WORLD VIEWS: TURKEY’S BID TO ENTER EU HAS WORLD-SHAPING SIGNIFICANCE
Edward M. Gomez, special to SF Gate

San Francisco Gate
Oct 4 2005

As the 25-member strong European Union gets ready to begin direct
negotiations with Turkey over its bid to join the political and
economic Euro-club, debate over the predominantly Muslim country
has become more heated than ever. At issue, opponents of Turkey’s EU
bid argue, are “the consequence[s] of welcoming in[to the EU group]
a poor, culturally alien nation whose population of 70 million could
one day make it the largest [European] Union state” — drastically
changing Europe’s historic character. On the other hand, as the mayor
of one Turkish Mediterranean resort put it, both the EU and Turkey
“stand to benefit from each other in equal measure. We are a young,
secular Muslim country that offers to help broaden Europe.”

(Telegraph)

Governments of all but one of the current EU member states had
officially shared that optimistic outlook and had backed Turkey’s
bid to eventually be allowed to join the group. Until late yesterday,
the only holdout was Austria.

Vienna had insisted that, instead of being weighed for full-fledged
membership, Turkey should be considered only for a lesser, “privileged
partnership” in the EU. (Der Kurier/Independent) Austria’s adamant
position threatened to prevent long-anticipated direct talks between
the EU and Turkey on its membership bid from moving forward.

Finally, by yesterday evening, the Austrian government had pulled back
and appeared to be on the same page as its 24 EU partners, making
it possible for negotiations with Turkey to proceed. But just hours
before the diplomatic breakthrough, with the EU-Turkey talks on the
verge of collapse, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that
the EU was “standing on the edge of a precipice.” (Britain holds the
EU’s rotating presidency.) (Guardian)

Like Straw, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has
championed his country’s EU-membership bid, feels strongly that
Turkey’s inclusion in the European organization “would help to build a
bridge between Christian and Muslim countries.” During the final days
of the Austrian impasse that had threatened to hold up yesterday’s
scheduled start of direct EU-Turkey negotiations, Erdogan told his
ruling Justice and Development Party that the debate over Turkey
was “a test for the E.U.” He said: “The E.U. will either decide
to become a global actor or it must accept that it is a Christian
club.” Erdogan “said Turkey’s future did not depend on membership,
but he claimed that the future of relations between Christianity and
Islam did.” (Financial Times)

Erdogan also emphasized that no matter how Austria’s original
demand that Turkey only be allowed a diminished EU membership status
ultimately played out, his country would not “deviate … from its
course” of further democratization and reform. The Turkish leader
added that his people would, “however, be saddened that a project
for the alliance of civilisations [would] be harmed.” (Independent)

Europe and Turkey Weigh In

Officially — now that Austria’s position appears to have changed —
the governments of all 25 EU member countries support Turkey’s bid
to join the continental club, but dissent is still palpable — and
even widespread — across Europe and among some Turks, too.

Prominent opponents of Turkey’s accession to the European Union include
former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who spearheaded the
effort to write the draft EU constitution that referendum voters in
France and the Netherlands rejected earlier this year.

In Austria, where the government, until yesterday’s change of position,
had insisted that it was “speaking for those across the E.U. who
[did] not support [Turkey’s] accession,” a new Austria Press Agency
poll published last Sunday indicated that 54 percent of EU citizens
now “oppose Turkey joining the bloc,” with “[t]he figure ris[ing]
to 73 percent in Austria, where a historical antagonism towards
Turkish Ottoman imperialism combines with modern-day fears of Muslim
immigration from the poor east.” (Guardian)

If admitted, “Turkey would become the E.U.’s first Muslim member”
and “the [group]’s second-largest country after Germany. It would
also be the bloc’s poorest country, with gross domestic product per
person at a quarter of the E.U. average.” (ADN Kronos International)

On the plus side, Turkey’s supporters in Europe have argued that “the
lure of E.U. membership has already brought great improvements —
notably, the abolition of the death penalty — in its human-rights
record.” However, opponents of Turkey’s EU-membership bid “say it
has not sufficiently improved its human-rights record. It has not yet
recognized Greek Cyprus, an E.U. member, and it disputes the general
view that its campaign against the Armenians in 1915 was a genocide.”

(The Age)

It is significant, too — bearing in mind centuries-old cultural
differences between what are now Turkey and Europe, and the fact
that only a small portion of Turkey’s territory lies geographically
in what is normally thought of as the European continent — for those
who oppose Ankara’s EU bid that “this is not merely an argument about
Turkey. It is an argument about the identity of Europe.” Many Europeans
who oppose Turkey’s EU bid feel that they will be sacrificing their
collective identity if the modern state that emerged from the ashes
of the Ottoman Empire is allowed to join the group. Their “anxiety
was best summed up in Denmark, where a Muslim headscarf was recently
placed on the ‘Little Mermaid’ statue in Copenhagen with the words:
‘Turkey in the EU?'” written on an accompanying sign. (The Age)

Turkey’s bid to join the EU isn’t without controversy at home, either:
This past weekend in Ankara, thousands of supporters of the Nationalist
Movement Party took to the streets to protest the plan.

