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Austrians See Accession Bid As New Siege By Ottomans

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  • Austrians See Accession Bid As New Siege By Ottomans

    AUSTRIANS SEE ACCESSION BID AS NEW SIEGE BY OTTOMANS
    Stephen Castle

    The Independent, UK
    Oct 3 2005

    Across Europe, opinion may be divided on whether Turkey should be
    allowed to enter the EU. But in Austria there is little sign of a
    debate because history ensures that the issue touches the rawest
    of nerves.

    In 1683 the Ottoman army of Kara Mustafa Pasha was routed at the gates
    of Vienna in a defeat that marked the last Turkish effort to take the
    city. All around the Austrian capital are reminders of the battle and,
    so strong is the event in the national consciousness, that newspapers
    have characterised Ankara's EU bid as a new siege of Vienna.

    To complicate matters further Austria is a strong supporter of
    (Christian) Croatia, which also wants to join the EU. This step has
    been held up because of a row over Zagreb's lack of co-operation in
    hunting down a suspected war criminal, Ante Gotovina.

    Austrians feel it would be wrong to start talking to Turkey while
    holding back on Croatia. Vienna's critics sometime suggest darkly
    that Austria's own past may prompt it to worry less about punishing
    war crimes than other nations.

    His tough stance has proved politically popular for the Austrian
    Chancellor, Wolfgang Schnssel, whose party was crushed in regional
    elections yesterday.

    Elsewhere in Europe, the echoes of history have played a part in the
    debate. France, home to Europe's largest Armenian population, has
    sometimes had difficult relations with Turkey. In 2001 its parliament
    formally recognised the Armenian genocide (during the collapse of
    the Ottoman empire) provoking fury from Ankara.

    Ironically Ankara's biggest rival, Greece, never sought to hold up
    talks, believing that a Turkey inside the EU would be more modern,
    restrained and susceptible to outside influence.
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