Saudi Press Agency
December 16, 2004 Thursday 8:01 PM EST

Riyadh, December 16

E.U. leaders confident Turkey will win

entry talks 3 Brussels Observers expect the E.U. to fudge the issue
at the summit and issue a declaration saying they welcome “the
intention” of Turkey to extend customs union.

Asked about calls by France for Turkey to recognise the killing of up
to 1.5 million Christian Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915
as a genocide, Barroso said the question would have to be up for
frank discussion.

But he underlined this should take place at a later date.

Turkey rejects the label of genocide with regard to the Armenians.

The second major summit sticking point is what wording will be used
to make clear to Ankara that negotiations will be open-ended and
their successful outcome is not guaranteed.

A senior German official said full membership for Ankara was the E.U.
goal and demands by a minority of member states, led by Austria, for
setting an option of second class membership – a so-called
“privileged partnership” – was not on the cards.

“That issue is dead,” added an E.U. diplomat.

Austria as well as France and Denmark, still remain nervous about
admitting a large, poor and mainly Moslem state with 70 million
people to what has until now been a mainly Christian club.

Gold Coast Bulletin (Australia)
December 16, 2004 Thursday

History, legend and tradition

THE history of Christmas dates back more than 5000 years, the
traditions we now associate with December 25 were celebrated
centuries before the Christ child was born.

The concept of Christmas originated in ancient Egypt in the days of
King Osiris and Queen Isis around about 3000BC.

After the untimely death of King Osiris, his wife Isis claimed a
full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead stump,
symbolising the new life of the king’s spirit from his death.

On each anniversary of Osiris’s birth – the date we now know as
December 25 – Isis would leave gifts around this tree.

Isis became the Queen of Heaven and Osiris became the reborn divine
son of heaven. Through the later Phoenicians, Osiris became Baal the
sun god.

The mother and child became the Babylonian’s objects of worship, the
trend spread across the world under various names – Cybel and Deoius
in Asia, Fortuna and Jupiter in pagan Rome.

The 12 days of Christmas, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carol
singers and feasts can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians.

The Mesopotamians believed Marduk – the ruler of all their gods –
waged war on the monsters of chaos each winter. To help Marduk in his
struggle the Mesopotamians held a 12-day festival.

The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated Sacaea, a similar
festival featuring an exchange of roles; slaves became masters and
masters obeyed.

Early Europeans feared the sun would not return after the December
winter solstice, rituals and celebrations welcomed the sun after the
shortest day of the year.

In Scandinavia, the sun disappears for days during winter.

In ancient times, a sunless 35 days saw scouts scurry to the
mountaintops in search of the sun. At the first glimpse of light, the
great yuletide festival would be held with a special feast served
around a fire burning with the Yule log.

Across the land bonfires would be lit and apples tied to tree
branches as a reminder of the return of the warmer season.

The ancient Greeks celebrated the victory of their god Kronos against
Zeus and the Titans in December and the Roman’s celebrated their god
Saturn during the Saturnalia festival from mid-December to January 1.

The celebration involved festive feasts, visits with friends, and the
exchange of gifts called strenae or lucky fruits. The Romans decked
their halls with garlands of laurel and green trees lit with candles.

As Christianity spread across the globe, church leaders became
increasingly cranky about the continuing pagan festivals. They tried
to put a stop to the fun and games but gave up and combined old
traditions with the new enlightenment.

The exact day of the Christ child’s birth is not reliably recorded
but it has been celebrated since 98AD. According to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, some Latins may have transferred the birthday of Christ
from January 6 to December 25 around 354AD. December 25 was then a
Mithraic feast or the birthday of the unconquered Sun.

The Syrians and Armenians clung to January 6 accusing the Romans of
sun worship and idolatry, claiming the December 25 festival was
invented by the disciples of Cerinthus.

In 137AD, the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child
celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350AD, Julius I – another Bishop of
Rome – chose December 25 as the day to celebrate.

