Zerkalo, Baku,
10 Nov 2006 pp 1, 2
AZERI DAILY PAINTS GRIM PICTURE OF US TIES AFTER DEMOCRATIC WIN
The victory of Democrats in the mid-term election to the US Congress
will mark “tough times” in the relationship between Baku and
Washington, Azerbaijani daily Zerkalo has said.
Zerkalo said that the possibility of pro-Armenian lawmakers taking
over the leadership in the Congress could lead to a worsening of
relations in the future.
“The pro-Armenian group will take the leading posts in the Congress,
including the posts of committee heads,” the paper said. “The
criticism of the US administration’s support for undemocratic
governments that violate human rights has been a favourite
hobby-horse for the Democrats. The Armenian lobby of the Congress
will naturally use this factor against Azerbaijan. In view of this,
the White House will be forced to make changes to its policy
vis-a-vis Azerbaijan.”
Now that the White House will have to negotiate its foreign policy
with the Democratic majority in the Congress, the US administration
might make “sacrifices” on minor issues, like relations with
Azerbaijan, in order to reach consensus on more important problems,
Zerkalo said.
The paper noted that it was no coincidence that the first visitor
from Washington after the election would be Assistant Secretary of
State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Barry Lowenkron.
“He is likely to tell the Baku government that in the next two years
it will be difficult for the White House to turn a blind eye to
Azerbaijan’s problems in the relevant fields,” Zerkalo said.
Finally, Azerbaijan has failed to live up to the US administration’s
expectations and achieve a breakthrough in the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict settlement in 2006, the paper concluded.
In the meantime, opposition Azadliq newspaper has said that the
weakening of the Republicans’ position can come as a “nasty surprise”
to the Ilham Aliyev government. The oil and economic lobbies of the
Republicans will be no longer able to support the Aliyev
administration as strongly as before, Azadliq said.

The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
November 10, 2006 Friday
Final Edition
Ancestral ties of the Great War
by John Weissenberger and George Koch, For The Calgary Herald
When tomorrow we remember the sacrifice in Canada’s wars, the names
Vimy Ridge, Ypres and Passchendaele will be mentioned.
The slaughter of the now almost century-past Great War still evokes
emotion — the muddy trenches that served to fill fields with tight
rows of white headstones or grim ossuaries holding anonymous fallen.
Many Canadians have family ties to the young men who fought and died
there.
The family stories passed around in Canadian homes may not all have
to do with Flanders fields, however. For the conflict was the First
World War. If you lost an ancestor, it could well have happened in an
even more distant land.
If you’re of east Asian origin, you may have ancestors among the more
than one million British Indian troops who fought. These colonial
soldiers were sent to the Middle East, to Africa and to the Western
Front. More than 40,000 were killed, to Canada’s 57,000.
In contrast to the relentless, industrial-scale slaughter in Europe,
the exotic East Africa campaign fascinated audiences. The British
used thousands of Indian troops to chase the small but resourceful
German force, made up largely of locals. Fighting continued until the
Germans received belated word of the Armistice from an English
prisoner.
When the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) entered the war as a German
ally, it triggered almost four years of fighting ranging from the
Suez Canal to Britain’s conquest of Jerusalem. A similar campaign
took place in Mesopotamia — now Iraq. Canadians of Middle Eastern
origin may have had family fighting with or against the Turks.
The Turks suffered 250,000 killed in the war, while inflicting
massive casualties on others, including Armenians. A few years ago, a
Canadian filmmaker chronicled aspects of the Armenian genocide in the
film Ararat.
Numerous Canadians likely have ancestors among the almost 700,000
Italian dead of the Great War. This figure is 40,000 greater than
Britain’s losses, which ripped the guts out of a whole generation of
young men. Most of the Italians were slaughtered in 12 battles along
the Isonzo River, near today’s border with Slovenia.
Italy also saw some of the only alpine fighting in the war, with
barbed war strung along precipitous rock ridges and huge bunker
networks carved into glaciers. The Austrians once blasted away an
entire mountainside, collapsing it onto the Italian trenches.