(EFE/Terra España)

“[U]ltra-nationalists from all around the country” came to hear party
leader Devlet Bahceli assail Erdogan’s government for making Turkey
have to face “an environment of enmity from outside and an environment
of treason from within. …” Bahceli pointed out, critically, “that
Turkey was being insulted at every E.U. gathering.”

(Turkish Daily News; registration required)

In reaction to Austria digging in its heels and not yielding on
its anti-Turkey position, and other criticism from Europe, Turkish
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Speaker of the Parliament Bulent
Arinc had noted that their country had been on the receiving end of
discrimination by some Europeans.

Nevertheless, Sezer asserted that, eventually, Turkey’s “E.U.

[membership-accession] process would be completed” without his
countrymen having to give up any of their “national interest” or
“self-esteem.” He said: “It is to no one’s benefit to build walls of
prejudice around Europe. Every obstacle that will be put in front of
us will be the stones of a wall that will block Europe.”

“Arinc indicat[ed that] the E.U. sets irrational and illogical
conditions [and] said: ‘This is not a country [that] is helpless and
obliged to Europe.'” He said Turkey would not “sacrifice everything,”
including its self-esteem, to join the EU. (Zaman Online)

Meanwhile, Britain’s Times noted (as did EFE/Terra Españ), “Support
for joining the E.U. is falling in Turkey, from three-quarters [of
the overall population] a year ago to two-thirds now.”

Many Turks have been deeply offended by what they’ve perceived as
“foot-dragging by some European countries” with regard to their
country’s EU bid. At the same time, “there is a growing body of
nationalist and traditionalist opinion, angered by the abrupt changes
in Turkish society, that would rather pull out of accession talks
altogether [rather] than [have to] submit to the … straitjacket”
of rules and regulations issued by the EU’s central bureaucracy,
which is based in Brussels. (The Times)

Will Turkey Face Its Past — and Its Present?

Serious consideration of Turkey’s desire to join the European Union
means that some of the most controversial aspects of its modern
history and politics, whose impacts are still being felt today,
will be coming up for open and, for some Turks, unsettling discussion.

Among them: Turkey’s treatment of its ethnic Armenian population and
its ongoing occupation of the northern part of the island of Cyprus.

“Territorial disputes with neighboring countries, rule by the military,
a record of repression of minorities and human-rights violations,
economic underdevelopment and low indicators of human development
render Turkey unable to match up to E.U. member countries and
unsuitable for membership.” So notes Hratch Varjabedian, an Armenian
journalist based in Lebanon, in the op-ed pages of the Daily Star
(Beirut) — and those are some of his milder criticisms.

Pointing to issues which, inevitably, the European Union’s current
member states will have to examine when considering Turkey’s accession
bid, Varjabedian also notes that “Turkey continues to be an invader of
Cyprus’s territory, a neighboring country and a member of the E.U.,”
and “[d]espite pressures from E.U. leaders … still refuses to
officially recognize the Republic of Cyprus. …” Worse, Varjabedian
suggests, is Turkey’s ongoing “repression of its Kurdish population
and other minorities … despite some reforms.” He points out that,
in Turkey, “[f]reedom of expression is often curbed; recognition of
the Armenian Genocide [which began in 1915] and statements in favor
of Turkey’s withdrawal from Cyprus are considered punishable crimes
under the newly reformed Turkish Penal Code.”

What critics of modern Turkey’s whitewashing of its history do not
respect is the way the government’s hear-no-evil, see-no-evil view
of the nation’s past is expressed in official policies. Varjabedian
notes that Ankara “threatens” countries that “recogniz[e] or [plan] to
recognize the Armenian Genocide,” and that “lands rightfully belonging
to Armenians, namely Western Armenia, are still occupied [by Turks].”

“In an attempt to conceal the Armenian identity of these lands and
erase traces of Armenian existence on them,” Varjabedian writes,
“Turkey regularly destroys centuries-old Armenian monuments.” (Daily
Star)

Positive Signs

As dark as some aspects of modern Turkey’s past may appear and, as
some critics claim, as oppressively as its government may sometimes
act today, some observers find signs of positive change in events like
a recent — and historic — conference at Istanbul’s private Bilgi
University, at which, for the first time ever in Turkey (Turkish Daily
News), speakers dared to publicly address the controversial subject
of the Ottoman Turks’ treatment of the Armenians (ArmeniaNow.com).

Although “[n]ationalist demonstrators hurled eggs and tomatoes
at participants as they arrived” for the gathering 10 days ago
(Reuters/Aljazeera.net), the twice-delayed confab went ahead (Turkish
Daily News). During the event, “[p]rotesters waved Turkish flags and
chanted slogans accusing the conference participants of betraying the
nation,” but the liberal Turkish newspaper Radikal proudly noted that
at the conference, where free speech and open discussion prevailed,
“the word ‘genocide’ was uttered … but the world is still turning,
and Turkey is still in its place.” Likewise, the daily Milliyet noted:
“Another taboo is destroyed. The conference began, but the day of
judgement did not come.” (Reuters/Aljazeera.net)

Indeed, notes Jean Gureghian, an architect, author and editor of the
newsletter of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, “[t]he debate over
Turkey’s entry into the European Union creates favorable conditions
under which to pressure it to recognize [the] genocide [of Armenians
during World War I], which it has denied up until now.”

