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07/19/2006
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1. OSCE Blames Azerbaijan for Karabakh Arsons
2. Lebanese Evacuees Seek Refuge in Armenian Community
3. ANCA Challenges Rep. Burton’s Attack On Nagorno Karabakh
4. Turkish Prosecutor Probes Armenian Journalist For Genocide Statement

1. OSCE Blames Azerbaijan for Karabakh Arsons

YEREVAN–After weeks of monitoring the region, the OSCE concluded that recent
wildfires in Nagorno-Karabakh were a direct result of arson perpetrated by
Azerbaijan, reported Armenia’s Foreign Ministry Wednesday in a statement.
A report by a personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzei
Kasprchik was delivered to both the Armenian and Azeri foreign ministries,
concluding that Azerbaijan was the cause of the wildfires in that area.
"We hope that this will put an to Azerbaijan’s irresponsible and absurd false
accusations," said Armenian foreign ministry spokesman Vladimir Karapetian.
The Azeri foreign ministry acknowledged the receipt of the report. A ministry
spokesperson said that it will issue a statement after reviewing the entire
report.
On Tuesday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued an announcement regarding
this matter. Below is the translated text of the statement:
"The fires on the Nagorno Karabakh territory bordering with Azerbaijan have
been taking place since early June 2006. The situation is a subject of serious
concern for the Karabakh leadership, since it poses a threat for the security
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and its population.
"A special commission formed by the representatives of the ministries and
departments responsible for security issues has been established in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to study the circumstances and reveal the reasons of
the fires. The subunits of fire-prevention service, the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic Department for Emergency Situations and the leadership of local
administrations and population have been mobilized for the localization of the
centers of the fires and non-admission of fire spreading. A twenty-four-hour
duty has been organized in all the communities to prevent emergency
situations.
"However, the situation in the regions is deteriorating due to the fires and
is ripe with unfavorable long-term consequences for the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic agriculture and food security. The number and area of the fires at
wheat fields on the territories bordering with Azerbaijan have sharply risen.
"As a result of the work of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic special commission,
indisputable data indicate that the reasons for the fires were hostile
activities by Azeris. By these actions official Baku pursues an agenda to
erode
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s economy and deprive it of the possibility of
development. In order to conceal its intentions, the Azeri leadership, from
the
very outset, has launched a wide-ranging campaign both in the local and
foreign
mass media, in an attempt to lay the blame on Karabakh. This campaign is a
continuation of the propaganda and the psychological war against the people of
Nagorno Karabakh and is blatant attempt to hide this act of aggression.
"We would like to remind that as early as in 2001, the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic authorities suggested via the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution, a package of measures on establishing
confidence between the parties to the conflict. In particular, we offered
cooperation in fire prevention on pastures and agricultural territories in the
bordering regions. Regrettably, official Stepanakert’s initiatives were not
supported at the time in Baku and were not honored with due attention by the
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen.
"Moreover, as early as June 15, 2006, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Ministry
of Foreign Affairs addressed a request to the Office of the OSCE Chairman-in
Office’s Personal Representative to hold a crisis monitoring on territory
bordering with Azerbaijan to estimate the real situation on the spot and
refute
the Azeri party’s vain accusations.
"We draw the attention of the international community and especially the OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chairmen to the Stepanakert’s right, in the event Azerbaijan’s
hostile activities are not addressed, to undertake adequate measures of
response to ensure the Republic’s security".

2. Lebanese Evacuees Seek Refuge in Armenian Community

BEIRUT (Aztag)–As the number of displaced people increased as a result of the
Israeli attacks on Lebanon, many Lebanese refugees sought refuge in Armenian
community establishments in and around Beirut Wednesday, the Aztag newspaper
reported.
Public school building have been turned into shelters for evacuees. Aztag
reporters toured the Bourdj Hammoud neighborhood and discussed the situation
with several refugees.
To address the needs of the affected population, the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation Lebanon Central Committee announced the establishment of a task
force, which will organize relief efforts in and around area, coordinating
activities with city hall and relief organizations working in the area.
The Armenian Relief Society Araxi Boulghourjian infirmary has been designated
as the headquarters for the efforts.
The ARF CC of Lebanon issued an announcement Tuesday, pledging all its
organizational resources to the affected Lebanese public. This announcement
and
other details about the ARF-initiated efforts were broadcast on Lebanese
television and radio, as well as other media outlets.
The Lebanon Prelacy issued an announcement Wednesday condemning what it
called
the barbaric attacks by Israel on Lebanon.
Armenia’s Ambassador to Lebanon Vahan Ter-Ghevondian held a press conference
Wednesday afternoon, announcing that Armenia’s Embassy in Beirut would
continue
its operations.
"Our embassy will be open 24 hours a day and our staff has been answering
phone calls and inquiries regarding the developments and continues to accept
visitors," said Ter-Ghevondian, adding that through the embassy’s and
Armenia’s
foreign ministry’s efforts Armenian citizens were being evacuated to Armenia.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that some 200 more Armenian citizens
and other residents of Lebanon will be evacuated to Armenia on Thursday amid
the continuing Israeli assault on the tiny Arab state, the Foreign Ministry in
Yerevan said on Wednesday.
A ministry spokesman, Vladimir Karapetian, told RFE/RL that the evacuees will
be transported to Syria by bus and then fly to Yerevan on board two Armenian
airliners. "Most of them are citizens of Armenia," Karapetian said. The
evacuees will be accompanied by Armenian diplomats during the high-risk
journey
from Beirut to Aleppo, he said.
According to the ministry, 160 Armenians and dozens of Lebanese citizens of
Armenian descent have already escaped to Armenia since the start of
devastating
Israeli raids on civilian and guerrilla targets in Lebanon on July 12. It says
some 1,200 Armenian nationals lived in the country before the assault.
Prime Minister Andranik Markarian has promised to provide "state support" to
them and other Lebanese residents who would like to take refuge in Armenia.
Two
Armenian diplomats have been sent to Lebanon and Syria to assist in their
voluntary evacuation.
"I wouldn’t say there is a big influx of evacuees from Lebanon right now,"
said Karapetian. "It’s just that we are prepared for such an influx because it
is not clear when all of this will end."
The official added that no Armenian casualties have been reported so far.
"There is no mass exodus of Armenians yet," Shahan Kandaharian, editor of the
local Armenian-language "Aztag" daily based, told RFE/RL from Beirut.

3. ANCA Challenges Rep. Burton’s Attack On Nagorno Karabakh

WASHINGTON–The Armenian National Committee of America responded today to a
July 17th speech on the House floor by Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) that
seriously misrepresented Nagorno Karabakh’s history, status, and right to
self-determination.
The Indiana legislator took to the House floor yesterday in an apparent
attempt to undermine the growing Congressional support for Nagorno Karabakh –
as demonstrated by the successful recent Washington, visit and US Capitol
reception for the Parliamentary Speaker and Foreign Minister of the
Republic of
Nagorno Karabakh. Commenting on what he perceived as a pro-Nagorno Karabakh
tilt among US legislators, Rep. Burton stressed that: "Any outside influence,
any shift in neutrality can only result in a false peace. That is why I am
deeply concerned when I hear some of my colleagues throwing barbs at the
Azeris
and attempting to lay all the blame for this complicated issue at their
doorstep."
In a factually incorrect statement, he sought to call into question Nagorno
Karabakh’s right to self-determination, asserting that: "So far as I know, the
Nagorno-Karabakh region has never been a part of Armenia. To suggest
otherwise,
and to suggest that the problems in Nagorno-Karabakh are caused solely by
Azerbaijan seems to me to distort the facts and potentially undermine our good
faith efforts to see this conflict resolved; and to see peace and prosperity
come to the people of both Azerbaijan and Armenia."
In a three-page fact sheet sent to every Congressional office, the ANCA
challenged Congressman Burton’s inaccurate description of the Nagorno Karabakh
issue as well as the biased and counter-productive advice he offered to his
House colleagues. The key points addressed in the ANCA document included:

1. Nagorno Karabakh’s commitment to peace
2. Azerbaijan’s threat to regional stability
3. Nagorno Karabakh’s economic growth
4. Nagorno Karabakh’s right to self-determination
5. Nagorno Karabakh’s commitment to democracy
6. Nagorno Karabakh’s pivotal role in ending the Soviet threat to America

In addition, the ANCA provided a one-page update on Azerbaijan’s post-Soviet
evolution into an increasingly corrupt and autocratic petro-state,
characterized by leaders who seek to bridge the growing gap with their own
population by demonizing their Armenian neighbors.

4. Turkish Prosecutor Probes Armenian Journalist For Genocide Statement

ISTANBUL (AP)–A Turkish prosecutor once again launched an investigation into
an Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink for calling the events of 1915 a
Genocide, a news report said Tuesday.
The probe may or may not lead to Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual
newspaper
Agos, being prosecuted for insulting "Turkishness," the Dogan News Agency
reported. He could be imprisoned if charged and convicted. Dink said he was
aware of the reports but had not been officially notified about the probe. The
prosecutor in Istanbul could not be reached for comment.
The investigation was launched over Dink’s statement to the Reuters news
agency in which he said: "Of course I say it was genocide… With these events
you see the disappearance of a people who lived on these lands for 4,000
years."
Dink said he was surprised by the probe. "I had no intention of insulting
Turkishness," Dink said. "My only concern is to improve Armenian and Turkish
relations."
The new probe comes just days after a Turkish high court confirmed a
six-month
prison sentence imposed on Dink for attempting to influence the judiciary
after
Agos ran articles criticizing the law which makes it a crime to insult
Turkishness. Dink’s sentence, however, was postponed.
The law, which also brings penalties for insulting Turkish officials or
government institutions, has been used to bring charges against dozens of
journalists, publishers and scholars. The European Union has warned Turkey
that
the law could seriously hamper efforts to join the bloc.
Author Elif Safak, a University of Arizona assistant professor, was recently
charged with "insulting Turkishness" because of the words uttered by fictional
Armenian characters in her novel "The Bastard of Istanbul." Turkish courts
dropped similar charges against acclaimed novelist Orhan Pamuk earlier this
year following an international uproar.

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Karen Asryan gains three points at the international chess tournament in China

ArmRadio.am
17.07.2006 16:37

Grand Master of Armenia Karen Asryan gained three points from the
six possible at the international chess tournament held in China.

Currently the Chinese chess players are leading in the tournament
and they are very close to victory.

Nagorny Karabakh Republic [NKR] blames fires on Azerbaijan

Arminfo, Yerevan
17 Jul 06

Stepanakert , 17 July: The purposefully hostile actions of the
Azerbaijani side are the cause of the fire on the border between the
Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR] and Azerbaijan, a statement of the
NKR foreign ministry has said.

The statement, in particular, notes that as a result of the work of
a special commission of the NKR, irrefutable information has been
produced which shows that these actions of the Baku government
are aimed at undermining the NKR economy and depriving it of the
possibility of progress. In order to disguise their actions, the
Azerbaijani authorities from the very start launched large-scale
propaganda both in the local and foreign media, trying to shift
the blame onto the Karabakh side, which is the continuation of
the propaganda and psychological warfare against the people of the
Nagornyy Karabakh republic and a clumsy attempt to cover up the act
of aggression.

[Passage omitted: some details of 2001 Karabakh talks]

"We would like to inform the whole international community and
especially the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group that if no measures
are taken against Azerbaijan’s hostile actions, the Stepanakert
government reserves the right to take retaliatory action to ensure
the republic’s security," the statement reads.

It also recalls that fires have intensified on the border between
Azerbaijan and Nagornyy Karabakh since early June 2006. The situation
causes serious concern on the part of the Karabakh authorities since
it poses a threat to the NKR’s security and its people.

A special commission has been set up in the NKR to look into the
circumstances and causes of the fire. The commission comprises
members of ministries and departments in charge of security issues.
Firefighting brigades and the emergencies department of the NKR,
as well as local administrations and residents, have been mobilized
to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading. Round-the-clock
services have been organized in all communities in order to prevent
emergencies.

Nevertheless, the situation in those districts, which has been
aggravated by the continuing fire, is fraught with unpleasant long-term
consequences for the agriculture of the NKR and the republic’s food
security. The area of wheat fields damaged by fires on the border
with Azerbaijan has dramatically increased.

US Government Donates Emergency Response Equipment to the Government of
Armenia

ArmRadio.am
14.07.2006 17:05

On July 14, the US and Armenian governments marked the conclusion
of a course conducted by the U. Department of Defense on "Crime
Scene Management" as related to weapons of mass destruction
incidents. Thirty-four Armenian officials from the Ministry of Defense,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Security Service, Ministry of
Nature Protection, Armenian Rescue Service, Police Department, and
Customs Committee participated in the course. This was the latest of
several courses conducted over the past five years as part of the US
Department of Defense’s International Counter-Proliferation Program.

In recognition of Armenia’s completion of this course, the US
Government donated $300,000 worth of law enforcement and emergency
response equipment to the Government of Armenia. The equipment includes
weapons of mass destruction detection and monitoring equipment,
personal protective equipment, decontamination equipment, crime scene
investigation kits, and evidence collection kits.

During the event, US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans thanked the
participants from seven different Armenian government ministries and
agencies who participated in the course. Ambassador Evans noted that
no nation is immune from experiencing natural or manmade disasters,
and governments must therefore prepare as best they can for unforeseen
events. According to Ambassador Evans, in cooperating with the
United States on the International Counter-proliferation Program,
the Government of Armenia has made a firm commitment to improving
its response capability.

ARMENIA WILL RAISE TERRITORIAL CLAIM AGAINST TURKEY IF "GENOCIDE"
IS RECOGNIZED, PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
July 12 2006

"Armenia raises false, imaginary, unreal and faked accusations
against Turkey, and try the notorious "genocide" to be approved in
Europe. That is, it shows that they are in a hostile position," said
President Ilham Aliyev in an interview to Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper

The Head of State then stressed, "First, there was not any genocide.
Instead, in all periods they have killed the Turks, Azerbaijanis,
and massacred them. Secondly, let us have a look at the new history.
There were countries that battled with each other for ten times,
twenty times. The European countries. Have a look at the World War
II. In this war, carried out by Germany, the Soviet Union, England,
France and America, 30 million and may be more people were killed.
Wars occurred in world, and earlier in Europe. But after 20 years,
the Soviet Union and Western Germany established relations. And today
they are allies, France and Germany play leading role in the European
Union and all see their alliance. These nations, these countries have
closed the history for future, for progress. But look at Armenia;
they educate their youth in spirit of hostility".

Saying that Armenians they will demand compensation, raise territorial
claim against Turkey after they achieve the recognition of "genocide",
the Head of State added, "Turkey and Azerbaijan should have stronger
position. We should not defend, but on the contrary, we should attack
>From the point of view of policy and propaganda. Here, in Azerbaijan
we set up the affairs in high level. It is necessary to unmask the
Armenian propaganda, and smash up their false propaganda and bring
to the notice of world community".

EUROPEAN PARTY OF "GREENS" DEMANDS UNBLOCKING TURKEY’S BORDERS WITH
ARMENIA

Yerevan, July 12. ArmInfo.

Marie Anne Isler Beguin, Chairwoman of the EU Parliament’s delegation
to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, recently published the materials
she accumulated during her visit of the Armenian Turkish border.

The Armenian Federation of Europe informed that according to her, "the
European Parliament in its resolutions never missed the opportunity to
emphasize the importance of unblocking Turkey’s borders with Armenia,
as in the terms of the blocked borders, not only the Armenian and
Turkish borderline dwelling places suffer, but also the region
does." Isler emphasized that the issue of unblocking the borders
should become a criteria for Turkey’s admission to EU.

She reminded that 10 years ago, when blocking the borders with
Armenia, Turkey intended to exert pressure on the process of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict development. In its turn, the Committee for
Foreign Affairs at the European Parliament postponed the discussion
of the draft resolution "On Turkey’s Progress for Admission to EU."

The voting for the draft resolution was postponed till September.

This was conditioned by several drawbacks in the translation of some
amendments for Turkey to apply.

Men’s News Daily, CA
July 12 2006

EU Repeats Warning to Turkey on Freedom of Speech
July 11, 2006

The European Union has again warned Turkey over freedom of speech
provisions in its penal code, after Turkey’s high court upheld the
conviction of a journalist accused of insulting the country’s
national identity.

The warning came Wednesday from EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn, one day after the high court confirmed a six-month jail term
for an Armenian-Turkish journalist.

The journalist, Hrant Dink, was convicted last year of attempting to
influence the judiciary, after his bilingual newspaper ran stories
criticizing a law making it a crime to insult "Turkishness."

The EU has frequently warned Turkey that its efforts to join the
25-nation trading bloc could be hampered by the law, which sets
penalties for insulting the republic or its officials.

Rehn said the EU will review the situation later this year in a
progress report on Turkey’s accession talks.

Local Section of Russian-Armenian Friendship Society to Open in Yaroslavl

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.07.2006 14:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The presentation of Yaroslavl Section of the
Russian-Armenian Friendship Society will be held in Yaroslavl,
Russia. As reported by the Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of
Russia, the Russian-Armenian Friendship Society was lately reformed
into an inter-regional organization and its representations will
appear in many Russian subjects.

The major issue on the agenda is election of the Chairman and Board
members of the Section. The major goals of the Russian-Armenian
Friendship Society are implementation of bilateral programs with
Armenia and development of business, trade and economic relations.

The Yaroslavl section plans to consider proposals on establishment
of direct friendly relations between the Yaroslavl region and the
Republic of Armenia soon.

Banker’s heart in the right place
12 July 2006

Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
July 12 2006

Girol Karacaoglu peppers his conversations with concepts such as
wanting to hug customers and do the right thing, but even with fine
ideals, taking on the big banks is hard. Sue Allen reports.

There is something unusual about Girol Karacaoglu and PSIS. In all
but its legal structure PSIS is a bank, but Dr Karacaoglu insists
its goal is not huge profits.

It doesn’t want to open call centres, the board agonises over raising
account charges, low-income earners are welcome and "hugging" customers
is almost part of staff training.

PSIS is a financial services cooperative that wants to "do the right
thing", he says.

So he cannot understand why more customers are not flocking to open
accounts. "There is a small trickle of disaffected customers of the
big banks coming to us. It’s not a flood."

But it’s not all bad. Since Dr Karacaoglu took over three years ago,
he has stemmed the tide of customers leaving.

For the past 18 months between 250 and 300 new customers have signed
up each month.

The average age of new customers is also falling – about 60 per cent
are 45 or younger, something that delights him.

PSIS was founded in 1928 to provide public servants with low-cost
financial services. It came close to collapse in 1979, its very
success almost its undoing.

Having provided cheap financial services, the board and management
wanted to extend the concept to low-cost televisions, holidays,
alcohol, almost anything.

"The heart was in the right place," Dr Karacaoglu says. "It was trying
to do the cooperative thing at a much broader level but these people
didn’t understand that kind of business, so it got too diversified."

He has only praise for his predecessors, who succeeded in turning
the organisation around.

AdvertisementAdvertisementBy the time he turned up for his interview,
PSIS had opened its doors to the general public and was financially
stable, but it needed to grow.

One of the key questions he faced was how to make a cooperative
"relevant and sexy" to today’s New Zealanders.

To get an idea of how, and if, a cooperative finance house could
survive, PSIS looked to Britain. There, the Cooperative Bank turned
its fortunes around by trading on being a cooperative and on the
values of ethical banking.

Though PSIS is smaller and does not have a commercial banking arm to
fall back on, it believes its cooperative structure and values will
be key to future success.

"For some reason I don’t understand, values seem to have become an
attractive story. Whereas in the heydays of the sharemarket boom,
no one gave a damn about values."

Two years of research has shown that the same people PSIS was set up
to serve – low-income families – are still disadvantaged by the big
retail banks.

"They are still the people who are not getting the attention and
respect that the high-wealth and high-income individuals do.

"Those are the people being pushed away and shoved either to atms
or the Internet because they are not the ideal customers for them
(retail banks). What we’re saying is those are precisely the people
we want to hug and do business with."

These days PSIS has 32 branches and is aiming for 132,000 customers by
the end of the year. It offers all the personal banking services of a
high street bank, including text and phone banking. The only product
it does not offer is a credit card, but that is being looked into.

The cooperative is hoping to get bigger by aiming at families earning
between $30,000 and $80,000 a year.

PSIS’ research has shown that someone earning as little as $20,000
can be a profitable customer, if he or she does all their banking
with PSIS. At present, customers are "cherry picking" services such
as no transaction fees on current accounts with $500.

"For us, cooperative means co-operation: you help me and I help you.

You help me by doing all your banking with us. I help you by giving
you low rates of interest in loans, high interest rates on deposits,
good insurance premiums and good transaction fees."

FOR Dr Karacaoglu, and PSIS, it always comes back to core values –
the same values that appealed to him from his first interview.

It was a job, he says, that fitted better with his personal values
than previous ones. "I thought it would be lovely to work in an
organisation where you can do the right thing and doing the right
thing gives the profits, rather than the other way round."

It’s a long way from his birthplace – the coastal town of Mersin in
Turkey – to heading PSIS from an office overlooking Wellington Harbour.

The son of an Armenian father and Lebanese mother, he attended an
American school in Turkey, which eventually led him to the prestigious
Robert College in Istanbul, and a partial Fulbright scholarship to
do a PhD in economics at Hawaii University.

The status of his school and university was almost an automatic
right to print money. The first turning point came when he chose
economics over business. "My father almost had a heart attack when
I told him I chose economics, because in his mind it was a road to
relative poverty."

The next detour came when he turned down a position at the management
accountancy firm of Arthur Andersen – the only Turkish candidate ever
to do so. His brother was later offered the job.

Does he ever regret choosing economics over business? "No" It is a
passion. "In Turkey the people who succeed are the entrepreneurs.

They always make fun of me, the professor."

He took a lecturing job at Victoria University after his father
advised him not to return to teach in Turkey in the unstable days of
the early 1980s.

Dr Karacaoglu then worked for the Reserve Bank, National Bank,
Tower Portfolio Management, Prudential Assurance and for Westpac,
before joining PSIS in 2003.

It is a job with some unusual characteristics. Unlike most retail
banks, PSIS has the luxury – and the challenge – of not having to
make huge profits to return to shareholders.

That said, Dr Karacaoglu stresses that PSIS is financially sound.

This year it made a pretax profit of $10.6 million, broke through
$1 billion in assets, and has about $820 million in both deposits
and loans.

Capital adequacy on a risk-adjusted basis is 18 per cent, well above
the 8 per cent minimum required for registered banks. The dark days
of 1979 are always in mind.

For Dr Karacaoglu and the management, the challenge is calculating how
to return profits to customers throughout the year through lower fees,
lower home-loan rates and higher interest rates on deposits, rather
than a one-off distribution at the end of the year to shareholders.

A second challenge is getting the PSIS message across with a relatively
small advertising and marketing budget.

As PSIS gets bigger, it will have its work cut out ensuring it sticks
to one of its main selling points – treating customers as individuals.

But Dr Karacaoglu is determined that as long as he is at the helm,
PSIS will keep hugging customers till they come round to his way of
thinking and get their friends to join too.

Turkish FM Gul Blames EU Leaders for Plunge in Turkish Support for EU

Journal of Turkish Weekly
July 8 2006

Saturday , 08 July 2006

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul blamed some European leaders
for the plunge in Turkish public support for the European Union (EU).

Gul told a press conference on Friday after his US visit that the
remarks of some EU leaders, who cater to their domestic politics
without considering the impact of these remarks in Turkey, are
responsible for the drop in support for the EU.

A Eurobarometer poll, carried in April over 1000 people in Turkey,
found that only 43 percent of Turks have a positive image of the
union. The recent figure shows a plunge in Turkish support for the EU
over a six-month period, as the corresponding figure was 60 percent
six months earlier.

FM Gul stated that the European side should act responsibly to
prepare the Turkish public. Gul noted; however, that the exaggeration
of certain issues in Turkey was partly responsible for the fall in
Turkish support for EU membership. Foreign Minister Gul pledged that
the ruling AKP would take measures to tackle the fall in Turkish
support for the union.

Most of the Turkish people are unhappy with the EU stance on Cyprus,
PKK terrorism, the so-called Armenian issue and the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchy. Remarkable numbers of Turks believe that the EU the
cynical intention to divide Turkey.

Unceasing EU demands on the Turkish government and increasing pressure
over Cyprus are seen as the main reasons why Turkish people have begun
to turn their back to the European Union. The more EU leaders criticize
Turkey, the more nationalist sentiment gains ground in Turkey.

Turkey commenced actual accession talks with the European Union in
mid-June, following its eight-month screening process.

Turkey’s EU accession process is expected to be long, arduous and
susceptible to crises, especially on Cyprus. Optimistic analysts
predict that Turkey, with its large population, may enter the wealthy
bloc by 2014 at the earliest.