Associated Press Worldstream
September 30, 2005 Friday 8:53 AM Eastern Time
Chaos ahead of membership talks underscore hesitations about letting
Turkey into EU
by CONSTANT BRAND; Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium
In Austria, a far-right party has plastered walls with the slogan
“Vienna must not become Istanbul!” Polls show that not one EU country
has a majority who support Turkey’s membership bid. Turks themselves
are wondering if it’s all worth the effort.
As chaos swirls over last-minute obstacles set up by Austria,
Turkey’s hopes of one day joining the EU – or even of starting
negotiations Monday as planned – are increasingly in doubt.
The opening ceremony in Luxembourg – replete with champagne toasts,
handshakes and a celebratory dinner – has been a moment Turkey has
coveted for over four decades. But Austria’s sudden insistence that
the EU offer Turkey a lesser partnership instead of full membership
has thrown the process into disarray.
Diplomats were scrambling to achieve a breakthrough Friday, as Turkey
threatened to keep its delegation home until it saw a document
outlining exactly what it would be negotiating for.
The Austrian position may reflect a growing resistance on the
continent to welcoming a poor, mainly Muslim nation whose population
is soon set to overtake the 80 million of Europe’s largest nation,
Germany.
“I don’t think Turkey should join the EU. There’s the religion – they
still are quite fanatic – and I don’t think Turkey is European
enough. It’s more Asian,” said Martin Maikisch, a 23-year-old
bookkeeper from the small eastern Austrian town of Guessing.
In London, 42-year-old zoologist Dave Clarke was worried about
extending Europe’s borders indefinitely, saying: “I have nothing
against Turkey per se, but the EU has to decide how far it extends.
There has got to be a limit.”
Recent surveys across Europe have found a majority of Europeans
oppose Turkish membership. An EU survey published this week found
only 10 percent of Austrians support Turkey’s membership, while
support across the 25-nation bloc stood at just 35 percent.
For EU nations struggling with high unemployment and worried they
might have to scuttle time-honored social protections, Turkey was
always going to be a hard sell. But the rejections by France and the
Netherlands of the draft EU constitution have put Europeans in an
even more inward-looking mood.
The stinging repudiations in May and June were largely seen as a cry
of alarm about the bloc’s rapid expansion; they have even called into
question of membership for Romania and Bulgaria, which are expected
to join in 2007.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Danish media this
week that the EU had to heed public concerns. “My overall conclusion
is that we must lower the pace and consolidate the EU,” he said.
Advocates of Turkish membership argue that welcoming Turkey would
send a positive signal to the Muslim world and strengthen a crucial
security alliance as Europe confronts the problem of terrorism on its
own soil. The European deadlock threatens to alienate Islamic nations
– fueling bitterness and suspicions that the West isn’t willing to
accept Muslims on equal footing.
Turkish newspapers reflected growing anxiety that the EU is about to
break its word. Daily Sabah newspaper devoted its entire front page
Friday to “a historic warning” to EU leaders.
“Does the EU realize that it is playing with fire,” wrote daily
Milliyet columnist Hasan Cemal. “There is no end to the dynamites
being thrown” on Turkey’s EU path. “They think that the Turkish
public opinion is a stone of patience.”
Even if negotiations open on Monday, they will be tough: The EU has
made clear the talks offer “no guarantee” of success and they are
likely to continue for up to 15 years.
Cyprus has raised threats of blocking the talks once they start if
Turkey does not move quickly to recognize the island during the
talks. Nicosia grudgingly backed off from demands earlier this month
that Turkey recognize the EU member before the start of negotiations.
The European Parliament this week added new demands that Turkey
recognize the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning
of the 20th century as genocide during the talks. And France – where
polls show deep resistance to Turkish membership – has vowed to hold
a referendum on Turkey’s bid if negotiations begin.
“Evidently there are cold-feet,” said Fadi Hakura, a Turkey
specialist at London’s Chatham House think-tank. But he warned that
by rejecting Turkey, the EU “would lose all influence over the
Turkish reforms that Turkey is undergoing at the present.”