Associated Press Worldstream
December 16, 2004 Thursday 10:15 AM Eastern Time

Turks anxiously await historic EU membership decision, but worry
about possible conditions

LOUIS MEIXLER; Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey

Jeweler Murat Tekcan said he’ll be happy if EU leaders realize his
country’s decades-long dream by opening the door for Turkey to become
the bloc’s first Muslim member, but quickly added that he has no
plans to celebrate.

Like many here, Tekcan fears that EU membership conditions will be
too demanding and negotiations too drawn-out.

“I hope that they won’t ruin this dream,” Tekcan said as he sat in
his small jewelry shop in an Ankara mall.

EU leaders are widely expected to decide at a dinner late Thursday
night whether to open accession talks with Turkey, but are also
likely to impose tough conditions. Public opinion in many EU
countries is against accepting a poor Muslim nation of 70 million
people that would bring EU borders to unstable nations like Syria,
Iran and Iraq.

Those conditions will almost certainly include a demand that Turkey
carries out more democratic reforms and take moves toward recognizing
the divided island of Cyprus, which became a member in March.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament also urged Turkey to
acknowledge “the genocide perpetrated against the Armenians,” an
extremely sensitive issue in Turkey.

The Ottoman Empire has been accused of killing as many as 1.5 million
Armenians during a 1915-1923 campaign to force them from eastern
Turkey. Turkey says the number is inflated and that many people were
killed during the collapse of the empire when Armenians rose up
against Ottoman rule.

“They’re going to put forward conditions like the Armenian genocide
or Cyprus,” Tekcan said, pointing to a television behind him that was
airing a live press conference by EU Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso.

Like many Turks, Tekcan fears that could just be the first in a long
list of hurdles.

“We’re afraid of what we’ll face if we enter the EU,” Tekcan said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Brussels Thursday
lobbying EU leaders but also making it clear that Turkey is willing
to walk away if conditions are too tough.

“Putting a text on the table that we can’t accept means a collapse,”
Erdogan told reporters. “I hope they don’t.”

But walking away would be a disaster for both Turkey and the European
Union.

For Turkey, membership would be the realization of the dream that
began in 1923 when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk helped create a secular,
pro-Western Turkish republic from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire.

Entering the EU would not just give a huge boost to the Turkish
economy, but would also reinforce the country’s pro-Western
orientation and be seen by many Turks as the stamp of approval that
Muslim Turkey, already a long-standing member of NATO, is a
full-fledged member of the West.

“Tonight will be the moment of truth,” editor in chief Yusuf Kanli
wrote in the Turkish Daily News.

The newspaper’s headline – “The Longest Supper” – described the
feelings of many Turks.

Erdogan has largely staked his party’s future on a successful EU bid,
and leaving the talks could be a disaster for his Justice and
Developments Party, which has an absolute majority in parliament, but
is made up of several different factions, including a strong
pro-Islamist group.

For Europe and the United States, accepting Turkey would help cement
the country’s Western orientation at a time of great instability in
the Middle East and would show the Islamic world that Muslims can be
accepted as part of Europe.

In Ankara’s posh Karum shopping mall, Taner Eksioglu said he was fed
up with EU demands and Turkey’s forty-year quest to join the European
bloc.

“They show us the carrot and then take it away and then they show us
the carrot and take it away again,” said Eksioglu, a retired civil
servant. “I don’t trust the EU and I don’t want to be part of it.”

Turkey: This is the moment… but EU goes back in the fridge if terms are too tough
by Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent

The Times (London)
December 16, 2004, Thursday

TURKEY gave warning yesterday that it would abandon its 40-year dream
of joining the European Union if it is presented with unacceptable
conditions by EU leaders at a dinner in Brussels tonight.

In an apparent last-minute attempt to soften entry conditions,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, said that he could
modernise his country without the EU. He made the statement just as
the European Parliament voted to let Turkey join the EU, and Jose
Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, said:
“This is the moment.”

Tony Blair and his counterparts in the European Council are almost
certain to approve starting entry talks with Turkey tonight. However,
they are set to include a series of conditions to appease the deep
misgivings in many member states about letting such a large, poor,
Muslim and mainly Asian country become the biggest member of the Union.

