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=?UNKNOWN?Q?Greece's?= ostpolitik

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  • =?UNKNOWN?Q?Greece's?= ostpolitik

    Kathimerini, Greece
    June 23 2005

    Greece's ostpolitik
    By Petros Papaconstantinou

    Turkey's EU membership aspirations appear to be a main casualty of
    the crisis triggered by the French and Dutch rejection by referendum
    of the European Constitution. Former Commission president Romano
    Prodi, who could become Italy's prime minister after a general
    election next year, has said that `the conditions now are no longer
    there for Turkey's entry in the short or medium term.'

    In Germany, Angela Merkel, leader of the main opposition
    conservatives, is favored to win an early general election. She has
    made opposition to full Turkish membership the main platform of her
    Christian Democratic Union party. Even French President Jacques
    Chirac, once a warm advocate of Ankara's bid, is now stressing the
    need to define Europe's geographical limits. Finally, it was US
    Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick who urged Ankara `to look
    beyond the EU to a global context.'

    Athens must adapt to these shifting parameters. By lifting its
    objection to Turkish EU prospects, Greece materialized an
    `ostpolitik' toward Turkey - much like the West did with the former
    communist countries of Eastern Europe - while not becoming the
    scapegoat for other European nations who did not want Turkey in the
    EU.

    Greece should be wary of being too keen on backing Turkey's bid. In
    fact, too much zeal could cost Athens key continental allies and
    leave it only with the gratification of British Prime Minister Tony
    Blair, from whom the government can expect little, be it on the
    Cyprus issue or the community budget.

    Political pragmatism may advise us against imitating the French and
    German parliaments, which raised the Armenian genocide issue. Yet
    Merkel also said it would be disastrous if Ankara did not recognize
    Cyprus before the start of membership talks, and it's hard to see why
    these comments did not resonate in Athens.
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