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 30, 2005 Friday
Armenians of Russia may take part in all-Armenian moves
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
Ara Abramyan, the head of the World Armenian Congress and of the
Union of Armenians of Russia, met with Armenian leaders in Yerevan on
Friday and discussed with them prospects for cooperation of these
organizations with the republic’s authorities.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said the Union of Armenians of
Russia had done a great deal to coordinate ties of Armenian
communities in Russian regions with the mother country. This will
give them an opportunity more actively to participate in all-Armenian
actions – forums, congresses, conferences and economic programmes,
the Armenian president believes.
The parties discussed proposals of representatives of the Union of
Armenians of Russia for their activity in Armenia, their
participation in various functions on a national scale, the
presidential press service reported.
At the request of the guests, the president summed up the state of
things with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and prospects for
normalization of relations with Turkey.
Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan also spoke highly of the
activity of the Union of Armenians of Russia to consolidate the
Armenian diaspora and channel its potential for the implementation of
the programmes of importance to all Armenians. He is convinced, “The
activity of the Union of Armenians of Russia sets an example to all
other Armenian communities.”
Abramyan and the Armenian prime minister discussed the possible use
of the potentials of the World Armenian Congress and of the Union of
Armenians of Russia in the Armenian government’s programmes aimed to
carry out the republic’s social and economic tasks, the governmental
press service noted.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 30, 2005 Friday
Armenian pres meets with head of Russia Union of Armenians
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan met on Friday with the head of
the World Armenian Congress and the Union of Armenians of Russia, Ara
Abramyan. They discussed prospects for cooperation between the
organisations and the country’s authorities.
The union has done substantial and consistent work to coordinate ties
between Armenian communities in Russian regions and Armenia.
It will allow them to participate more actively in all-Armenia
actions – forums, congresses and conferences, the president believes.
Proposals of the union on activities in Armenia and participation in
various national-scope events were also under discussion.
The president also told about settlement of the Karabakh conflict and
the prospects for normalisation of relations with Turkey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 30, 2005 Friday
CIS Interior Ministers Council will have its own magazine
By Svetlana Alikina and Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The Interior Ministers Council of the CIS Nations will have its own
magazine – the”Herald of the Interior Ministers Council”, Chief of
the Public Relations Department of Russian Interior Ministry Valery
Gribakin told Itar-Tass here on Friday.
The Russian Interior Ministry’s proposal on this score was backed at
the regular meeting of the CIS Interior Ministers, which ended in the
Armenian capital on Friday. “This publication should serve as a
channel of information to exchange the accumulated experience, to
consolidate the working and other contacts of the employees of our
ministries and to enhance the authority of the Council itself,”
Gribakin stressed.
He explained that the “Herald” would be an informational and
analytical publication intended for the professional readership. “We
believe the magazine should consist of three thematic sections –
information, methodology, and general,” Gribakin stated.
The first section, he added, will presumably contain information on
the most important events in our work to enforce law and order on the
territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the second –
analytical articles, documents and materials on the accumulated
professional experience.
As to the third section, it will contain feature stories about
particularly distinguished policemen, archive history documents,
stories about particularly interesting places of culture and history
and about monuments to be found on the territory of the Commonwealth
of Independent States.
The Bureau for Coordinating the Fight Against Organised Crime will
found the magazine, which is to be published by the Joint Editorial
Office of the Russian Interior Ministry.
“Work will be shortly started on the magazine’s pilot edition,”
Gribakin told Itar-Tass.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 30, 2005 Friday
CIS Interior exercise to be held in Tajikistan in 2006-minister
By Svetlana Alikina, Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The Interior Ministries of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) member countries are planning to conduct a joint antiterrorist
exercise in Tajikistan in 2006, Russian Interior Minister Rashid
Nurgaliyev told reporters on Friday after a meeting of the CIS
Council of Interior Ministers held in the Armenian capital.
“It is planned that special forces of several countries will take
part in the exercise,” Nurgaliyev said adding that the details will
be coordinated later. The Russian Interior chief specified that the
Russian Interior Ministry has already held a joint antiterrorist
exercise with the Belarussian colleagues in Smolensk in September
this year. “We will hold a similar exercise with the Armenian
Interior Ministry in Krasnodar on October 10,” the minister said.
Nurgaliyev said the meeting participants discussed the progress of
the implementation of the Joint Plan to counteract terrorism for
2005. The minister pointed out the Russian Interior Ministry has
conducted on information obtained from CIS countries a complex of
search operations for persons placed on the international wanted list
for crimes related to terrorism.
“So we have six facts of fruitful joint work. In all the cases our
work was most pre-emptive and prompt,” the Russian interior minister
said. He cited as an example the detention in Azerbaijan this March
of members of the Islamic Jamaat operating in the territory of
Tatarstan. Moreover, two persons wanted for terrorist attacks they
staged in Tajikistan in the period from 1998 to 2001 were detained in
Yakutia and St. Petersburg in June 2005.
Nurgaliyev also said the Russian Interior Ministry is participating
in drawing up of the list of organisations engaged in terrorist and
extremist activities. According to him, the ministry “has put forward
a proposal to recognise the international organisation Tabligi Jamaat
a terrorist group and ban its activity in the territory of the
Commonwealth member states.”
Nurgaliyev highly assessed the work of the CIS Council of Interior
Ministers pointing out that it is “one of the most efficient
executive bodies of the CIS.” According to the Russian Interior
chief, “It is gratifying that our cooperation is becoming more and
more practical and together we are in actual practice fulfilling
common tasks to ensure security, law and order.”