France and Austria are demanding that entry talks should not
necessarily lead to full membership, while EU leaders have already
agreed that Turks could be permanently barred from the right to live
and work in EU countries, a right given to other EU citizens. Turkey
will also be required to reach a deal on Cyprus, and officially
recognise the Cypriot Government.

Almost unanimous agreement has been reached between member states. A
British official said last night: “It’s within grasp, but not in the
bag. We are almost there, but not there.”

However, Mr Erdogan dramatically upped the stakes in unusually
forthright language, saying as he left for Brussels: “We do not
expect any unacceptable conditions to be put before us, but if such
conditions are imposed…we will definitely put the matter in the
refrigerator and continue on our way.”

Asked whether it would make a difference to the final hours of
negotiations, the British official said: “It’s a factor. It’s going
to be on people’s minds; of course it is.”

Turkey is particularly annoyed at the demand for a “permanent”
safeguard against Turkish immigration to Western Europe, and at the
suggestion that entry talks – which are expected to last ten years
-may end only in a “privileged partnership” and not full membership.

Wolfgang Schussel, the Austrian Chancellor, insisted that the EU must
make it clear that the talks will not necessarily lead to membership.
“It has to be in there that the result will come from an open process,
and that this result cannot be guaranteed in advance,” he said,
adding that he would not accept giving all Turks the right to work
anywhere in the EU. “This would overwhelm the capacity of our labour
markets in the EU,” he said.

Mr Erdogan said that his campaign to join the EU, which has been his
top political priority for the past two years, was a “civilisation
project” to modernise Turkey.

However, he insisted that the country could carry on without the EU.

“We want to move this project forward together with the European
Union…but if unacceptable conditions are put forward,” he said. “I
have to openly say that this will not be the end of the world. We
will continue on our way, because Turkey is strong enough to shoulder
this task.”

Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said: “What we demand
is nothing more than our legitimate rights. We will not accept any
injustice.”

The threat is likely to cause annoyance with more sceptical EU
leaders, who feel that Turkey is trying to bully its way into the EU.
Last weekend Mr Erdogan said that Islamic terrorism would continue
unaba-ted unless the EU stopped being a “Christian club”.

In many European countries already struggling to integrate Muslim
minorities, such as France and Germany, there is widespread popular
opposition to letting Turkey join.

In London, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, set out the reasons
for membership to the House of Commons. “Turkey’s dynamic economy and
society would be a valuable asset to the whole of Europe,” he said,
“but Turkey’s European destiny is also important for wider reasons,
because of the signal which a European Turkey would send to people
everywhere of Europe’s commitment to diversity and to truly universal
values.

“We want to see an economically successful, democratic Turkey anchored
in Europe and that would deal a heavy blow to those who stoke up
mistrust and division and it could be an inspiration to many others
in the Muslim world.”

After a bitter debate, the European Parliament in Strasbourg passed
a non binding motion calling on EU leaders to start entry talks
with Turkey, by 407 votes to 262. The Parliament urged EU leaders to
open talks with Turkey “without undue delay” and rejected decisively
amendments offering a “special partnership.”

It also called on Turkey to accept that it committed genocide against
the Armenians in 1915, a condition that France has also insisted on
but that Turkey has rejected.

As the momentum to start negotiations seemed unstoppable, Senhor
Barroso said: “It is now time for the European Council to honour
its commitment to Turkey and announce the opening of accession
negotiations.”

He insisted that current concerns about Turkey should not be used
as an excuse to delay negotiations. “I believe this is the moment,”
he said. “In ten years, Turkey won’t be the same as today…and fears
that exist today can be put aside.”