Glaciers to this day disgorge detritus from the war, plus the
occasional body.
Michael Ignatieff’s grandfather was the Russian czar’s minister of
education, concerned about the fate of a different “nation.” The
Russian “steamroller” was meant to crush the Germans and
Austro-Hungarians but, after more than two years of war and almost
1.5 million men killed, the czar’s empire was sliding toward
revolution. Inadequate equipment, primitive logistics and clumsy
leadership sealed her fate.
One of our grandfathers, as an Austrian infantryman, tried his best
to speed the demise of Ignatieff the elder’s regime. His story
reflects the complexity of eastern Europe’s ethnic mix. Some members
of the multi-national Austro-Hungarian Empire were less than enthused
about getting killed for the Habsburg emperor. German-speaking
regiments were interspersed along the front to shore up their less
enthusiastic comrades.
During the Russian attack on Lutsk in Ukraine in 1916, the Czech
regiments on either side of grandfather W.’s position gladly threw
down their arms and crossed over. Instead of receiving a bayonet to
the midriff, grandpa W. spent 18 leisurely months in pleasant
captivity in the Caucasus, making his way home during Russia’s
revolution. Meanwhile, the Czechs were formed into a kind of foreign
legion and dragged into the Russian civil war. Scores of idealistic
Bohemians perished in the wastes of Siberia fighting Trotsky’s Red
Army.
If your family is Serb or Romanian, your relatives might have fought
“alongside” Canada in distant corners of the war. But if you’re
Polish or Ukrainian, they could as easily have been fighting with
Canada’s past enemy, or even on both sides of the conflict.
Nor did the Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, truly stop the war.
Brutal ethnic cleansing of minority Greeks and Turks in each obverse
country occurred years later, ending only after a huge population
swap. There are probably Canadians whose ancestors were among them.
As we admire the newly restored Canadian memorial at Vimy, we are
reminded of those who paid with their lives in battles that helped
forge our nation. We should also remember those with nothing to mark
their final resting place — in the wilds of Africa, the wastes of
Iraq or the forests of Siberia.
John Weissenberger is a Calgary geologist. George Koch is a Calgary
writer. More of their writing can be read at the weblog: drjandmrk.com
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PAP news agency, Warsaw,
11 Nov 2006
Pole and Slovak killed in Iraq explosion
Warsaw, 11 November: Two soldiers, a Pole and a Slovak, have been
killed in the explosion of a mine booby-trap in Iraq. A Pole and an
Armenian were wounded. As PAP has discovered, it was a sergeant from
the 16th Mechanized Division from Elblag [northern Poland] who was
killed.
The lives of those wounded are not in danger and they have been taken
by helicopter to hospital in Baghdad. The Pole, who is wounded in the
leg, is a junior warrant officer from the airbase in Malbork
[northern Poland].
The accident took place on the road between Al-Kut and a location
where a company of Slovak sappers was clearing mines from an old
ammunition dump.
Up until today, 21 Poles had been killed in Iraq, 17 of them
soldiers.

RIA OREANDA
Economic News
November 11, 2006 Saturday
Fitch Assigns VTB Bank (Armenia) Local Currency Ratings
Moscow. OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has today assigned VTB Bank
(Armenia) (“VTBA”) local currency ratings of Issuer Default ‘BB’ and
Short-term ‘B’. The Outlook is Stable.
The assigned ratings are aligned with the bank’s foreign currency
Issuer Default ‘BB’ and Short-term ‘B’ ratings.
The local currency ratings reflect the moderate probability of
support being forthcoming, if required, from VTBA’s majority
shareholder, Russia’s Vneshtorgbank (“VTB”, Issuer Default ‘BBB+’),
but also take into account Armenian country risks.