Gureghian argues that no matter how hard Turkey officially tries to
deny this chapter of its modern past, “the Armenian question still
exists.” “Every crime deserves punishment, and the crime of genocide
.. deserves even more to be punished. … [T]he contemporary heirs.

of the Ottoman Empire must respond, sooner or later, to the crime
that was committed against the Armenian people and make reparations
[for it].” (Le Figaro)

Meanwhile, the internationally acclaimed Turkish author Orhan Pamuk
is set “to stand trial for writing about the [Armenian genocide]
in a recent newspaper article.”

“[A]ccording to many historians,” the Armenian genocide “claimed the
lives of some 1.5 million Armenians.” Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan
“has defended … Pamuk … but … argues [that] his hands are tied”
and that the media have “to understand that this case … does not
involve the country’s executive and legislative powers, but [rather
that of] the judiciary. It’s up to the magistrates to evaluate the
facts, and we have to respect their decisions.” (La Repubblica,
cited by ADN Kronos International)

**** Maybe, in some small ways that do not make international
headlines, some Turks have begun to acknowledge their disturbing
past — and to atone for it, too. The Times’ Ben Macintyre writes,
for example, that on “a tiny island in the middle of Lake Van,
on the far eastern edge of Turkey, a team of architects is working
feverishly to restore one of the most beautiful religious buildings
in the world.” There the correspondent for the British daily found
“Holy Cross Church, on Akdamar Island,” which “was built by the
Armenian King Gagik in [A.D.

921] and was once the spiritual focus for more than a million Armenian
Christians.”

Today, the church remains empty, for Akdamar Island’s “entire
Armenian population … was killed or driven away by Turks and Kurdish
militias during the First World War. …” Recently, though, Macintyre
reports, Muslim stonemasons began “rebuilding this church without a
congregation.” “The scaffolding-clad church is proof that attitudes
are changing but it is also a poignant symbol of how much work —
economic, political, cultural and historical — still needs to be
completed,” he writes.

–Boundary_(ID_ng6Pin/7gA8wOxCB5qZCIg)–

THE RECOGNITION OF THE GENOCIDE IS A MORAL PROBLEM

Panorama News
17:05 03/10/05

“We must realize that European parliament have adopted the fact of
the Genocide 20 years ago. In this case it is important to understand
why the European Parliament suddenly remember it today, and not
that time when the EU conditions of membership have been forming for
Turkey”, said vice-speaker of parliament RA Tigran Torosian during the
conversation with Panorama.am and added, “This means the problems that
have important moral basis are used in political life with political
meaning. It is clear that today the European institutions apply a
serious pressure on Turkey and that’s why they remember the problem of
Genocide again. This is of course positive step within the procedure of
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. But we must see the voting
results and do a serious work with those parliaments that haven’t
yet recognized the Armenian Genocide but their deputies voted ‘for’
in European parliament. This is obviously a moral problem. If you vote
‘for’ in one place, why don’t you do the same in your parliament? I
think it is a real opportunity to enlarge the number of European
countries whose parliaments will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

It will give us confidence inside of the European community. It
will allow to see that there is respect toward us and “democracy”,
“human rights” are the basis of European community, and not beautiful
words that are used for political purposes”. /Panorama.am/

FOREIGN MINISTER VARTAN OSKANIAN’S MEETINGS IN ABU DHABI

Panorama
16:12 03/10/05

Minister Oskanian visited Abu Dhabi, on the occasion of the
groundbreaking of the Armenian Embassy building in the United Arab
Emirates. Large number of representatives of the government, together
with the diplomatic corps, and members of the Armenian community from
throughout the Emirates were present.

In a brief ceremony, Minister spoke, followed by Ambassador Arshak
Poladian, and then the first stones were laid for what will be a
7,000 sq. meter building.

During his visit, the Minister also met with Deputy Prime Minister
and State Minister for External Relations, Sheikh Hamdan Ben Zayed Al
Nahanyan. The two discussed bilateral and regional issues, including
Armenia´s having provided suitable embassy state for the Emirates,
which will be opening an embassy in Yerevan.

The Minister also met with Ahmad Bakr, the Deputy Director of the
Abu Dhabi Development Fund. The Minister described Armenia´s economic
development and prospects for growth.

The Minister returned to Yerevan late Monday.

Press and Information department of MFA..

–Boundary_(ID_ItX4iXpEspjA0aabqP7kIg)–

AMBASSADOR HENRY MORGENTHAU & THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

NY Blueprint, NY
Oct 4 2005

Wednesday Nov 30 2005 – 7 pm

WITH ARA SARAFIAN, EDITOR, UNITED STATES DIPLOMACY ON THE BOSPHORUS:
THE DIARIES OF AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU, 1913-16 In 1915, Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau intervened on behalf of the Armenian community and helped
rescue thousands from murderous “Young Turks.” In commemoration of
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, historian Ara Sarafian
will present archival images of the tragedy and discuss the Armenian
deportations, the the intervention of courageous Americans, and the
legacy of the Armenian genocide.

Contact Information:

Brought to you by: Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to

Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust 36
Battery Place New York, NY 10280 View on Mapquest

Cost: Free with suggested donation

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

UNITING TURKEY, THE EU
By Tulin Daloglu

Washington Times
Oct 4 2005

Afterlong,nerve-wrecking, last-minute negotiations, the European Union
backed away from the precipice last night when Turkey’s accession
talks formally kicked off in Luxembourg.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel believed his country
represented a European majority in opposing Turkey’s entrance into
the talks. Though 24 members agreed, and in December Turkey was told
it met the criteria to move forward, Austrians think it is nearly
impossible to integrate into the EU a poor and populous country,
culturally and religiously different than the Europeans. Or at least
that was what held them back until yesterday.