*THE LONG ROAD TO EUROPE

1952: Turkey joins Nato

1963: Turkey signs first “association agreement” with the European
Economic Community, offering possibility of eventual membership

1980-1986: “Association agreement” suspended after a military coup

1987: Turkey formally applies for EU membership

1989: European Commission rejects Turkey’s application because of
human rights abuses

1996: Customs union starts, giving Turkey access to the EU single
market

1999: European Union accepts Turkey as an official candidate

2002: EU leaders set down human rights and political conditions for
starting membership talks with Turkey

October 2004: European Commission’s EU executive declares that Turkey
has met conditions and recommends that formal membership talks begin

December 16: EU leaders decide on membership talks

AZERIS TO DRAW NEW MAP TO RESTORE ORIGINAL PLACENAMES IN KARABAKH

Trend news agency
Dec 16 2004

BAKU, 16.12.04. A total of 2.2bn manats (about 448,000 dollars) have
been allocated from the Azerbaijani state budget for the development
of a new topographic map of Nagornyy Karabakh, Trend has quoted the
head of the executive authorities of the town of Xocali, MP Elman
Mammadov, as saying.

He said the placenames given by the Armenians in the Soviet period
not only on the territory of Karabakh itself, but also in the
adjacent Goranboy District will now correspondent to their historical
equivalents. Mammadov said more than 20 residential settlements had
been Armenianized in Xocali alone, but in the years of independence
the places received their original names.

The new map of Nagornyy Karabakh is being prepared jointly by
specialists from the Institute of Cartography under the National
Academy of Sciences and the State Committee on land and cartography.

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
December 17, 2004 Friday

ON THIS DAY

1980 Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak and his bodyguard are shot
dead by two attackers at his Vaucluse residence in Sydney. Armenian
terrorists are blamed but no one has ever been charged with the
crime.

1830 South American revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar dies.

1845 Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives at Port Essington in the
Northern Territory after a 14-month, 4800km overland journey from
Moreton Bay, Queensland.

1903

Orville Wright makes the first significant flight in a plane with an
engine, covering 36m in North Carolina.

1967 Prime Minister Harold Holt, 59, disappears, presumed drowned,
while swimming at Cheviot Beach, Portsea, in Victoria.

1980 Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak and his bodyguard are shot
dead by two attackers at his Vaucluse residence in Sydney. Armenian
terrorists are blamed but no one has ever been charged with the
crime.

1982 Random breath testing is introduced in NSW to deter
drink-driving. It is credited with saving hundreds of lives.

1993

Federal Treasurer John Dawkins rocks the Keating Labor Government and
financial markets with a snap decision to retire.

1996 The leftist Tupac Amaru movement seizes the Japanese
ambassador’s residence in Lima, taking hundreds of diplomats and
government officials hostage. Four months later troops storm the
building, killing all 14 guerillas.
From: Baghdasarian

Chirac rejects ‘third way’ for Turkey
by Lara Marlowe in Paris and Derek Scally in Berlin

The Irish Times
December 16, 2004

FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac last night excluded the possibility
of offering Turkey an alternative to full EU membership. At the same
time, he sought to reassure the French public that regardless of the
outcome of negotiations, they “will have the last word”.

The French right proposes a “privileged partnership” between the EU
and Turkey instead of full membership, and Mr Chirac’s entourage had
alluded to the possibility of a “strong tie” between Turkey and the
EU in the event that Turkey does not fulfil criteria for membership.

But speaking on television last night, Mr Chirac categorically rejected
a ‘third way’ of dealing with Turkey’s application. “To ask a great
country enriched by a long history to make such considerable efforts to
arrive at uncertain or partial results is obviously not reasonable,”
the Mr Chirac said. “We would bear a very heavy responsibility
vis-a-vis history if we said ‘no’ to a people who say, ‘We adopt all
your values, all your rules’. They would never accept it. They are
a proud people who are conscious of making tremendous efforts.”

The French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, attracted attention in the
National Assembly on Tuesday by referring to the Turkish “genocide”
against the Armenians, noting that a French law passed in January
2001 recognised the genocide, which happened in 1915. Mr Barnier
previously used the word “tragedy”, which is preferred by Ankara.

The French government has long feared that next year’s referendum on
the European constitutional treaty could be muddled by the question
of Turkish accession, and by domestic opposition to Mr Chirac.
“France has always been an engine of European integration,” he said.
“To continue, she must say ‘yes’ to the EU constitution . It is an
important question that must not be hijacked by considerations that
have nothing to do with it.”