Agence France Presse — English
November 10, 2006 Friday 2:21 PM GMT
Cup of China Grand Prix figure skating results
NANJING, China, Nov 10 2006
Results on Friday from the Cup of China, the third event in the ISU
Figure Skating Grand Prix:
Men
Short Program
1. Sergei Davydov, Belarus, 69.45 points
2. Evan Lysacek, United States, 69.20
3. Scott Smith, United States, 63.77
4. Emanuel Sandhu, Canada, 63.55
5. Yannick Ponsero, France, 62.90
6. Kensuke Nakaniwa, Japan, 60.73
7. Wu Jialiang, China, 57.75
8. Ryo Shibeta, Japan, 57.40
9. Alexander Uspenski, Russia, 56.22
10. Gao Song, China, 55.47
Ice Dance
Original Dance
1. Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto, United States, 58.90 points
2. Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin, Russia, 58.42
3. Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski, Russia, 53.98
4. Alexandra Zaretzky/Roman Zaretzky, Israel, 48.64
5. Pernelle Carron/Mathieu Jost, France, 47.61
6. Anastasia Grebenkina/VazgenAzrojan, Armenia, 46.31
7. Lauren Senft/Leif Gislason, Canada, 43.73
8. Mylene Girard/Bradley Yaeger, Canada, 42.91
9. Olga Akimova/Akexander Shakalov, Uzbekistan, 39.18
10. Huang Xintong/Zhang Xun, China, 39.03
11. Yu Xiaoyang/Wang Chen, China, 37.69

Agence France Presse — English
November 10, 2006 Friday 2:04 PM GMT
Asia moves closer to “Iron Silk Road” railway network
by Jun Kwanwoo
BUSAN, South Korea, Nov 10 2006
Eighteen Asian nations, including China and Russia, Friday signed an
agreement to integrate the continent into a single railway network,
moving a step closer to realising a decades-old dream.
The inter-governmental agreement on establishing the Trans-Asia
Railway (TAR) network aims to promote trade and balanced development
in the world’s fastest-growing continent.
The signing came on the first day of a two-day annual ministerial
meeting on transport, organised by the UN Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
“By signing today, you infuse life into the agreement,” UNESCAP
executive secretary Kim Hak-Su told them.
The 81,000-kilometer (50,200-mile) network, first mooted by the UN
back in 1960, is also dubbed the “Iron Silk Road” after the ancient
trade route. It would link capitals, ports and industrial hubs across
28 Asian countries all the way to Europe.
UN officials cited procedural matters rather than disagreement over
the project as the reason why 10 of the 28 states did not sign. They
have another two years to do so.
The railway network will ease international trade and create “the
conditions for shared prosperity,” Kim told the signatories.
He said earlier in the day the TAR would “link the hinterland areas
in the deep interior of the Asian continent with Asia’s bustling
maritime cities and European markets.”
Twelve of the world’s 30 landlocked countries are in Asia.
“These linkages will provide seamless connectivity through transport
arteries to Asian ports and European markets,” Kim said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a message to the meeting, said
advances in transport “improve productivity, reduce costs and promote
trade. That in turn encourages economic growth and social
development.”
Kim has said he expects the accord to come into force in the second
half of next year after eight countries ratify it.
The ratification would encourage international lenders such as the
Asian Development Bank to seriously consider loan requests from TAR
signatories, some of whom are in desperate need of finance, he said.
Wang Zhiguo, China’s deputy railways minister, said his country
ardently backs the project.
“The Chinese economy continues to grow through efforts to improve and
maintain efficient transport and logistic systems,” he told the
forum.
“We’re signing the agreement because we can fulfil many of our goals
in transport with it.”
Alexander Misharin, Russia’s deputy transport minister, said Moscow
was working hard to modernise its vast network, including the
trans-Siberia railway connecting to Korea, in support of the TAR.
His country was one of the signatories.
Despite the enthusiasm among many countries, the slow progress over
the past five decades indicates the challenges still ahead.
The TAR network would connect trans-Asian railway networks with
Russia and Mongolia in the north, Malaysia in the south, South Korea
in the east and Turkey in the west.