That concern is reminiscent of the old Turkish shadow play of
Karagoz. The hero, a poor soldier named Visal, finds a wife through a
matchmaker. After the wedding, he lifts the bride’s veil to discover
a horrifically ugly woman beneath it. Visal threatens both the
matchmaker and the matchmaker’s husband, and goes on a pilgrimage to
purify himself.

Mr. Schuessel is hardly delighted by the EU leadership under British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, the leading matchmaker between Turkey
and the EU, who pushed him to drop his objections to Turkey’s
membership. The last-minute intervention of Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice supporting Turkey may have even made him feel more
isolated, and deepened the perception that Europeans are incapable of
solving their problems alone. The Austrian demand to offer Turkey a
“privileged partnership” is history now.

In addition, Mr. Schuessel is so adamant that Turkey joining the EU
will be disastrous that he has persuaded himself that he is in even
a worse position than Visal – that when Turkey becomes a member to
the EU, it will be ugly, and there is no way for it to become part of
the European way of life. Which is why Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said, “There are those who cannot free themselves
from prejudice.”

The most amazing thing about those who hold such views is that they
forget Turkey did not apply to the EU to promote its religion.

It first became an associate EU member in 1963, applied for full
membership in 1987, and in 1992 became the first associate country to
sign the Customs Union agreement before becoming a full member. Yet,
Turkey has been part of the EU process for 40 years because it is
a secular, democratic country that cherishes the same values as
Europeans – and it has also been a NATO ally since 1952.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw reminded the Austrians that “when
Western Europe needed defense, along with the United States, it looked
to Turkey for that defense on its eastern flank against the then-Soviet
Union… No issues were then raised that it had an Islamic majority.”

Despite all the tough talk, Philip Gordon, director of the Brookings
Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe, is still hopeful
about Turkey’s future in the EU, saying that the 35 percent to 45
percent of Europeans who support its full membership is a good start.

Mr. Gordon also challenges the EU counter-declaration to Turkey,
which insisted that it should recognize Cyprus (or more specifically,
the Greek-Cypriot administration) before it becomes a full member.

Mr. Gordon says the condition was a given, and was added to provoke
Turkey into not cooperating with the EU. Turks also cite the European
Parliament’s demand to recognize the Armenian genocide as another
means.

Yet Turkey continues to beat the odds. Although public opinion polls
in Germany and Austria significantly oppose Turkey’s EU membership,
the leaders who ran elections based on anti-Turkish sentiment lost
their elections. The German Christian Democrat leader Angela Merkel
lost, and Mr. Schuessel lost in a region that was a stronghold for his
People’s Party since 1945. And while France insists that its people
have an opportunity to approve or reject Turkey in a referendum,
Germany’s outgoing foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, warns, “You
can not build Europe on the basis of referendums.”

A recent Turkish public opinion poll showed nearly 60 percent still
support the EU membership. Turks remain hopeful, like in a famous
Turkish movie portraying the same story as the Karagoz play, but
which cast a beautiful actress as the ugly bride. The groom had seen
her ugly – it was the art of makeup – until it was time to unveil
her. Yet when they wed, he was so surprised to see the bride because
what he had seen was beautiful, and he fell in love.

A senior American diplomat told me last week he was sure the talks
would start because Turkey’s full membership is 10 to 15 years down the
road. But while the talk of Turkey’s EU candidacy has always broken
some crockery, Mr. Straw warned the EU that it should get it right,
and “we reach the sunny uplands.”

Today we hope the future negotiations segue into smart, emotionally
less exhausting, and legally tight conversations to make the full
partnership between the EU and Turkey a reality.

Tulin Daloglu is the Washington correspondent and columnist for
Turkey’s Star TV and newspaper. A former BBC reporter, she writes
occasionally for The Washington Times.

TURKEY STARTS DECADE-PLUS EU JOURNEY, WITH NO ENTRY GUARANTEE

Bloomberg
Oct 4 2005

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) — Turkey, clutching an 11th-hour European Union
accord to start entry talks, faces growing opposition as it embarks
on a journey to membership that could last 15 years and still end
in failure.

Last-minute objections by Austria and Cyprus almost derailed the start
of the talks yesterday, highlighting deeper divisions over admitting
a Muslim country of 72 million people with incomes that are a fourth
of the EU average.

“There seems to be no obvious political will on the part of the EU
to embrace Turkey at this stage,” said Cem Duna, a former Turkish
ambassador to the EU who helped negotiate a 1995 free- trade agreement
with the bloc. “The talks are going to be very tough and nations will
have countless chances to veto.”

Turkey is banking on the EU entry process to attract record foreign
investment in the $300 billion economy. Optimism about membership
has pushed stocks to a five-year high and brought the government’s
borrowing costs down to 15 percent from more than 70 percent four
years ago.

Getting the talks off the ground took a month of brinksmanship, with
veto threats by Cyprus and Austria and counter-threats by Turkey,
culminating in a 30-hour emergency negotiating session in Luxembourg.