Meanwhile, Germany’s former Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, said
yesterday he didn’t think Turkey would ever meet the accession
criteria. Dr Kohl attacked what he called European leaders’ “unfair
and dishonest” courting of Turkey to win votes in the short term and
said the political union could not survive beyond accepting Romania
and Bulgaria.

“Mr Schroder wants, above all, to win elections and hopes to win
sympathy among Turks who are eligible to vote in Germany,” said
Dr Kohl.

Chancellor Schroder’s spokesman, Mr Bela Anda, said the government was
bewildered by the former chancellor’s opposition to Turkey’s EU hopes.

Mr Anda said Mr Schroder’s position was consistent with the position
of all German chancellors since 1963, when the issue of Turkey’s
possible EU accession was first mooted.

Government advisers said they were confident of a deal being reached
to open accession talks with Turkey at the summit which begins today
in Brussels.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
December 16, 2004, Thursday
12:27:43 Central European Time

ROUNDUP: E.U. set to okay Turkey entry talks – with conditions

Brussels

European Union leaders are expected to approve opening membership
talks with Turkey at a summit Thursday, but the historic decision
will be tempered with warnings Ankara must meet tough standards and
that negotiations will take over a decade.

“The time to start negotiations with Turkey has come,” said European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, adding that Ankara “must go
the extra mile” and show its allegiance to core European values.

Turkey, which has been seeking to join the European Union (E.U.) for
over 40 years, is expected to be told at the bloc’s two-day summit
that accession talks can begin in the second half of 2005.

But two key sticking points remain, said diplomats.

First, is Turkey’s refusal to grant diplomatic recognition to E.U.
member state Cyprus which despite its non-recognition by Ankara is
still expected to give a green light to opening E.U. talks. The
decision by E.U. leaders must be unanimous.

“What kind of message does it send when you do not recognise all the
members of the club you want to join?” asked Barroso.

The Commission chief said Cyprus was a test of Turkey’s willingness
to “win over the hearts and minds of everyone in Europe.”

E.U. leaders want Turkey to agree to extend a customs union pact with
the bloc to all new E.U. states, including Cyprus, which joined the
Union in May this year.

But Ankara, which only recognises self-styled Turkish northern
Cyprus, has so far refused to do this.

Observers expect the E.U. to fudge the issue at the summit and issue
a declaration saying they welcome “the intention” of Turkey to extend
customs union.

Asked about calls by France for Turkey to recognise the killing of up
to 1.5 million Christian Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915
as a genocide, Barroso said the question would have to be up for
frank discussion.

But he underlined this should take place at a later date and that no
new political terms should be set prior to the start of E.U.
accession negotiations. Turkey rejects the label of genocide with
regard to the Armenians.

The second summit sticking point is what wording will be used to make
clear to Ankara that negotiations will be open-ended and their
successful outcome is not guaranteed.

A senior German official said full membership for Ankara was the E.U.
goal and demands by a minority of member states, led by Austria, for
setting an option of second class membership – a so-called
“privileged partnership” – was not on the cards.

“That issue is dead,” added an E.U. diplomat.

Austria as well as France and Denmark, remain nervous about admitting
a large, poor and mainly Moslem state with 70 million people to what
has until now been a mainly Christian club.

A German opinion poll this week showed just 15 per cent back giving
Turkey full E.U. membership. Turks, numbering 2.4 million, are
Germany’s biggest minority.

“Obviously there are problems with public opinion in some member
states,” admitted Barroso who stressed that final admission for
Turkey would have to come from all 25 E.U. countries.

Given these concerns, E.U. leaders will tell Turkey improvements are
needed to meet the 25-nation bloc’s Copenhagen Criteria which include
standards for human rights, minority protection and rule of law.

Ankara will also be told that further economic reforms are needed as
well as moves to ensure the traditionally strong role of the military
in the country is curbed.

Concern over large numbers of Turkish immigrants flooding into the
E.U. has led the Dutch E.U. presidency to seek giving individual
member states a long-term right to impose controls on the movement of
people.