EIU European Voice
September 29, 2005 Thursday Turkey
Turkey talks move closer, but MEPs postpone customs deal

The opening of accession negotiations with Turkey moved closer
yesterday (28 September) after the European Parliament backed plans
to start talks next week. But in a serious political blow to Turkey,
MEPs decided to postpone a vote on an EU-Turkey customs agreement, as
a sign of frustration with Ankara’s refusal to recognise Cyprus.

MEPs demanded a guarantee that the Turkish parliament, when it
ratifies the extension of the customs union with the EU’s ten newest
member states, including Cyprus, will drop the Turkish government’s
unilateral declaration that this would not amount to recognition of
Cyprus.

Some MEPs reacted angrily to the decision to postpone approval of the
protocol. Dutch Green deputy Joost Lagendijk, chairman of the
Parliament’s Turkey delegation, said: “It sends a very bad signal.”

UK Liberal MEP Andrew Duff said: “The decision is short-sighted and
mean-spirited and will particularly affect the ten new member states.
It sows distrust between the two sides and delays the possibility of
relaxing the financial and trade embargo against Turkish North
Cyprus.”

The European Commission said that it deplored the Parliament’s
decision to withhold approval of the customs protocol, describing it
as “an own goal” for the EU.

The protest was led by the centre-right European People’s Party
(EPP-ED) but was supported by a cross-party coalition of MEPs.
Socialist deputy group leader Jan Marinus Wiersma said: “We deplore
the stance Turkey has taken on Cyprus and the way it has cast serious
doubt on its willingness to implement the protocol extending the
Ankara Agreement to the ten new member states.” The Socialist leader
Martin Schulz said that Turkey should recognise Cyprus during the
negotiations. “This cannot be at the end of the negotiations. It must
take place immediately, within the first one or two years,” he said,
adding that without such recognition, accession talks should be
broken off.

Parliament also said that it considered Turkish recognition of the
Armenian genocide “to be a prerequisite for accession”.

During the debate Hans-Gert Pottering, the EPP-ED leader, attacked EU
leaders’ tolerant attitude towards Turkey and their tough stance on
Croatia. Talks with Croatia, initially planned to start last March,
have been postponed because of the government’s alleged failure to
help bring a war criminal before international justice. The
Socialists’ leader hit back accusing Pottering of religious
discrimination: “You don’t want Turkey in because it is Islamic and
far away. Croatia is closer and is Catholic,” Schulz said.

