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EU On Precipice Over Starting Turkey Talks

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  • EU On Precipice Over Starting Turkey Talks

    EU ON PRECIPICE OVER STARTING TURKEY TALKS
    By Marie-Louise Moller and Mark John

    Herald News Daily, ND
    Oct 3 2005

    LUXEMBOURG - Britain said the European Union was on the "edge of a
    precipice" on Monday over terms for historic membership talks with
    Turkey, and the Muslim country accused critics of hindering a alliance
    of civilizations.

    EU president Britain said it was no longer certain the talks would
    start at all on Monday. Austria was sticking to demands that the vast,
    poor, Muslim country be offered an alternative to full membership
    and Turkey raised a new potential obstacle.

    Diplomats said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had told the 24
    other EU foreign ministers upon resuming talks after only a couple
    of hours' sleep: "Yes, we are near (to a deal) but we are also on
    the edge of a precipice.

    "If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands. If we go the
    wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union."

    After meeting Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and speaking
    by telephone with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Straw told
    reporters he was by no means sure the talks would start as planned
    on Monday.

    "We are at a difficult stage in these negotiations and I cannot say
    what the outcome will be," he said.

    Turkey's share index fell 2.3 percent from Friday's close after his
    comments. The lira and bonds also weakened.

    In Ankara, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of the ruling
    AK party that Turkey was not prepared to compromise further on the
    conditions for opening the long-awaited talks.

    "Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU are against
    the alliance of civilizations. What I declare is this: the costs
    resulting from all this will be paid by them." Turkey has frequently
    portrayed its entry to the EU as a way of bridging a gap between
    the Christian and Islamic worlds and easing tensions that may have
    fostered Islamic militancy.

    Diplomats said Turkey had raised new objections to a clause in the
    talks mandate that stipulates Ankara may not block accession of EU
    states to international organizations and treaties.

    Turkish nationalists and the powerful military argued that might
    prevent Turkey blocking a divided Cyprus from joining NATO , but
    Straw and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana insisted the clause
    could not impinge on sovereign defense arrangements.

    EU officials said the planned 5 p.m. (1100 EDT) opening ceremony was
    bound to be delayed, if it happened at all.

    Diplomats said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told ministers:
    "Time is running out. We have got to get this right. We seem so
    close. We cannot let this opportunity slip away."

    Failure to start the talks could deal a blow to political reform
    and foreign investment in Turkey, a NATO member which straddles
    Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

    It would also deepen a sense of crisis in Europe, after referendum
    defeats for the draft EU constitution in France and the Netherlands,
    and an acrimonious failure in June to agree on a long-term budget
    for the enlarged bloc.

    "If there is no deal, my personal judgment is that we are increasingly
    starting to look like a Union of failing states because we cannot make
    any decisions," Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks told Reuters.

    Ratcheting up pressure on Austria, Straw postponed a planned review
    of Austrian ally Croatia's progress toward EU entry talks until the
    Turkey issue was sorted out.

    A Turkish official said nerves in Ankara were "extremely stretched
    .. Every minute that passes is making things more bitter and it.

    won't be nice starting negotiations with all these bruises."

    With Austrian voters overwhelmingly hostile to Turkish entry,
    Plassnik waged a lone battle on Sunday to demand that the EU spell
    out an explicit alternative to full membership.

    But diplomats said Vienna dropped its objection on Monday to a key
    phrase that the shared aim of the talks was accession, and they hoped
    Austrian concerns could be overcome by adding wording underlining
    the need for the EU to be able to absorb Turkey.

    WALK AWAY?

    Fischer warned his colleagues that Turkey might walk away if the EU
    watered down the terms on offer any further.

    "If you want to open negotiations, you have to remember we have to
    have someone to open them with," a diplomat quoted him as telling
    the meeting.

    The European Parliament compounded Turkish irritation last week by
    saying Turkey must recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians under
    Ottoman rule as an act of genocide before it can join the wealthy
    European family.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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