E.U. member states are not the only ones on edge. Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned in recent days that Turkey
will not accept membership at any cost.

Also on the E.U. summit agenda is a further enlargement issue: the
bloc’s leaders are expected to announce membership talks have been
concluded with Bulgaria and Romania.

But the two countries, which failed to make the grade for the E.U.’s
10 nation expansion last May 1, will be told they still must make
progress in a number of areas including justice and corruption and
that planned accession in 2007 could be delayed until 2008.

The summit is likely to approve opening membership talks with Croatia
in March or April next year conditional on Zagreb’s cooperating with
war crimes trials linked to the conflicts in former Yugoslavia.

Croatia, which could also join by 2008 or 2009, would be the second
former Yugoslav state to become an E.U. member following Slovenia
which joined last May 1. dpa lm si jm

ARF TOP MEMBER HOLDS MEETINGS WITH CYPRUS OFFICIALS

ArmenPress
Dec 16 2004

NICOSIA, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS: On December 14, Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau representative Hrant Margarian
held several meetings with the leaders of Cyprus political parties,
ARF press service reported.

The ARF delegation, led by Margarian, met with Cyprus Socialist
Democratic Party (EDEK) chairman Yanakis Omiru, who, underscoring the
centuries-long friendship between the Armenians and Greeks, reminded
them of the common enemy, Turkey. He added both Armenians and Greeks
are confident that Turkey does not deserve an EU membership unless
it undertakes certain pre-conditions, including the recognition of
the Republic of Cyprus, and admitting to the Armenian Genocide.

Hrant Margarian pointed to the close ideological ties between the
ARF and EDEK, and noted that the meeting is aimed at conveying the
ARF’s concerns ahead of the December 17 summit over Turkey’s EU bid.
Margarian said that Turkey should not be admitted to the EU until
the Cyprus issue and the issues of the Armenian Genocide and human
rights violations are not settled, reminding that this position of
the ARF is shared by most Europeans.

He added that Cyprus is expected to pose a strong position against
Turkey, and that Cyprus would also raise the Armenian Genocide issue
as Armenians raise the Cyprus issue in the international arena. If
Cyprus says “no” on December 17, many nations, including Armenians,
would welcome such stance. Omiru, in turn, said that his party is
for using the right to veto by Cyrus in case Turkey fails to meet
its requirements.

Hrant Margarian was also received by Dimitris Christofias, president
of the Cyprus parliament and secretary general of the Communist
Party, AKEL.

At the meeting, Margarian pointed to the ARF position and the Armenians
expect from Cyprus, noting that Turkey, by the U.S. blessing and
encouragement, would try to derail the European values and justice,
peace and tolerance systems. He added that the struggle should continue
and a “non” by Cyprus has a unique weight in political developments.

In response, Christofias noted that his heart “demands a veto,”
but questions like why and how the European powers dropped their
objections, raise. He said Turkey is encouraged by the U.S. and
Britain. He also said that President Papadopulos is to make his
decision at the last minute, and whatever the decision, his party
would support it.

ArmenPress
Dec 16 2004

AGARAK PLANT TO PRODUCE 7 TONS OF MOLYBDENUM AND 6,000 TONS OF COPPER
CONCENTRATE IN 2005

AGARAK, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS: The copper and molybdenum plant
in the southern Armenian Agarak, near the border with Iran, plans to
produce next year 7 tons of molybdenum and 6,000 tons of copper
concentrate.
The plan’s 100 percent shares were privatized last April by a
US-based Comsup Industries Ltd, which says it has already invested in
its modernization around $3 million out of $3.5 million it pledged
when taking it over.
According to plant’s chief manager Mayis Khachatrian, the money
was used to purchase new equipment and modernize its facilities.
Privatization of Agarak plant was followed by a 20 percent rise of
workers’ wages, which makes now about $150 a month. The plant’s
management has also donated 21 million drams to Agarak and 6 million
to the nearby Meghri to help their municipalities to solve part of
their most pressing problems.