Category: News

Turkey faces bitter divide on EU entry
by Gareth Jenkins in Istanbul and Matthew Campbell in Paris
Sunday Times (London)
December 19, 2004, Sunday
FIXING a date for starting accession talks with the European Union
next year was hard enough but the toughest task for Turkey has yet
to come. Pressure was growing yesterday on the government of Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, not just to win hearts and minds in Europe, but to
convince his own people that he has struck a good deal.
He returned to Ankara yesterday to a hero’s welcome from 2,000
supporters waving Turkish and EU flags.
Yet the agreement reached in Brussels on Friday after hours of
ill-tempered wrangling fell short of Erdogan’s hopes and fuelled
unrest among nationalists and hardline Islamists in his Justice and
Development party.
One newspaper yesterday said Erdogan had “dishonoured” the country
with what EU diplomats saw as his tacit agreement to recognise the
divided island of Cyprus, which joined the EU in May.
Mehmet Agar, leader of the opposition True Path party, said: “The
government does not have the right to give away at the negotiating
table what the Turkish people won by sacrificing their lives.”
Erdogan, whose government has bent over backwards to accommodate
Brussels’ conditions, said the country would not sit back now the date
for the start of accession talks had been fixed as October 3, 2005.
“This result will not spoil us, will not relax us,” he told the crowd
at the airport. “We will work harder until October 3.” It still might
not be enough.
Some member states strongly oppose the idea of predominantly Muslim
Turkey entering the European fold: effectively, each EU country can
scupper Turkish membership by voting “no” in a referendum. The French
and Austrian leaders have promised their electorates a chance to do
so and others may follow suit.
President Jacques Chirac appeared to shift the goalposts after
Friday’s agreement by announcing that Ankara would have to recognise
massacres of Armenians in the early 20th century if it wanted French
support. “The French people will have the last word,” he said.
That spells a problem for Turkey. So does Austria, where a heated
public debate about letting in the Turks has included allusions to
the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683.
The British, meanwhile, were not alone in expressing anxiety about
an influx of migrants competing for jobs. There are also concerns
across the EU about the cost of Turkish accession.
Turkish nationalists say the government has already made too many
concessions.
Erdogan’s promise to expand Turkey’s customs union agreement to include
Cyprus and nine other EU members, although not constituting a legal
commitment, could prove the last straw for disenchanted supporters.
Erdogan’s entourage includes figures fervently opposed to recognition
of the Greek-Cypriot government and they were growing restless even
before the Brussels summit.
They were exasperated at Erdogan’s failure to reform the secular
tradition established by Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk, the founder of
modern Turkey.
Some had been privately discussing jumping ship to the True Path
party in frustration at delays in implementing reforms that would
ease restrictions on Islamic schools and lift a ban on women wearing
headscarves in public institutions.
But tinkering with the secular code runs the risk of triggering a
reaction from the Turkish military, which forced the previous Islamic
government out of office in 1997 to safeguard Ataturk’s vision.
Just as troublesome will be the question of the Kurds. The scheduling
of accession talks marks the beginning of a process of intense EU
scrutiny.
Erdogan’s statement that Turkey was committed to EU values coincided
with one by his police chief at a press conference in Ankara: an
investigation had been launched into a group of Kurdish intellectuals
whose “crime” was to place an advert in a newspaper asking for
more rights.
Since Britain will hold the EU presidency in the second half of next
year, Tony Blair will chair the first talks. The prime minister has
championed Turkey’s efforts to join the EU and hailed the agreement as
“an immensely significant day”.
The agreement had almost fallen through as Erdogan haggled. On
top of being pressured on Cyprus, he was forced to accept that the
negotiations did not guarantee that Turkey would win full membership.
And even if Turkey joins the EU, it must accept restrictions on
migration of its citizens to other member states.
It will be hard for Erdogan to convince some Turks that this is not
an offer of membership in an EU “second division”, a formula favoured
by French politicians.
He may feel like a mountaineer: he has climbed one summit, only to
see a new range of peaks rising before him.
Additional reporting:
Nicola Smith, Brussels
Beastly reasons to welcome Turks, Rod Liddle, page 14

France will put all issues to Turkey, including ‘Armenian genocide’: FM
Agence France Presse — English
December 20, 2004 Monday 9:00 AM GMT
PARIS Dec 20 — France will put all issues to Turkey during
negotiations over it joining the European Union, “including that of the
Armenian genocide,” French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Monday.