The Independent (London)
September 30, 2005, Friday
LEADING ARTICLE: ACCESSION TALKS MUST GO AHEAD;
TURKEY
It didn’t rate a mention in his speech to the Labour Party
conference, although it did produce an impassioned plea from his
Foreign Secretary in Brighton. But Turkey’s application for
membership of the European Union is likely to be the first major test
of Tony Blair’s presidency of the EU. And a crucial challenge to his
and Jack Straw’s powers of persuasion.
The UK has always been strongly in favour of accession talks with
Turkey, and rightly so. If the Union is to keep expanding to its
geographic and historic shape, if it is to act as a catalyst for
democratic change in the surrounding regions, and if it is to prove a
means of bringing Islam into cohabitation with the Christian West,
then there could be no better candidate for inclusion than Turkey. It
straddles the straits between East and West, it has a strong secular
and pro-Western tradition dating from the time of Kemal Ataturk, it
has been a stalwart member of Nato alongside the Western European
countries, and it has made a clear policy decision and started on the
steps necessary to join the Union.
A year ago the road seemed fairly straight and even. The Commission
was in favour, most of the member states had expressed approval and,
with a final meeting of the EU foreign ministers next Monday, a start
to negotiations (expected to last 10 years, it should be added) would
be under way.
All that has now been jeopardised by growing dissension in the
European Parliament, the open opposition of Angela Merkel in Germany
and Nicolas Sarkozy in France, and now the Austrian refusal to go
along with a vote in favour at the meeting of permanent
representatives of the member states this week. An emergency meeting
of foreign ministers has been called in Luxembourg on Sunday in a
last-ditch effort to save the talks.
Agreement will be far from easy. Quite aside from the thorny issues
of Turkish responsibility for the Armenian massacres and its refusal
to recognise Cyprus, there is Austria’s last-minute demand that
Turkey be offered partnership rather than full membership ” a
suggestion which Turkey indignantly and understandably refuses as
changing the rules of the game at the last moment.
The real worry is that time is slipping away from these talks.
Opposition to Turkish membership is building in the Union, while
nationalist antagonism to Europe’s prevarications and changes of mind
is rising in Turkey. If negotiations are to proceed, then the
timetable has to be kept. If ever there was a time for Tony Blair to
exercise his undoubted skills of charm and persuasion, it is now.
Otherwise an historic opportunity may be lost, with incalculable
effect on future relations with the Muslim world.

RIA Novosti, Russia
September 30, 2005
More than 1,300 foreigners deported from Russia in 2005
YEREVAN, September 30 (RIA Novosti) – More than 1,300 foreigners have
been deported from Russia since the beginning of 2005, Interior
Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Friday.
“Russia has deported 1,360 foreign citizens [this year],” the
minister said after a meeting of the CIS Council of Interior
Ministers in Armenia.
Nurgaliyev said the ministry had carried out a special operation this
summer to stop illegal migration and prevent the counterfeiting of
passports, migration cards and other documents.
The police also inspected 34,500 companies and organizations that
employ foreign workers and tourist firms and organizations that
provide foreign work placement services for Russians, he said.
“We suspended the activities at six such firms following the
investigation,” the Nurgaliyev said.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 30, 2005 Friday 2:40 PM Eastern Time
Belarus culture festival opens in Armenia
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The Belarussian cultural festival in Armenia opened with a large
concern of Belarussian masters of the arts in Yerevan Opera House on
Friday. This is the first such festival from the time the two
countries became independent.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan addressed a message of greetings
to the participants in the festival, describing it as “a remarkable
event in the cultural life of the two countries.” “Belarussian
culture evokes response in Armenian people,” the message of greetings
says. The president is also confident that “Armenian art is known and
liked in Belarus.”
Pointing out that “Armenian-Belarussian ties have a long history,”
the Armenian president expressed the confidence that “friendship and
spiritual closeness of our peoples accumulated over many years have
good prospects.”
“This remarkable fete presents vast achievements of masters of
Belarussian culture and offers Armenian people an excellent
opportunity to familiarize themselves with the richness of
Belarussian culture,” says the message of Belarussian President
Alexander Lukashenko that was read out by the republic’s Culture
Minister Leonid Gulyako.
“The peoples of Belarus and Armenia are linked by lasting sincere
friendship and fruitful cooperation,” Lukashenko noted. He is
convinced that “no distances and borders can affect the strength of
spiritual unity of the fraternal countries.” The Belarussian
president is sure that “the present cultural forum will promote the
growing closeness of the peoples” of Armenia and Belarus.
The Armenian president received Belarussian culture minister. They
came out for the stepping up of bilateral ties in the area of
culture.

Mediamax news agency, Armenia
Sept 30 05
ARMENIAN-US DEFENCE CONSULTATIONS DISCUSS COOPERATION PLAN FOR 2006
Yerevan, 30 September: Annual Armenian-US defence consultations were
held in Yerevan on 28-29 September, the press service of the US
embassy told Mediamax today.
The US delegation is led by Principal Director for Eurasia in the
Office of the Secretary of Defence, Scott Schless, while the Armenian
delegation is led by Deputy Defence Minister Lt-Gen Artur Agabekyan.
Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan and the US ambassador to
Armenia, John Evans, also attended the consultations.
The purpose of the consultations was to review the results of last
year’s bilateral military cooperation and agree a cooperation plan
for 2006.
The consultations also discussed a wide range of issues connected
with national security, defence reforms, peacekeeping operations,
military training and education.