“Turkey is determined to carry on with reforms,” Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul told a Luxembourg news conference early today after the
official start of the talks. “Some of the concerns which exist in
European public opinion will, I think, change in 10 years.”

Enlargement Fatigue

The EU is groping for answers on how, when and where to enlarge
again after bringing in 10 mostly eastern European countries last
year, expanding its population to 450 million. Dissatisfaction with
enlargement, and with the prospect of Turkey joining, contributed
to the rejection of the planned EU constitution in France and the
Netherlands this year.

“At the rate Turkey is going it’s going to take at least one generation
for it to join the EU,” said Jean-Dominique Butikofer, who manages
the equivalent of $400 million of emerging market debt at Julius Baer
Asset Management in Zurich.

Opponents have pointed to polls showing only one-third of Europeans
support Turkey’s application. Unemployment in the EU is at 8.6 percent,
increasing concerns that Turkish workers may head to the West and force
more Europeans out of a job. Turkey’s jobless rate is 9.1 percent.

`I’m Hostile’

“I’m hostile to Turkey’s membership,” Marielle de Sarnez, a French
member of the European Parliament, said in an interview yesterday.

“We must continue to build a political Europe,” and letting Turkey
in would lead to the “dilution” of the bloc.

Loudspeakers across Turkey announce the call to prayer five times a
day and the government supplies low-income families with free meals
during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, a
warren of covered, interlocking shopping alleys, has a Middle Eastern
flair. The teeming city on the Bosporus, with about 9 million people,
is larger than 12 EU countries.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is urging Europe to prove it’s
not a “Christian club” by accepting Turkey.

Turkey has made some of the changes demanded by the EU, including
abolishing the death penalty and expanding rights for 12 million
Turkish Kurds, the nation’s largest ethnic minority originating from
a region bordering Iraq.

General Electric Co., BNP Paribas and Royal Dutch Shell Plc this year
agreed to buy stakes in Turkish companies on expectation that the EU
embrace will boost profits.

European Values

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, says the government
must now strengthen democracy, including religious freedoms for Greek
Orthodox Christians in Istanbul, and meet the bloc’s standards in 35
areas including competition, labor and the environment.

“The result of these negotiations is absolutely not guaranteed,”
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said yesterday. “If
it’s not accession, it’ll be another strong link.”

Erdogan, who prays five times a day even during foreign trips, plans
to cut the corporate tax rate from 30 percent to attract investment
and reduce unemployment. Nineteen million people in Turkey live in
poverty, according to government data.

By 2025, Turkey would swallow up EU farm and regional subsidies equal
to about 0.17 percent of annual European economic output, or about
$20 billion in today’s terms, the commission said last October.

Armenian Massacre

“Countries like France and Germany just aren’t ready for any further
expansion of the EU from an economic point of view,” said Daniel Gros,
director of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

“The negotiations with Turkey basically have to be forgotten about
for the next five or six years.”

Other demands include Turkey’s recognition of the republic of Cyprus,
the Mediterranean island nation that joined the EU last year. The
European Parliament last week told Turkey to lift a ban on Cypriot
planes and ships by next year or risk a halt to the EU process.

Turkey should also acknowledge that Ottoman Turks carried out a
massacre of Armenians in the last century before it becomes a member,
the EU legislature said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara at
[email protected].

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

100 MILION DRAMS AS A GIFT TO YEREVAN

Panorama News
13:36 03/10/05

The events of the “The Yerevan Day” festival will begin on October 8.

Concerts and fireworks are organized in all communities of the capital.

The same day the exhibition “My Yerevan” will be opened in Yerevan
History Museum. “It is the first time, that Yerevan History Museum
will open its doors in a new building”, said deputy mayor A. Sahakyan .

He also informed, by the Government decision the second Saturday of
October has been announced “The Yerevan Day”,

Opening ceremony of the festival will take place in the Opera
House. The events will over on October 9 and in the evening a Gala
concert will take place in the Republic Square with fireworks at
the end.

For celebration of its birthday party Yerevan is going to receive
11 delegations from IRI, Greece, Odessa, Florence, Yekaterinburg,
Stavropoulos and other countries.

About 80-100 million drams will be spent on celebration events.

EUROPEAN UNION FORMALLY OPENS TALKS ON TURKEY’S JOINING
By Craig S. Smith

New York Times
Oct 4 2005

LUXEMBOURG, Tuesday, Oct. 4 – After days of wrenching negotiations,
Turkey and the European Union held a brief ceremony here early Tuesday
that formally opened talks on Turkey’s bid to join the union.

The ceremony, which began just past midnight after an agreement was
reached late Monday, set in motion a process that would probably take
a decade or more but could end with the European Union’s extending its
borders eastward into Asia to embrace a predominantly Muslim country.

“This is a truly historic day for Europe and for the whole of the
international community,” said Jack Straw, Britain’s foreign secretary,
who was chairman of the negotiations. He said Turkey’s entry “will
bring a strong, secular state that happens to have a Muslim majority
into the E.U. – proof that we can live, work and prosper together.”

Turkey has worked for more than four decades to join, restructuring
its legal system and economy to meet European standards even as Europe
added demands and refused to start formal negotiations.

The agreement on Monday to open the talks was a hard-won victory for
the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who
has staked his political credibility on getting them under way. He
hailed the beginning of talks, saying, “Turkey has taken a giant step
forward on its historic march.”

But the bitter struggle over the terms of the talks reflects Europe’s
deep ambivalence toward Turkey’s membership.

The talks come at a difficult time for the European Union, which is
mired in an identity crisis and whose consensus-based decision-making
process is already bogged down by the addition last year of 10 members.

Many Europeans – more than half according to some polls – oppose
Turkey’s membership, arguing that while the country has a toehold in
Europe, it is not European at its core. Critics say the union would
have difficulty absorbing such a large, poor country and complain
that Turkey’s membership would open the doors for a potentially huge
wave of Muslim immigrants.

By the time it could be expected to join, Turkey’s current population
of 70 million people would probably have grown to outnumber that of
Germany, now the largest European state. Under current rules, that
would give it the most seats in the European Parliament, skewing an
already complex European agenda.

The agreement to start the talks was held up until late Monday as
European members haggled over an Austrian demand that the talks include
an alternative to full membership, giving the union a diplomatically
palatable option to inviting Turkey to join.

Austria eventually dropped its demands, but an agreement was then
blocked by Turkey’s objections to language that it feared could
force it to support an eventual bid by the Greek-dominated Republic
of Cyprus to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Turkey
withdrew its objections after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
called Mr. Erdogan in Ankara to assure him that the negotiations with
Europe would not affect Turkey’s voting power in NATO.

Supporters of Turkey’s membership say the expansion would open
up a vast potential economic market to Europe. Other advocates,
including the United States, say bringing Turkey into the European
club would help spread democracy into the Middle East and increase
regional security.

That idea was echoed by Turkey’s foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, before
he boarded a plane in Ankara on Monday night to fly to Luxembourg.

“Once Turkey enters in the European Union, all these circles will also
see themselves, one way or another, represented within the E.U.,”
Mr. Gul said. He left Turkey late Monday night in order to attend
the ceremony here early Tuesday.

The squabble over talks with Turkey briefly held up consideration
of Croatia’s European membership talks, which had been frozen since
March over the country’s poor cooperation in arresting a fugitive
war crimes suspect. Austria had pushed for talks with Croatia to begin.

Late Monday, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes
tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, told European foreign ministers that Croatia
was cooperating fully – a sharp reversal of her assessment just a few
days earlier during a visit to the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Membership
talks with Croatia are now expected to start within days.

The last-minute diplomacy kept Mr. Gul waiting in Ankara and frayed
nerves on both sides.

“Either it will show political maturity and become a global power,
or it will end up a Christian club,” Mr. Erdogan said of the European
Union on Sunday.

It is just that question that is haunting Europe. The European project,
begun as a means to ensure peace among historic enemies, has faltered
since the end of the cold war, which helped define it. In the 15
years since German reunification, the union has grown but weakened
as it has absorbed much of formerly Communist Central Europe.

Deep differences within the union, particularly between its incoming
and longstanding members, broke into the open over the American-led
invasion of Iraq, which many of the new union members supported but
the older members did not. “Building a consensus is difficult if you
don’t have common values,” said Constanze Stelzenmuller, of the German
Marshall Fund in Berlin. “There has been a loss of focus, a loss of
the sense of commonality, a loss of common interests in Europe.”

Many people worry that adding a country with such a vastly different
cultural and economic heritage like Turkey’s to the mix would only
soften that focus further.

Meanwhile, economic malaise in much of Europe has made people wary
of the heralded “ever closer union” that for many simply means lost
jobs. Those fears helped defeat referendums on a proposed European
constitution in France and the Netherlands earlier this year, stalling
the union’s already slowing momentum and leading many opinion-makers
to question openly what it was that Europe wanted to become. Turkey’s
effort to become a member, which has continued in some form for more
than 40 years, naturally became central to that debate.

Turkey became an associate member of what was then the European
Economic Community in 1963 and formally applied for full membership
in April 1987. It was officially recognized as a candidate only in
December 1999, and it was not until last December that the union
agreed to set a date for membership negotiations to begin.

As part of its campaign to meet European standards, Turkey has
abolished the death penalty, improved its human rights record and
allowed broader use of the Kurdish language among its large Kurdish
minority. But it is criticized for refusing to explore the killing of
Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and for refusing
to recognize Cyprus, which became a European Union member last year.

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Istanbul for this article.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY POISED TO BEGIN EU ACCESSION TALKS
By Andrew Borowiec

Washington Times
Oct 4 2005

October 2, 2005

NICOSIA, Cyprus – After a 40-year struggle against European reluctance,
Muslim Turkey stands on the precarious threshold of the predominantly
Christian European Union (EU).

The accession negotiating process that formally opens tomorrow
is fraught with uncertainty amid European doubts about Turkey’s
credentials. The talks may last 10 years or more and could easily
stumble over new obstacles.

Until virtually the last minute, Austria objected to the nature to
the talks, insisting on a “privileged partnership” status for Turkey
rather than full EU membership. An emergency meeting of EU foreign
ministers was called for today in Luxembourg to find an acceptable
formula before the talks convene.

As Yasar Yakis, a former Turkish foreign minister and member of the
governing Justice and Development Party put it: “It is too early to
celebrate. The talks will be very tough, tougher than for any other
candidate country.”

Nonetheless, it is a major step for Turkey in its bid to join a
lukewarm Europe where the image of Ottoman conquests “by fire and
sword” is still very much a part of history texts, while some populist
politicians still speak of “the scourge of Christendom.”

In Turkey, where Islam and secular principles clash almost daily,
enthusiasm for membership in what politicians describe as “a Christian
club” has waned somewhat as the Europeans stalled at the green light.

When it finally came last Dec. 17, even more doubts emerged and it
took more than nine months to prepare the talks.

Some issues ignored Leaders of the 25-nation EU, apparently
disregarding opinion polls hostile to Turkey’s membership, insisted
on opening the negotiations on time, even if it required glossing
over certain Turkish acts said to be contrary to European principles.

These include the relentless war against the Kurdish rebels that has
caused more than 35,000 deaths, the denial of certain Kurdish cultural
and nationalist demands, refusal to admit Turkey’s role in the World
War I massacre of Armenians, the recent indictment against a prominent
author accused of “insulting Turkishness,” and the persistent shadow
of the influential Turkish military over the country’s politics.

Equally troubling to the Europeans is Cyprus, where Turkey benefited
from the EU’s reluctance to become mired in yet another problem:
Although Turkey refused to recognize the Greek Cypriot government —
an EU member — and has kept its seaports closed to Greek Cypriot
vessels, the EU preferred not to penalize it or delay admission talks.

Stubborn over Cyprus

A joint declaration by the EU said merely that Turkey should recognize
Cyprus before it is allowed to join the union — when the protracted
negotiations end.

Commented the Athens daily Kathimerini: “The outcome involved endless
talks between European officials, behind the scene contacts .. and
much wasting of time and energy.” .

Even the presence of some 30,000 Turkish troops in northern Cyprus,
in effect occupying 37 percent of the territory of an EU nation,
was not allowed to hinder or delay the accession talks at this stage.

The government in Ankara has shown considerable stubbornness in
the dispute over Cyprus, with statements from Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan that no Turkish concession on the issue of the divided
island would be made before the start of the talks. Even stronger was
a statement by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that Turkey’s position
on Cyprus “will never change.”

Hopes remain strong However, to attenuate such categorical views,
senior officials in Ankara explain that once the Cyprus problem has
been solved (to Turkey’s satisfaction), recognition of the Greek
Cypriot government in the southern part of the island would be
considered, but only if a parallel “Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus” is internationally recognized.

Turkey’s size and its possible stabilizing role in a highly volatile
area where Europe and Asia meet has been systematically underlined
by some EU politicians, who feel that rejecting Turkey would push it
either toward radical Islam or equally radical nationalism.

Even Greece, Turkey’s historic foe, feels that when Turkey belongs to
the EU, its nationalism and military ambitions could be more easily
controlled. For the time being, both countries, which are members
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, continue improving their
military equipment while staging mock dogfights over the contested
waters of the Aegean Sea.

Population is growing A number of politicians led by former French
President Valery Giscard d’Estaing continue to insist that Turkey “has
nothing in common with Europe,” even though 5 percent of its territory
of 297,000 square miles lies on the European side of the Bosporus.

While the European business community points to Turkey’s growth
over the past three years and its value as a business partner,
politicians worry about the possible burden of a poor country of
71 million with a rising population that soon will exceed Germany’s
present 82 million people.

Europe’s reluctance to admit Turkey was partly caused by the presence
of more than 3 million Turkish workers, mainly in Germany, Austria,
France and several north European countries. On the whole, these
temporary immigrants have shown little inclination to integrate or
adjust to European lifestyles.

Two negative referendums What alarmed some EU officials was that France
and the Netherlands rejected the proposed European constitution in
referendums last spring, mainly because voters interpreted the charter
as paving the road to Turkey’s EU membership.

Somewhat reluctantly, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European
Commission, admitted that the union’s executive body could not
ignore “the signal sent by the electorate regarding Turkey.” Yet the
commission continued pushing for Turkey’s accession talks, a policy
seen by some as part of a drive to increase the EC’s influence and
economic clout.

To most Turks, being “European” has little meaning. Ataturk was
decisive In 1923, when the country reeled from the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the republic and simply
ordered it to “face West.” This included such measures as dropping
Arabic script and adopting the Latin alphabet instead and a ban on
the fez, the traditional colorful headgear.

Christian Sunday replaced the Muslim Friday as the official day of
rest, but Islam has remained a powerful spiritual influence for most
Turks. Even now, the country is torn by a debate over how Islamic or
secular modern Turkey should be.

Islamic revivals in some Turkish cities and universities, including
resistance to a ban on women wearing head scarves in government
buildings, has caused concern among some Europeans about “the Islamic
cloud over Europe.”

Ankara fully committed Although throughout much of its modern history
Turkey has been regarded as a power crippled by its internal problems,
Turkish officials now point to an unquestionably impressive list of
recent reforms. In statements and interviews, Mr. Erdogan stigmatized
“the campaign against us,” which raised European concern about “the
growth of militant Turkish chauvinism.”

Mr. Erdogan has repeatedly stressed that Turkey is “fully committed
to the European process” and said Ankara would work to change the
nation’s mentality and “take whatever steps are required from us.”

Yet on key issues such as the Turkish military presence in Cyprus, the
Turkish government allowed little room for discussion or compromise,
saying the Turkish Cypriot approval of the U.N.

unification plan, rejected by the Greek side, was a sufficient gesture
of good will.

Old ghosts linger An especially sensitive subject is the fate of
its Armenian population during World War I, when an estimated 1.5
million perished during their forced “resettlement march” to desert
areas. Despite European pressure, Turkey refuses to call the deaths a
genocide and says the “resettlement” was prompted by Armenian support
for Russia, then Turkey’s enemy.

Last month, the European Commission decried the prosecution of Orhan
Pamuk, a Turkish author who told a Swiss magazine “30,000 Kurds and
a million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me
dares talk about it.”

Mr. Pamuk was accused of insulting “Turkey’s national character”
and could face a prison term for possible violation of Turkey’s new
penal code.

The problem of the Kurds — the long-suffering “orphans of the
universe” scattered throughout Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria —
has poisoned Turkey’s internal peace for more than two centuries,
with 32 uprisings drowned in blood. Despite some official Turkish
concessions to Kurdish demands for self-expression, any bid for
autonomy is rejected as undermining national unity.

After several pauses in its guerrilla war, the left-wing Kurdistan
Workers’ Party recently resumed its harassing attacks; Kurdish
nationalist demonstrations spread to several cities and were suppressed
by police. However, rebel demands for autonomy do not appear to
be shared by all Kurds, many of whom have been integrated into the
mainstream. What tarnished Turkey’s policy toward the Kurds is the slow
application of promised reforms recognizing their language and culture.

European concern about Turkey’s democracy has been heightened by the
high profile of the Turkish military, considered the guardian of the
secular system introduced by Ataturk and known as “Kemalism.”

Military calls shots On four occasions since Ataturk’s death in 1938,
the military has intervened in Turkey’s politics — most recently
in 1980, when the country was in turmoil and the government seemed
helpless. Three years later, after crushing terrorist groups and
purging the ranks of quarreling politicians, the generals and their
troops returned to barracks.

Under EU pressure, the role of the military in the powerful National
Security Council has been reduced, though senior officers issue
periodic statements to show vigilance.

The last such statement — in April, by Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, chief of
the general staff — was a blunt assessment of Turkey’s domestic and
foreign concerns, proving that the military is not yet ready to take
a back seat.

Gen. Ozkok described Turkey’s military presence in Cyprus as essential
to security.

Gen. Ozkok, known for pro-EU sympathies, is due to retire next year
and his likely replacement, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, is described by
diplomats as “an unknown quantity.”

STRAW STEERS EU AWAY FROM ‘PRECIPICE’ WITH TURKEY ACCESSION DEAL
Nicola Smith

The Scotsman
Oct 4 2005

Key points
~U Foreign Secretary looks to have repaired deal over Turkey’s
possible entry into the EU
~U Talks mark a success for UK during its six-month EU presidency
~U EU membership may still be 15 years in the future, however

Key quote
“Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU
are against the alliance of civilisations. I appeal to the EU leaders
to show good sense for the sake of global peace and stability.” –
Tayyip Recep Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister

Story in full

THE British government last night averted a deep political crisis
in the European Union after it thrashed out a delicate agreement to
begin accession talks with Turkey.

After over 24 hours of tense negotiations and with only a few hours’
sleep, Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, brokered a successful
compromise to allay Austrian and Turkish concerns about the terms of
the negotiations.

The deal was finally clinched after a fraught four-hour wait on Turkey
to agree to the fine details of the negotiating mandate.

“We have reached agreement. Inshallah, we are departing for
Luxembourg,” Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, said from
Ankara as he prepared to board a plane to meet his 25 EU counterparts.

The deal paved the way for the celebratory launch of accession talks
in Luxembourg, marking a milestone in Turkey’s 40-year bid for EU
membership.

The positive outcome to the intense session of diplomatic wrangling
was a welcome relief for the British government which had billed the
opening of talks with Turkey as one of the benchmarks of the success
of its six-month EU presidency.

Mr Straw cautioned his 24 EU counterparts yesterday that a failure
to go ahead with the talks could have disastrous consequences for
the EU’s future relations with Turkey.

“If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands,” he said. “If we
go the wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union.”

Speaking at a rally of his ruling Justice and Development party
on Monday, Tayyip Recep Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, also
warned that any attempt to sideline Ankara would have wider global
implications.

“Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU are against
the alliance of civilisations,” he said.

“I appeal to the EU leaders to show good sense for the sake of global
peace and stability.”

Mr Straw and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, were forced
to steer negotiations along a “precipice” between the brinkmanship
of the Austrian and Turkish governments.

Outside, hundreds of Armenians added to the tension with a
demonstration demanding Turkey make amends for the killings of
Armenians under Ottoman rule in 1915.

After seven bilateral meetings between Mr Straw and Ursula Plassnik,
his Austrian counterpart, and a telephone call to Wolfgang Schuessel,
the Austrian chancellor, Vienna appeared to backtrack on its demands
that Turkey explicitly be offered “alternatives” to full EU membership
from the outset.

The drama was heightened when Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of
state, intervened

to assure Turkey that its agreement to the proposed EU negotiating
framework had no implications for its relations with NATO.

The opening of talks with Ankara will only be the start of a ten-
to 15-year process where Turkey will be expected to go through a
series of economic and political reforms.