“What has to be done now is start membership negotiations which are
going to be very long, very difficult, during which we will put all
issues on the table, including that of the Armenian genocide, with
the hope of obtaining a response from Turkey before membership,”
he told French radio station RTL.
The 1915-1917 massacre of Armenians during the end of the Ottoman
Empire has been a sensitive subject for Turkey, which has railed
against other countries accepting the Armenians’ account of the
bloodshed as a “genocide”.
Although the French parliament passed a 2001 law applying the word
“genocide” to the killings, the French government avoided using
the term until December 14 — just three days before Turkey and the
European Union agreed to start membership talks. Barnier talked of the
“Armenian genocide” in parliament.
French President Jacques Chirac supports Turkey joining the European
Union, but he faces deep opposition from his own ruling party and
the majority of voters.
To add the Armenian issue to a list of others — most notably Ankara’s
recognition of the Greek Cypriot government — is seen as a bargaining
chip in the membership negotiations that are to begin in October next
year, and a way of showing the French public that Turkey is being
made to heed Paris’s voice.
Barnier said that Chirac, in supporting Turkey, “is expressing a
vision, expressing where the interest of our country, our continent,
lies for him.”
The French president has promised that the final decision on whether
Turkey gets to join the European Union or not, as far as French
voters are concerned, will come in a referendum at the end of the
negotiations.

Los Angeles Times
December 20, 2004 Monday
Home Edition
The art of slow nurturing;
Maro Gorky, daughter of an influential painter, found a muse for her
own work in her Tuscany garden.
by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Special to The Times
When you keep a guest room available for director Bernardo
Bertolucci, you are bound to see yourself in his films sooner or
later. So it was that Maro Gorky and Matthew Spender saw their
artistic lives in Tuscany used as fictional backdrop for the 1996
romantic coming-of-age film “Stealing Beauty.”
“It wasn’t even our house,” protests Gorky, who is seated on the
damask sofa of Silva Bezdikian, an art dealer who is showing Gorky’s
paintings at her Beverly Hills home. Gorky’s jewel- toned views of
the Tuscan landscape are mounted on easels in the living room.
Opening a book called “Tuscan Interiors,” she turns to an 18th
century stone hunting lodge that really is their home. “See? Our
house is much prettier. I think the house is my installation. Matthew
has a beautiful barn — his cathedral to the arts. Also, we are much
tidier than the people in the film.”
The film portrays a middle-aged couple thriving in idyllic
surroundings with fresh, delicious food, diverting company and
dedicated creative enterprise. It is an idealized view, of course,
but still based on the truth of their remarkable lives. “In the
morning, I do my gardening and in the afternoon, I paint and cook and
make supper,” says Gorky, 62. “Weekends or holidays, we have company.
Otherwise, it is a lonely life in the most beautiful part of the
world.”
Gorky and Spender moved to Avane, as their Tuscan home is called, in
1968. They were members of the counterculture that fled London for a
more rural existence. Just as important, they are children of famous
parents, and they sought both geographical and emotional distance
from their past.
Abstract painter Arshile Gorky committed suicide in 1948 when his
daughter Maro was just 5. Her memories of him are slim but potent and
drove her commitment to become a painter, leading her to study with
Frank Auerbach at the prestigious Slade School of Art in London,
where she graduated in 1965.
Her husband of 42 years, Matthew, is the son of the late English poet
Stephen Spender. After reading history at Cambridge, Matthew pursued
poetry but disliked living in the shadow of his legendary father so
instead became a writer and sculptor. His carved-wood and stone
figures populate the land around their Tuscan villa and were featured
in the film.
“Because we had complicated parents, our aim in life is a simple and
quiet life in the country,” Gorky says. Her round eyes and prominent
features make her look as though she stepped out of one of her
father’s canvases. While living their rural lives, the couple had two
daughters, Cosima and Saskia. As teenagers, those daughters decided
country life was a bit too quiet. Cosima married Valerio Bonelli, who
is now working as a production assistant on a film being made in Los
Angeles. (Saskia married writer Carter Coleman.) Because Cosima and
her young daughter were going to be spending many months in Los
Angeles, Gorky saw this as an ideal time to show her abstract
landscapes with Bezdikian.
Bezdikian is Lebanese Armenian. Gorky, who usually exhibits at Long &
Ryle gallery in London, finds it ironic to be sought out at least in
part because of her Armenian roots. After moving to America in 1920,
her father denied his origins, falsely claiming to be Russian and a
nephew of the writer Maxim Gorky. Still, she was drawn to art by her
heritage. “It was my father who made me a painter. Not by compulsion,
of course, but by example,” she says.
A show of Arshile Gorky’s works on paper and paintings is at Jack
Rutberg Fine Arts on La Brea Avenue through Friday. The drawings were
in the estate of Hans Burkhardt, an artist represented by the
gallery. Spender, who wrote a book on Arshile Gorky, says: “The
drawings have the sense of Gorky as a teacher. He taught Hans
Burckhardt but also Mark Rothko. He was authoritarian …. This is an
opportunity to see how helpful he was as a teacher.”
Maro Gorky adds: “My father’s spirit is strong. His ghost makes
itself felt. It is a privilege up to a point but also invidious
comparison. People will look at what you do and say, ‘Ah, but her
father was so much better.’ ”
Gorky finds her inspiration in the natural world. Of the 32 acres
that they own, she cultivates a dozen. She is an avid gardener who
dedicates each morning to pruning and caring for trees, vines and
olives, not to mention the kitchen garden. Pulling her red shawl
around her, she talks about the influence of such lush surroundings.
“It is very important because you learn about the pruning of trees,
and that affects the structure in the painting.” Discussing her 2003
painting “The Drive,” she explains, “You can see a well-pruned
mulberry and a climbing pink clematis. A pruned honeysuckle, cypress
trees, lime trees and industrial vineyards around a blue drive. They
are almost like aboriginal paintings, maps of what I see in front of
me. I see things next to one another in spatial relationships.” ”
*
Maro Gorky
Paintings by Gorky may be seen by appointment at SB Fine Art in
Beverly Hills. Contact: (310) 276-7766 or
“Arshile Gorky: The Early Years” is
on view at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 357 N. La Brea Ave., through
Friday. Contact: (323) 938-5222 or www .jackrutbergfinearts.com

ARKA News Agency
Dec 20 2004
Presentation of guide of South Caucasus writers’ works takes place in
Stepanakert
RA Minister of Defense Serge Sargsian and the Head of OSCE Mission to
Yerevan Vladimir Pryakhin discuss perspectives of development of
Syunik region of Armenia
Exhibition of schoolchildren paintings from Armenian marzes to be
held on Dec 20-30 in Yerevan
Chairman of board of Bank Turanalem Yerzhan Tatishev perished
tragically on sunday morning
RA Prime Minister congratulates participants of the international
chess internet- tournament
RA President signs a decree on convocation of RA NA special session
on Dec 24, 2004
*********************************************************************
PRESENTATION OF GUIDE OF SOUTH CAUCASUS WRITERS’ WORKS TAKES PLACE IN
STEPANAKERT
STEPANAKERT, December 20. /ARKA/. Presentation of guide of South
Caucasus writers’ works took place in Stepanakert. The guide
represents small works – novels and stories – of 18 authors from
South Caucasus. Nagorno Karabakh is represented with the story of
Vardges Ovian “I Love You Life”.
The guide was presented by coordinators of the project Alvard
Barkhudarian and Geham Baghdasarian.
Guide of South Caucasus writers’ works “Time to Live” was edited in
support of Forum of NGOs and Fund of Hienrich Bell (Germany). The
guide was printed in Maikop (Russia) in 5800 examples. L.D. –0–
*********************************************************************
RA MINISTER OF DEFENSE SERGE SARGSIAN AND THE HEAD OF OSCE MISSION TO
YEREVAN VLADIMIR PRYAKHIN DISCUSS PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT OF
SYUNIK REGION OF ARMENIA
YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. RA Minister of Defense Serge Sargsian
and the Head of OSCE Mission to Yerevan, the Ambassador Vladimir
Pryakhin discussed perspectives of development of Syunik region of
Armenia, Press Secretary of RA Ministry of Defense Seiran
Shakhsuvarian told ARKA. Pryakin represented the Minister the program
of socio-economic development of the region that was discussed by the
citizens and the administration of the region and was highly
estimated. L.D. –0–
*********************************************************************
EXHIBITION OF SCHOOLCHILDREN PAINTINGS FROM ARMENIAN MARZES TO BE
HELD ON DEC 20-30 IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. Exhibition of schoolchildren paintings
from Armenian marzes will be held on Dec 20-30 in Yerevan in the
frames of REDAM (Regional Development in Armenia) program. As REDAM
Press Service told ARKA, the exhibition will present paintings of all
participants of the REDAM competition held among schoolchildren of
Ararat and Vayots Dzor marzes of Armenia.
