to Turkish psychiatric
    hospitals and was published days before Turkey is scheduled to begin
    negotiations to join the EU.
    "As the European Union meets to consider Turkey's human rights record... we ask
    them to demand action by the government of Turkey to end these human rights
    violations," the report concluded.
    According to the report, people with mental or psychiatric disorders are
    "subjected to treatment practices that are tantamount to torture."
    The group said electric shock therapy was "massively overused in Turkish
    psychiatric facilities in cases for which there is no clinically proven
    justification," and that they were used as a form of punishment.
    Electric Shock Therapy is normally administered with anesthesia and muscle
    relaxants. Without them it can be painful, terrifying, and dangerous. Patients
    can break jaws or crack vertebrae during the induced seizures.
    The investigators also found that the treatment was used as punishment. The
    report describes patients being dragged to electroshock therapy in
    straitjackets and forcibly held down during the procedure.
    "If we use anesthesia the ECT [electroconvulsive therapy] won't be as
    effective, because they won't feel punished," the report quotes Musa Tosun,
    the
    director of the electroconvulsive therapy center, as saying.
    Referring to that statement, Eric Rosenthal, the founder of the rights group,
    said in a telephone interview from Istanbul, "That was one of most horrifying
    statements I've ever heard in 12 years of doing this work."
    Much of the documented abuse took place in orphanages and rehabilitation
    centers for children with developmental or intellectual disabilities.
    Investigators saw emaciated and neglected children, many of whom had
    behavioral
    problems that were likely to have been the result of mistreatment rather than
    pre-existing illness, Rosenthal said.
    "We saw children who were essentially abandoned, starving, tied down to their
    beds," he said, adding that investigators had not been allowed to see the
    worst
    wards.
    Although the center keeps no mortality records, a footnote in the report
    notes
    that the large number of admissions without a corresponding number of
    discharges suggests that many children die at the center.
    "We believe there's a very high death rate in these facilities," Rosenthal
    said.
    Turkish Health Ministry officials were not immediately available for
    comment.


    3) Armenian-US Sides Review Defense Cooperation

    The fourth annual US-Armenia Bilateral Defense Consultations were held in
    Yerevan, Armenia, in order to review cooperation during the past year, and
    formulate a plan for cooperation in 2006.
    The September 28-29 meetings covered a broad range of issues, including
    national security, defense reform, peacekeeping operations, military training,
    military education, and the military's role in disaster response.
    The US delegation, led by Mr. Scott Schless, Principal Director for
    Eurasia in
    the Office of the Secretary of Defense, met with Armenian Ministry of Defense
    officials. The Armenian delegation was led by General-Major Artur Aghabekyan,
    Deputy Minister of Defense. Both the Defense Minister of the Republic of
    Armenia, Serge Sargsian, and the US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans also
    attended. The Ambassador noted the "broadening and deepening" defense
    relationship between the two countries.
    The site of the annual meeting alternates between the US and Armenia.


    4) Georgia's PM Arrives in Armenia

    YEREVAN (Armenpress)--Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli arrived in
    Armenia for the 4th session of the Armenian-Georgian inter-governmental
    commission.
    Nogaideli met with his Armenian counterpart Andranik Margarian to tackle a
    variety of issues between the neighboring countries, including the present
    state of Javakhk, a majority Armenian region in Georgia.
    Margarian commended the Georgian government's plans to improve socio-economic
    conditions in the impoverished region, and again confirmed the Armenian
    government's readiness to cooperate in development programs.
    The prime ministers also discussed the opening of the ferry line between
    Kavkaz and Poti, Armenia's support of the re-opening of the Abkhazian section
    of the Georgian railway, construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway,
    the establishment of a Georgian-Armenian university in Georgia, and the
    possibilites sfor direct flights between Yerevan-Batumi-Kabuleti.
    Georgia's delegation is composed of the country's energy minister, as well as
    deputy ministers of foreign affairs, finance, economic development, and health
    and social security.


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    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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