But one stumbling block is North Korea. South Korea would have to
traverse its territory to gain access to the Russian or Chinese rail
networks.
Work has been completed on laying track across the heavily fortified
inter-Korean frontier. But planned test runs were cancelled in May
amid tensions over other issues.
Continent-wide problems include switching between different-gauge
tracks, where to stop, how to handle sometimes tricky quarantine and
immigration paperwork, and how to safely ferry cargo and people
across many borders.
But Asia, home to 60 percent of the world’s population and generating
26 percent of the world’s economic output, deserves better transport,
UNESCAP chief Kim has said.
It boasts 13 of the world’s top 20 container seaports but has fewer
than 100 “dry ports” — inland container depots. Europe, by contrast,
has 200 and the United States 370.
Signatories of the TAR accord Friday were Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal,
South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey,
Uzbekistan and Vietnam
At the Busan conference, delegates also plan to issue two sets of
declarations — one on the direction of regional transport
development in the next five years and the other on road safety.

La Stampa, Italy,
9 Nov 2006
Italian, Turkish FMs urge Turkey’s admission to EU
by Antonella Rampino
“D’Alema and Gul: Turkey in EU antidote against terrorism”
Rome: Turkey in the European Union would be “the best guarantee
against the great danger that threatens world stability now, the
danger of a conflict of civilizations,” that is, between Islam and
the West. The statements made by Massimo D’Alema and his Turkish
counterpart, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul were each almost a
photocopy of the other. They were made at the end of the
Italian-Turkish forum, organized by Unicredit and Limes for the third
year running, which this year exactly coincided with the arrival of a
much-expected report by the European Commission on the EU extension
towards Ankara. And precisely as Brussels’ prescriptions were being
published, Gul let it be known from Rome that “he hoped that they
were balanced, without time limits and deadlines: we well know that
there are still shortcomings, but we are determined to meet all the
conditions.” However, he went on, “you must give us time, reforms
must first of all be our achievements, not a way to please the Union,
but the course of a people who deserve the reforms.”
Gul spoke yesterday, saying that “he did not have the time to read
the report,” which sets these same deadlines, in particular over the
thorny Cyprus recognition issue, which will be “monitored” until the
end of 2006: on Gul’s part, a means of conveying a message to
Brussels, reminding it, on this occasion, of Turkey’s economic
weight, “our foreign trade, which was 35 billion euros four years
ago, now stands at 90 billion, and the heavy engineering industry,
not textiles, is the main item.”
Alessandro Profumo had already recalled that Turkey was the first
market for Unicredit (Italy comes third only) and that Turkey “thanks
to a large-scale industrial maturity is destined to become one of the
players in the world economy.”
D’Alema opened the curtain on the future: “With Turkey in Europe, an
adhesion that we consider to be of strategic importance, the European
Union may become a real global protagonist, both on the economic and
the geo-strategic plane.” Precisely for this reason “our government
is against alternatives to complete membership in the EU.”
Former Farnesina [Italian Foreign Ministry] official Ruggiero was
even more explicit in the closed-door session of day’s meeting:
“Within 20 or 25 years the place list of the world powers will be
revolutionized, China will come first, then India, and only after
that the United States and, if it is united and if it grows, Europe
will be among the first five.” “I found the Turks to be rather
downbeat, they attach great importance to the admonishments coming
from Europe,” the long-serving diplomat confides.
D’Alema makes the same evaluation and, at a lunch, urged Gul to
“understand recommendations from the European Commission as a
powerful incentive.”
Cardinal Poupard was also at the table, but sitting at a distance
from Gul. Apparently, there was no exchange of opinions about the
Pope’s forthcoming trip to Turkey. “I am sure it will be a success,”
Gul said, affirming that “the Vatican knew, when it set the dates for
the trip, that neither Erdogan nor I could absent ourselves from the
NATO summit that is to be held at the same time.”
As for the substance of Brussels’ “recommendations,” Gul would rather
not commit himself, but on Cyprus he does not intend to back down.