REDAM (Regional Development in Armenia) is EU-TACIS technical
assistance program. In involves Ararat and Vayots Dzor marzes of
Armenia. T.M. –0–
*********************************************************************
CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF BANK TURANALEM YERZHAN TATISHEV PERISHED
TRAGICALLY ON SUNDAY MORNING
YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. On Sunday morning 38 years old Chairman
of Board of Directors of JSC Bank TuranAlem Yerzhan Tatishev perished
tragically as a result of accident on hunting, as the Press Bank
Service reports. The extraordinary meeting of the Board of Director
of the bank was elected Deputy Chairman of Board of Directors
Mameshtegi Saduakas Khalyksovetully. “Bank TuranAlem officially
states on preservation of its stable activity in accordance to
earlier stated strategy and will continue the activity of all
representations, affiliates and cash departments in previous regime”,
the statement of the bank says.
As Chairman of the central bank of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan stated
Kazakh Bank TuranAlem was planning to acquire 100% of shares of one
of the Armenian banks. Relevant negotiations are already being held
and Armenian and Kazakh bank signed preliminary agreement.
JSC Bank TuranAlem was established in 1997, in October 1998 it was
reorganized to OJSC Bank TuranAlem. It has 23 affiliates in
Kazakhstan, as well as three representations in Russia, Ukraine and
China. The shareholders of the Bank are EBRD, Raiffeisen Zentralbank,
International Financial Corporation, DEG (Investments Company of the
German Government), Dutch Development Bank (FMO).
The assets of the Bank as per international standards as of Nov 12004
made around USD 4b (the sixth place among CIS private banks).
Currently the Bank’s banking network include Slavinvestbank,
Transbank (Ukraine), Astana-Eximbank (Belarus), Omskbank. Recently
Bank TuranAlem stated on its plans around opening affiliates in
Azerbaijan and Armenia and on purchasing of a bank in Tatarstan
(Russia). TuranAlem has representations in Moscow, Ekaterinburg,
Minsk, Kiev and Bishkek. The Bank is planning to open representations
in Yerevan, Baku, Kazan, St. Petersburg and Saransk. T.M. –0–
*********************************************************************
RA PRIME MINISTER CONGRATULATES PARTICIPANTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
CHESS INTERNET- TOURNAMENT
YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
congratulates participants of the international chess internet-
tournament devoted to the 75th anniversary of the Chess World
Champion Tigran Petrosyan. As he said, this is the first such
tournament, in which leading teams and chess players participate. “We
understand that the sequence of tournaments devoted to the 75th
anniversary of Petrosyan, a legendary World Champion, will continue”,
he said. According to Margaryan, holding a tournament with the use of
modern technologies is a logical progress of the game of millions
toward new and rapidly developing virtual world.
Margaryan greeted the teams of Armenia, Russia, China and France that
will fight for the championship, as well as the initiators and the
main organizers: RA Chess Federation and RA Academy of Chess. A.H. —
0–
*********************************************************************
RA PRESIDENT SIGNS A DECREE ON CONVOCATION OF RA NA SPECIAL SESSION
ON DEC 24, 2004
YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan signed a
decree on convocation of RA NA special session on Dec 24, 2004.
According to RA President’s Press Service Department, the agenda of
the session includes about 20 issues, in particular, the issue of
discussion of the draft law on the RA state budget-2005, as well as
amendments and additions to tax, customs and judicial-executive
legislations, and the laws on administrative violations and pensions.
A.H.—0–
*********************************************************************
–Boundary_(ID_9OZSMqXoBkQCzrDcfkj4Rg)–

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 20, 2004, Monday
ARMENIA STRENGTHENING COOPERATION WITH NATO
Armenian servicemen plan to participate in eight joint exercises with
NATO in 2005. Lieutenant-General Arthur Agabekyan, Armenian Deputy
Defense Minister, stated at a meeting of the working group of NATO’s
military committee in Yerevan: “This year Armenia has participated
in five joint exercises with NATO; next year we will take part in
eight exercises.”
According to him, the republic’s plan of individual partnership
with NATO will be announced next year. Arthur Agabekyan stated:
“Armenia is guided by long-term plans for its security.”
Representatives of over 30 countries, which are members and partners
of the alliance, attended the meeting of NATO’s military committee.
It is intended to hold a similar meeting in Tbilisi. Originally, it was
intended to hold the meeting in the capitals of three South-Caucasian
states. However, Azerbaijan refused to let Armenian servicemen attend
the meeting, which is why the meeting in Baku was cancelled.
Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, December 16, 2004, p. 3
Translated by Alexander Dubovoi

ARMENIAN OFFICIAL CALLS ON IRAN TO PROVIDE FUEL AND FERTILIZERS
IPR Strategic Business Information Database
December 20, 2004
According to “Tehran Times”, Khachaturian, the governor-general
of Armenian Siunik Province called for Iran to provide fuel and
fertilizers required by the farmers of his province. Khachaturian
visiting governor-general of the Iranian East Azarbaijan Province,
Mohammad Ali Sobhanollahi said that Iran -Armenia ties and East
Azarbaijan-Siunik relations should be in the way to represent a model
for other provinces. The Armenian governor-general also said that
dam construction and the third electricity transmission line are
among projects that are presently being implemented between the two
countries. In conclusion, the Iranian governor-general called for
the re-establishment of Tabriz-Yerevan airline as well as removing
the impediments in expansion of ties between the two provinces.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU seeks bigger role in resolution of problems in Caucasus
ITAR-TASS News Agency
December 20, 2004 Monday 1:57 PM Eastern Time
HAMBURG, December 20 — The European Union has offered to play a bigger
role in the resolution of social and economic problems in the Caucasus.
Given the attention the European Union pays to this issue, Germany
proposed “to broaden the economic participation of EU countries
in the normalisation of economic and social life in the Caucasus,
and particularly in the Chechen Republic”, a member of the Russian
delegation told Itar-Tass on Monday.
In a meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Putin said he
had received such proposals and taken them “seriously”.
The official said, “The Russian side carefully studies all proposals,
the implementation of which could help strengthen stability in the
Caucasus.”
“The development of economic cooperation in this respect is regarded
by Russia as a basic element that can eventually have a positive effect
on the resolution of conflicts in the region,” the official said.
“We think that the initiation and discussion of concrete proposals
concerning broader economic interaction will be useful,” he added.
Experts in the Russian delegation believe that this initiative concerns
not only Russia’s Caucasian regions, but also Azerbaijan, Armenia,
and Georgia.

Bridging east and west
The Toronto Star, Canada
December 19, 2004 Sunday
MÖDLING, Austria — A sure way to get the blood boiling when an icy
wind blows in this historic town is by mixing red-wine punch with
talk of Turkey joining the European Union.
Otto Kapper serves up both from an outdoor kiosk in the main square.
“The Turks have nothing to do with our culture and our way of life.
They’re much more Oriental than European,” says Kapper, 65.
“I have nothing against religion – it’s a personal choice. But they’re
mainly Muslim and we’re mainly Catholic. They just don’t fit in a
European world view.”
He then plops another steaming cup of Christmas-season punch on
the counter.
“There’s already a high percentage of Muslims all over Europe, in
France, in Germany. Look at Holland: It was such a calm country and
now it’s full of unrest because of the Muslims.
“And Austria certainly has enough. Our schools are full of them.”
Were it not for opinion polls indicating that 75 per cent of Austrians
oppose Turkey’s entry into the EU, some might chalk up Kapper’s
rejection to M‹dling’s history.
In 1683, an invading Ottoman army rampaged through the town on its
way to lay siege to nearby Vienna.
Most townsfolk took refuge in a 12th century ossuary next to St.
Othmar church. But the Ottomans burst in and slaughter ensued.
The ossuary, with bearded stone faces decorating its arched entrance,
still stands. Metres away, pinned to the church’s exterior wall is
a white plaque put up in 1933.
“On this place in July, 1683 almost the whole population of the market
town of M‹dling was massacred by hostile hordes when Turks were moving
towards Vienna,” it says.
Further commemorating the event is a wooden model of sword-wielding
Ottomans on horseback, made 50 years after the attack, on display in
the town’s only museum.
Two months after the M‹dling’s sacking, a Polish-led force routed
the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna, ending their 61-day siege of
the Hapsburg capital.
The upside of the invasion is that the Turks left behind coffee
beans, giving birth to a habit the Viennese embraced with a passion.
But a less savoury legacy has them eyeing Turkey’s EU membership bid
with suspicion.
Having stopped the Muslim push into the European heartland 320 years
ago, Austrians seem determined to defend the ramparts again. And
they’re not alone.
Last Friday, leaders of the 25 European Union countries took the
historic decision to begin negotiating Turkey’s entry into the
political and economic union next October.
The deal was struck after Turkey agreed to limits on migrant workers
allowed in member states, and promised to take a step towards
recognizing the Greek Cypriot half of the divided island of Cyprus,
which is an EU member.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
has done much to meet the EU’s democratic and economic criteria for
membership. But reforms haven’t been fully implemented, and entry
talks are expected to last at least a decade.
If successful, a largely Muslim country of 70 million people will
join what has so far been an exclusively Christian club. The European
Union would stretch from Ireland in the west to the borders of Syria,
Iraq and Iran in the east.
U.S. President George W. Bush, a strong supporter of EU membership
for Turkey, says its entry would show the “clash of civilizations”
between Islam and Christianity to be nothing more than “a passing
myth of history.”
But Turkey, with 97 per cent of its landmass in Asia, remains a
tough sell.
Despite an economy growing at 6 per cent a year, its status as a
long-time NATO member and as an officially secular state looking
westward since 1923, its membership bid raises deep anxiety across
Europe.
While most European leaders back its entry to the club, many Europeans
see Turkey as too big, too poor and too Muslim.
Resistance is strongest in Austria, France, Germany, and the
Netherlands, while support is highest in Spain – the only place one
poll found a majority in favour – Italy, Ireland, and Britain.
Complicating the debate is a growing sense of cultural insecurity among
white, Christian Europeans unaccustomed to the hybrid or “hyphenated”
identities common in North America.
Some 15 million Muslims live in Europe, but suspicion of “the other”
remains strong.
In a recent speech, the former EU competition commissioner, Frits
Bolkenstein of the Netherlands, warned: “Europe is being Islamicized.”
Left unchecked, he added, referring specifically to Turkey’s membership
bid, “the liberation of Vienna in 1683 will have been in vain.”
With few exceptions, most European governments spent decades using
Turkish and North African immigrant “guest workers” as a source of
cheap labour. Neglect, and a belief that immigrants would one day
return home, meant they got little help to integrate.
When workers instead brought over their families, and when many more
arrived clandestinely in boatloads, right-wing populist parties made
inroads in the 1990s by declaring their countries “full.”
Incidents such as the Madrid train bombings last March and the murder
of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh last November by a man of Moroccan
background have raised fears that Islamic radicalism is taking hold
in Europe.
Van Gogh’s murder sparked dozens of tit-for-tat attacks against mosques
and churches that shattered the Dutch self-image of tolerance. An
Islamic elementary school was burned to the ground.
Adding to the fear is a widespread sense, fuelled in the media, that
Muslims reject European values such as secularism and women’s equality.
In France, a relatively small number of Muslim girls wearing
headscarves was seen as a threat to the secular pillars of its society
and banned by law last spring.
Governments that never practiced multiculturalism are now blaming it
for their integration woes.
“Multiculturalism has failed, big time,” says Angela Merkel, leader
of Germany’s opposition Christian Democrats, a group that opposes
Turkey’s membership.
Never mind that Germany, home to 2.2 million Turks, granted citizenship
until recently only to those deemed German by blood.
In today’s climate, warning of the hordes to come is seen as a
vote-getter.
Says Ronald Sorensen, head of the Rotterdam branch of the List Pym
Fortuyn, named after the murdered right-wing politician: “The way to
win the next election is with the slogan, ‘No to Turkey.'”
Xenophobia aside, some fear Turkey’s membership could bring down
the whole EU project, born in 1951 when historical rivals France
and Germany joined in a coal and steel trade agreement with four
other countries.
Erich Hochleitner, former Austrian ambassador to Portugal and Belgium,
argues Turkey will drain EU of subsidy funds, trigger a never-ending
demand for membership from other countries and make political cohesion
impossible.
That, he believes, is what the U.S. and Britain had in mind when they
spearheaded Turkey’s membership bid.
The U.S. fears a cohesive EU would eventually challenge its global
political dominance, he argues. As for Britain, long opposed to giving
up national sovereignty to EU bodies, it hopes to reduce the union
to a free-trade block, he adds.
“Quite frankly, people in Austria are thinking of how to get out
of the EU in order to protect what they’ve got,” says Hochleitner,
director of the Austrian Institute for European Security Policy.
Turkey’s bid has become the magnet for a long list of complaints
about the EU.
In M‹dling, on the outskirts of Vienna, Emmerich Bagi warms his hands
over the barrel he uses to roast chestnuts and rants about price hikes
due to the euro currency, the Egyptian who set up a competing chestnut
stand nearby, the Austrian butcher shop next door now transformed into
a Turkish-owned vegetable store and what he describes as organized
immigrant beggars on the streets.
All of it, it seems, is the fault of the EU.
A struggling economy, a cumbersome Brussels-based bureaucracy and
divisions over the Iraq war had already dampened support for the
union when it expanded last May.
The addition of 10 central and eastern European countries, all but
two of them former communist states, created a political entity of
450 million people. The move was hailed as the historic unification
of a continent with a blood-soaked past.
Next in line to join are Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.
Crucial to making this expanded EU work is a new constitution that
streamlines decision-making, creates a full-time EU president and
foreign minister, and allows for a more integrated foreign and
defence policy.
At least 10 countries, including France and Britain, will hold
referendums to approve the new constitutions beginning next year. But
resistance to Turkey’s entry bid has raised concerns of a backlash
that could see those referendums defeated in protest.
A single referendum defeat is enough to veto the reforms and throw
a wrench in Turkey’s entry talks by leaving the EU with a structure
that won’t work for its existing members.
This risk pushed French President Jacques Chirac to demand that
negotiations with Turkey begin only after the referendum on
constitutional reforms he plans for next spring.
Chirac is a strong supporter of membership for Turkey. But 67 per cent
of French citizens, according to a recent poll in Le Figaro newspaper,
oppose it.
The xenophobic National Front party warns of massive Muslim immigration
to France, where 5 million Muslims already live.
More problematic for Chirac is opposition from the leader of his own
political party, former finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy, widely seen
as a likely candidate in the next presidential elections.
On Wednesday, Chirac requested a television interview in which he
insisted that Turkey’s membership is not guaranteed. Turkey must make
“considerable efforts” for the next “10, 15, 20 years” before it can
meet the criteria to join the club, he added.
At any point in negotiations, any European country has the right to
“stop everything” and end all talks, he said. He then stressed that
French citizens will have the final word in a referendum.
As if to demonstrate how demanding France would be, Foreign Minister
Michel Barnier said Turkey will be asked to acknowledge its role in
the mass killing of Armenians in 1915. But he stopped short of making
that a condition for joining.
In Austria, Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel makes clear he prefers
giving Turkey some kind of “special relationship” deal rather than
full membership. He also promises to give Austrians the final say on
Turkey in a referendum.
Schussel heads a right-wing coalition government. But in Austria,
even the opposition socialist party is against Turkey’s membership.
The anti-immigration Freedom Party, once led by Jorg Haider, saw its
support drop to 10 per cent in elections two years ago but remains
an important member of the ruling coalition.
“Austria has no more capacity to take in foreigners,” says Harald
Vilimsky, secretary-general of the party’s Vienna branch.
“If Turkey were to enter the EU, it would be a signal that our door
is open to countries like Morocco, Algeria and even Israel,” he adds.
In this country of 8 million residents, 9 per cent of the population,
close to 750,000 people, did not have Austrian citizenship in 2003. A
further 330,000 people, most of them from the former Yugoslavia and
Turkey, were born outside of Austria but at some point became citizens.
Three weeks ago, the government announced it was lowering the
already-tight immigration quota for non-EU citizens next year from
8,050 to 7,500. Almost all of the places will be reserved for family
reunification and senior managers needed in companies.
After decades of leaving immigrants to find their own means of
integrating, the government began obligating new immigrants 18 months
ago to enrol in German-language courses or risk being deported.
Two weeks ago, life suddenly got tougher for asylum-seekers,
says Elizabeth Freithofer, an official at the non-governmental
Integration House. The government quietly stopped giving social
benefits retroactively, from the day they entered the country, to
asylum seekers accepted as refugees, she adds.
A recent report by a government agency paints a portrait of a host
society that keeps non-native residents on the margins.
Non-European immigrants tend to work in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs,
live in segregated neighbourhoods, and are four times as likely to
suffer “acute poverty” than native Austrians, the report found.
Their children make up 9 per cent of the student population but 25
per cent of those in special education classes, says the report by
the International Centre for Migration Policy Development.
By analyzing survey data, the report concluded that “one-fourth to
one-third of Austrians can be classified as being tendentiously
xenophobic.” Foreigners most often felt xenophobia through a
native-Austrian’s “refusal to greet, to communicate and to take up
any form of contact.”
After so much rejection, it starts cutting both ways.
In M‹dling, a 20-year-old Turk describes how his parents insist he
find a bride in Turkey even though he’s spent all but two years of
his life in Austria.
“I feel like I’m between two worlds,” says Recep Ekilmis.
A teacher at the local high school complains that Turkish parents
don’t value education, and refuse to send their girls to school
outings. Turkish boys, meanwhile, refuse to listen to female teachers,
adds Christine Krone. “If you live in Austria for such a long time
you also have to try to take some of this country’s customs, just to
respect us,” Krone says.
Accommodating voices can still be heard, like shoe-store owner Iris
Lindner, who hopes Turkey’s membership in the EU would “produce more
understanding” between two cultures.
But at the start of this historic process, they’re being drowned out
in an EU with at least as many challenges to overcome as Turkey if
the union of Islam and Christianity is to occur without a clash.’The
Turks have nothing to do with our culture and our way of life.’
‘If Turkey were to enter the EU, it would be a signal that our door
is open to countries like Morocco, Algeria and even Israel.’
–Boundary_(ID_UA2P5imFy955g+6Zh/LBmA)–

AZERBAIJAN, TURKEY: RELATIONS STRENGTHENING
[December 20, 2004, 22:11:24]
Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Dec 20 2004
Speaker of Azerbaijan Parliament (Milli Majlis) Murtuz Alaskarov has
received Chairman of Religious Affairs Vagf of Turkey Ali Bardakoglu,
December 20.
Mr. Alaskarov said thanks to the heads of states of two countries the
bilateral relations are constantly strengthening. Reciprocal visits
of Presidents of both countries have set up favorable ground for
further development of links. The parliamentarians of both countries
successfully cooperate on the international organizations. And this
visit of Chairman of
Religious Affairs Vagf of Turkey will serve development of links of
the religious structures.
Chairman of Azerbaijan Parliament informed on the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorny Karabakh conflict, expressed deep gratitude for support of
the fair position of Azerbaijan in this question.
Speaker Murtuz Alaskarov also stated that the negotiations on admission
of Turkey to the European Union are in focus of Azerbaijan people. The
question should find its positive settlement, he said.
The existing fraternal relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan have
certain influence on the links in other fields and every visit makes
its contribution to this cause, Mr. Ali Bardakoglu underlined.
Turkey’s admission to the European Union is important for all Turkic
countries and we hope for best, he added.
Also were exchanged views on a range of issues of mutual interest.

International Journalist’s Network
Dec 20 2004
Language and Semantics of Editing
Jan 10, 2005 – Jan 21, 2005
Course
In Yerevan. Organized by Internews-Armenia. The seminar on the
language and semantics of editing is intended for directors with
at least five years of professional experience. The training is
primarily practical, hands-on work. For application information,
contact [email protected] or [email protected],
or telephone + 374 1 58-36-20. Internews-Armenia:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress