European Socialists Accuse Right-Wing Opponents Of Not Wanting Musli

EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS ACCUSE RIGHT-WING OPPONENTS OF NOT WANTING MUSLIM TURKEY IN EU
IRNA< Iran Sept 28 2005 Brussels, IRNA The Socialist Group (PES) in the European Parliament accused Wednesday the right-wing European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats (EPP-ED) of being against Turkey's EU membership because it was a Muslim country. "You don't want to have Turkey because it is Islamic and far away. Croatia is closer and is Catholic. That is the truth of your message. Let us not beat about the bush. We must apply the same standards to all countries," PES leader Martin Schulz told EPP leader Hans-Gert Poettering during a heated debate on Turkey's EU membership in the EP in Strasbourg. The leader of the 219-strong Socialist Group, the second-largest in the EP, said "the EPP does not want Turkey. We want to give Turkey a chance." On his part, the leader of EPP - which with 267 MEPs in the 732-member EP is the largest group - said if EU membership was not achieved at the end of the process, then the alternative result must be a privileged partnership for Turkey. He said Christians' "legitimate rights" in Turkey had to be recognised and implemented in the same way that "Moslem citizens' rights were recognised in European Union countries." Poettering urgently called on the British Presidency of the EU to apply the same criteria to Croatia as that of Turkey. "Everyone has shut their eyes on the human rights issue in Turkey while Croatia was to be refused the start of negotiations because a single general - one who was plainly not even in Croatia - had not yet been delivered up to the Hague Tribunal," he said. The EU has postponed talks on Croatia's membership because of Zagreb's failure to arrest a war crimes suspect Gen Ante Gotovina. But EU states like Austria and Hungary want Croatia to start talks at the same time as Turkey on October 3. The co-president of the Green/EFA (European Free Alliance), Daniel Cohn-Bendit, also criticized the EPP saying "some of the opponents of Turkey's accession are surfing on a wave of cultural and racist prejudices." "This is a dangerous game," he said adding that "the question of European Islam exists with or without Turkey. There are already more Muslims in the EU than there are Belgians." The EP Wednesday voted in favour of starting talks on Turkish accession on October 3, but insisted on a number of conditions before it is allowed entry. MEPs insisted that Turkey recognise the killings of thousands of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. The EP also postponed a vote on ratifying Turkey's customs arrangements with the EU because of its refusal to recognise the Greek Cypriot government. At the request of the EPP-ED group, EP voted 311 votes in favour, 285 against and 63 abstentions to postpone the vote