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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1313)	8/7/2002 4:00:55 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 3959

Re: What part of the equation speaks about how Turkey is reluctant to participate in the offensive against Sadaam? The domestic part.... Islamic leaders are currently gaining momentum among Turkey's 90%-Muslim constituency. Keep in mind that Turkey's military commitments are already overstretched (Afghanistan). A war against Iraq will mean thousands of refugees flooding into Turkey, on their way to the EU... Re: Perhaps for the same reasons that Isra-El was not involved in the bombing of Iraq in Desert Storm...it would further incite the hostilities amongst the participants? But Christian UK and France were given a piece of the action in Afghanistan...

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1313)	8/7/2002 5:21:25 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 3959

Follow-up on EU/Turkey. It's somehow heartening to see that not all Turkish pundits are THAT dumb about Europe's duplicity on Turkey's accession to the EU: Europe's 28th star Turkey's pro-EU camp may have won a battle after the parliament passed political reforms; but EU-skeptics may yet win the war What most Turks believe will bring them closer to Europe may in fact distance them from the cherished prize of a membership in the European Union. Odd? Not really. On the surface, the parliamentary vote last weekend for reforms to meet EU political criteria has ended with victory for Turkey's pro-EU establishment. In reality, if the pro-EU camp has won a battle, the EU-skeptics may yet win the war. More than two centuries after Selim III, the Ottoman Sultan, was murdered because he was too much fond of Europe, the Turks thought they woke up to a new world that had never been closer to Europe before. A mass-circulation newspaper renamed Turkey: Europe's 28th star! All that was because the Turkish parliament, along with a legislation that set early polls for Nov. 3, had passed a sweeping set of reforms that included abolishing the death penalty in peacetime and allowing broadcasting and education in Kurdish and other ethnical languages - all of which touch on once-taboo subjects. Turkey's de facto interim government, like many Turks, thinks the reforms have earned Turkey to win a date to start accession talks. Volkan Vural, secretary general for EU affairs has said that the reforms meant Turkey had met enough membership criteria to start accession talks. "If the same principle is applied Turkey should be eligible for the start of negotiations to start accession talks on the same basis as 10 other candidate countries have done." Technically speaking, Mr Vural may be right. But in reality his optimism is a bit too naïve. The reforms were "necessary but not necessarily sufficient" criteria to win a date from Brussels. Although the European Commission publicly hailed as a "courageous decision" Saturday's Turkish parliamentary vote, a block summit in Copenhagen in December is unlikely to produce a solid date for Turkey to start talks because, as pretext, the EU will prefer to see how the reforms are implemented in Turkey. Understandably, for the Europeans, enforcement will be as important as legislation. But there is more. It is an open secret that Brussels wants Ankara to cooperate on more sensitive issues like the Cyprus dispute and guaranteed EU access to NATO military planning - all of which touch on still-taboo subjects. Moreover there is deep ambiguity of several EU states about Turkey's candidacy. The EU is more fragmented about Turkish membership than Turkey is. For example, it is not a distant memory that German opposition leader Edmund Stoibert, the favorite to defeat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in September elections said in May that Turkey should not join the EU. This is, no doubt, a view shared by many West European politicians. Under cover of anonymity they often point to Turkey's young and fast growing population of 68 million people bordering what many European statesmen still consider as rogue states. Many in Brussels still see Turkey as half a military dictatorship. All the anti-Turkish sentiment in Brussels may not be justified but it is reality. If, after the parliament vote, the Turkish friends of Europe and the European friends of Turkey toasted for Europe's 28th star, their antagonists in Brussels and Ankara should have secretly celebrated the move, expecting long-term gains. In the first place, Turkey's pro-EU lobbyists had raised unrealistic expectations by telling the Turks that they can get a date for membership talks if the parliament passed the reforms. "Either shine light on the future of our children or receive their curses," the mass circulation Hurriyet newspaper urged Turkish lawmakers to back the reforms with a stark warning before the historic vote. All the same the vote may not suffice to "shine light on the future of our children." The proposed deal for a date in exchange for reforms was never on the cards and it will probably not happen. When (if) at the Copenhagen summit the Turks fail to win a date "after all they had done" they may fell terribly disappointed and betrayed. And that will only strengthen Turkey's anti-EU groups. turkishdailynews.com