“Europe had also promised to open the island’s Turkish zone to free
trade,” he says. Then D’Alema steps in, “on Cyprus a compromise is
needed, defusing the short circuit in the island’s unification and in
the dialogue between Turkey and the European Union”: on this front,
the rotating Finnish presidency is working for the Union. D’Alema
also urges Turkey to move on to another point that Brussels stresses:
the notorious Article 301 of the Penal Code, which curbs full freedom
of expression. It is the norm under which, for example, Nobel Prize
winner Orhan Pamuk was brought to trial. “You apply it so seldom, so
there is good reason to cancel it altogether.”
This is all right, but in the meantime France is passing anti-Turkish
laws with penal sanctions for those who do not recognize the genocide
of the Armenians.

Financial Times (London, England)
November 10, 2006 Friday
London Edition 1
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 17
Turkish entry would fatally dilute the Union
By FRITS BOLKESTEIN
It is called “the great train crash”. The European Union’s
negotiations with Turkey are coming to the crunch. In December 1999
Europe’s leaders agreed, after a few minutes’ debate, that Turkey
would be a candidate member. Its accession would not be a matter of
if, but of when. Now a number of leaders, perhaps a majority, are
trying to wriggle off the hook.
Would Turkey’s accession be a good thing? For Turkey it would
probably be the best thing that could happen to it, even though
enthusiasm for membership there is waning. For the EU it would be a
bad thing. Why?
There are incidental reasons and structural ones. The present crunch
is about Cyprus. Turkey does not recognise Cyprus, nor does it open
its harbours to Cypriot ships. That in itself is odd. If one wants to
join a club, it does not do to reject one of its members.
Another incidental matter is the Armenian genocide. Whoever calls it
so commits a crime in Turkey, as the writer Orhan Pamuk found out,
even though he has been let off the hook. Curiously, this restriction
of free speech is mirrored in France where a proposal has been made
to make denial of the genocide a crime. But it does not look as if
this proposal will reach the statute book, whereas article 301 of the
Turkish criminal code is real enough.
The so-called Copenhagen criteria demand that all EU members respect
democracy, human rights and the rights of minorities. The European
Commission decided in 2004 that Turkey satisfied these criteria
sufficiently for negotiations on membership to be opened. I was the
sole dissenter.
Gunter Verheugen’s report – he was then commissioner for enlargement
– mentioned that, in 2003, 21,870 Turks had asked for asylum in the
EU, of whom 2,127 were accepted. So member states themselves
acknowledged that in 2003 more than 2,000 Turks had been persecuted
by their government.
In March 2005 Turkish police violently disturbed a demonstration of
women intended to celebrate International Women’s Day.
This week the Commission’s report on Turkey again condemned these
failings, stressing in particular the use of torture and shortcomings
with respect to the freedom of religion, expression and assembly.
Some of these shortcoming are undoubtedly incidental. Article 301 can
be changed, torture in prisons can be stopped. But others are not.
Will there ever be true religious freedom, which means mosque and
church are be treated on a par? Will minorities ever have the same
cultural freedom as the majority? Will women ever be treated in the
same way as men?
Some people will say: these things will improve after accession. I
doubt it. To the contrary: after accession all desire to liberalise
will evaporate.
What is Turkey’s basic identity? It has a marvellous history. But it
is not a European history. Europe is marked by the great developments
of its past: Christianity, Renaissance, Enlightenment, democracy,
industrialisation. Turkey does not fit in that mould. Here I will be
accused of saying that Turkey may not enter because it is not
Christian. That is emphatically not what I say. But it can hardly be
denied that European civilisation has been deeply marked by its
Judaeo-Christian heritage, however much politically correct
bien-pensants may deem this old hat.
Some maintain that only membership will stop the tide of Islamism.
But the EU wants to reduce the power and influence of the Turkish
army, which is a bulwark against radical islam. Does Europe know what
it is doing?
I now come to the most important reason for rejecting Turkish
membership: its consequences. Whoever lets Turkey in cannot very well
refuse Ukraine, which is more European than Turkey. Ukrainian
membership (much advocated by Poland) would be followed by that of
Belarus, Moldova and – why not – Georgia, Armenia and Azerbidjan.
Together with the successor states of Yugoslavia that would mean, in
time, an EU of some 40 member states, bordering on Russia in the
east, Syria, Iraq and Iran in the south. I was responsible for the
customs union: I do not envy my future successor.
Supporters of Turkish membership focus on foreign relations. That is
legitimate. But the EU’s cohesion comes first. These advocates think
they know how the EU works. But they do not.
It is already hard to get member states to toe the line. That can
only get worse. Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor, said: “We
cannot manage Turkish membership.” He was right. It would fatally
dilute the EU. But perhaps this might suit the UK government,
especially when headed by Gordon Brown.
The writer was a member of the European Commission 1999-2004

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part A (Russia)
November 10, 2006 Friday
ORIENTATION TEST;
Putin checks to see if Ilham Aliyev is planning to join NATO
by Viktor Yadukha
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan visits Moscow; President Ilham
Aliyev of Azerbaijan started a working visit to Moscow yesterday,
arriving there from Brussels. In contrast to Aliyev’s Brussels visit,
his Moscow visit has been downplayed in Azerbaijan – to avoid
stirring up the pro-Western opposition.
BODY:
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan started a working visit to
Moscow yesterday, arriving there from Brussels.
In contrast to Aliyev’s Brussels visit, his Moscow visit has been
downplayed in Azerbaijan – to avoid stirring up the pro-Western
opposition. Announcements in Russia have also been very brief. But
everyone knows the issues of concern to both sides: Baku is trying to
win Moscow’s support on Nagorno-Karabakh, while Moscow is trying to
prevent Azerbaijan from joining NATO.
Moscow doesn’t have much economic leverage with Azerbaijan. All Azeri
oil is exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, bypassing
Russia; gas deliveries account for the lion’s share of trade
turnover, but even this source of dependence will be eliminated once
the Shah-Deniz field starts production. However, given its influence
on Armenia, Russia is still an important mediator in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This mediation is also vital for
Azerbaijan’s biggest investor – the United States. Shareholders in
the BTC pipeline and the new Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline require
transit security. Moscow can’t side with Azerbaijan, at the risk of
losing Armenia – a member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization and Russia’s sole ally in the Trans-Caucasus.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said on November 7 that
Russia is prepared to act as a conflict regulation guarantor if Baku
and Yerevan can reach a compromise themselves. But this is unlikely:
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has already made it clear
that his meeting with his Azeri counterpart on November 14 in
Brussels will not be successful. Oskanian also said recently that if
“Russia recognizes one or more of the unrecognized republics, the
Armenian Foreign Ministry will make an appropriate statement.” It’s a
sticky situation.
In the meantime, Western countries are trying to draw Azerbaijan
further into their orbit. Citing diplomatic sources, the “Zerkalo”
newspaper (Baku) reports that “Azerbaijan is expected to make an
official application for NATO membership within days.” However,
judging by Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamediarov’s statement about
Russia’s “important role” in the region, Baku is not prepared to take
that step as yet. Sergei Markedonov from the Political and Military
Analysis Institute says: “Azerbaijan understands that joining NATO
would exacerbate tension in relations with Russia, and draw
Azerbaijan into the Iran campaign. So Aliyev has to keep
maneuvering.”
All the same, according to Azeri political analyst Zafar Guliyev,
Baku’s policies could tilt towards the West in the near future. And
the invitation for Aliyev to visit Moscow after Brussels may be
regarded as the Kremlin’s attempt to prevent such developments.
Source: RBK Daily, No. 33, November 9, 2006, p. 2
Translated by Elena Leonova

The Business Times, Singapore
November 10, 2006 Friday
Odds stacked against Turkey joining EU
Shada Islam, Brussels Correspondent
IT’S crunch time for relations between Turkey and the European Union
(EU). Ankara opened membership talks with the EU last year but the
past few months have seen a rise in tension between the two sides
over an array of issues, including Turkey’s troubled relationship
with Cyprus.
The mood has soured. In the latest blow, the European Commission
threatened to recommend freezing entry talks unless Turkey opens its
ports and airports to EU member Cyprus by mid-December.
The outlook is not good. Tempers are fraying on both sides. Leading
EU officials have warned Ankara repeatedly in recent months to speed
up political reforms or face a ‘train crash’ which could fatally
derail the 12-month-old membership talks.
Turkish leaders, on their part, are accusing the Europeans of being
impatient, making excessive demands and constantly moving the goal
posts. Many have warned that the EU stance – with many politicians in
Europe openly opposing Turkish accession to the EU – is turning
ordinary Turks against EU entry.
The current difficulties centre on Ankara’s slow progress in
reforming its political structures. But many in Europe continue to
insist that Turkey as a Muslim nation – albeit with a secular
Constitution – has no place within a largely Christian club.
The suspicion that religion, rather than politics, is the key
obstacle to Ankara’s EU membership bid also persists in Turkey and
other countries in the Muslim world. Officials in Brussels insist,
however, that religion is not the issue. With Turkey under EU
pressure to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot vessels,
Ankara argues that the EU must first agree to end the economic
isolation of the poor, northern Turkish part of the divided island of
Cyprus.
After months of sterile argument, Finland as the current EU
president, has started work on a plan under which the EU would end
its current economic boycott of Turkish Cypriots in exchange for a
commitment by Turkey to allow Greek Cypriot vessels to access its
harbours. The Finnish initiative has won praise from Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul but reaction from Greek Cypriot President
Tassos Papadopoulos has been less supportive.
A key problem for Turkey is that apart from Britain, it has few
friends in Europe. Most other countries, including heavyweights
France and Germany, remain lukewarm on Turkey’s EU entry, with many
politicians in both countries saying Ankara should be offered a
‘special relationship’ instead of membership. Spotlighting increasing
French hostility towards Turkish accession, the French Parliament
last month passed a law declaring that anyone who denies that the
mass murder of Armenians in eastern Turkey in 1915-1917 was genocide
will face a year in prison.
EU commissioner for enlargement Olli Rehn has cautioned European
politicians against talking tough on Turkey’s membership.
‘This weakens our credibility and the strength of the reforms in
Turkey, and through this we shoot ourselves in the foot,’ Mr Rehn
said recently. ‘It is much better to be fair but firm. Fair in
keeping our word and commitments in terms of Turkey’s membership
goal, but meantime firmly demanding reforms and fulfilment of the
membership criteria,’ he said.
Few are listening, however. As a result, Turkey-EU relations face an
uncertain future. The speculation in Brussels is that faced with the
commission’s damning assessment of Ankara’s failure to meet many of
the EU’s requirements, the bloc’s governments will decide to suspend
current accession negotiations. While Islam’s role in curbing EU
enthusiasm for Turkey cannot be ruled out, it is also true that most
EU governments are suffering from a bad case of ‘enlargement
fatigue’.
>From January next year, Romania and Bulgaria will be full-fledged EU
members. Negotiations are also under way with Croatia while Macedonia
has been acknowledged as a future member. Further down the road, all
western Balkan states are waiting to join – and the queue may one day
also include Ukraine and Georgia. New applicants therefore face tough
tests ahead. With the mood definitely not expansion-friendly, EU
policymakers are cautioning that more members will only be allowed
into the bloc if the EU can ‘absorb’ newcomers without undergoing
financial and institutional strain.
Turkey’s only hope is that at least some thoughtful EU leaders
attending an EU summit in December will argue that a decision to
suspend Ankara’s accession talks will send a grim message to
reformists in Turkey.
To make an even more compelling case, they must also argue that a
freeze in EU relations with Turkey will further strain Europe’s
already difficult ties with other Islamic countries.
And signal worldwide that the EU is closed to membership of Muslim
nations.r
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress