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09/29/2005
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1) EU Calls Emergency Talks as Austria Blocks Accord on Turkey
2) Washington-Based Group Accuses Turkey of Abusing Mental Patients, Asks
EU to
Intervene Pre Negotiations
3) Armenian-US Sides Review Defense Cooperation
4) Georgia’s PM Arrives in Armenia
1) EU Calls Emergency Talks as Austria Blocks Accord on Turkey
BRUSSELS (AFP)–The EU has called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers to
try to end an impasse over Turkey’s entry talks, as Austria insisted Ankara be
offered less than full EU membership.
A 24-1 vote on Thursday meant ambassadors failed to agree on a mandate to
start entry negotiations with Ankara. All 25 member states had to back the
proposal before entry negotiations could begin.
The British EU presidency called the talks for Sunday–the day before the
Turkey-EU talks are due to start.
“I can confirm that foreign ministers will meet on Sunday,” said a British
spokesman on Thursday. “Unfortunately it was not possible to agree [on] the
negotiating framework today at [an] ambassadorial level, [but] efforts will
continue.”
EU leaders agreed last December to open talks with Turkey on October 3. But
the relationship became strained in July when Ankara reaffirmed that it would
not recognize member state Cyprus.
A dispute over how to respond to that was finally resolved last week, but the
negotiating framework row will now be tackled at the emergency meeting of EU
foreign ministers, probably over dinner in Luxembourg.
One EU official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, explained that
“the Austrians maintain their reservations about the negotiating framework.”
“Their demands involve an alternative or interim solution to membership
should
the EU be unable to integrate Turkey or should Turkey not fulfill all the
criteria,” he said.
Turkey’s parliament speaker Bulent Arinc charged that Turkey was being
provoked to walk away from the talks.
“It seems as if our patience is being tested. Looking at what is being
done to
Turkey one shows that there are some who hope to get rid of us by forcing
us to
walk away from the [negotiating] table,” he said in an interview on Turkey’s
NTV television.
Any hold up beyond Monday would be sure to further anger Turkey, which has
had
ties with the Union for more than 40 years but has seen its efforts to join
consistently hampered.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned that he will turn his back on the
talks if the negotiating framework contains “any formula or suggestion other
than full membership.”
Despite official denials, some diplomats allow that Austria’s stance on
Turkey
could be linked with Croatia’s hopes of starting EU talks, which depend on
Zagreb’s cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel suggested as much in an interview in
Thursday’s Financial Times newspaper.
“If we trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia too,” he
said. “It is in Europe’s interest to start negotiations with Croatia
immediately.”
Austria has been a strong supporter of Croatia’s efforts to join the bloc and
four out of five Austrians oppose Turkey joining.
The EU official said a special EU task force would meet early on Monday with
Carla Del Ponte, the head of the UN war crimes tribunal to discuss Croatia’s
candidature.
That meeting would “probably be followed by a global decision on Turkey and
Croatia during the morning,” he affirmed.
A spokeswoman for the EU’s executive commission said the two candidacies were
not linked from its point of view, but noted that: “The EU is ready to start
accession negotiations with Croatia immediately once it has been established
that full cooperation (with the tribunal) is there.”
The frustration in Brussels was palpable.
“Twenty-four member states could accept the agreement,” said another EU
diplomat. “It is not a question of re-drafting but a political issue … it’s
not about a tweak here, a tweak there.”
2) Washington-Based Group Accuses Turkey of Abusing Mental Patients, Asks
EU to
Intervene Pre Negotiations
ANKARA (Combined Sources)– A Washington-based human rights group has accused
Turkey of subjecting mental health patients to serious abuses, including
electric shock treatment without anesthesia, and is urging the European Union
to demand an end to the practices.
The report, by Mental Disability Rights International, came after several
visits in the past year by the group’s investigators to Turkish psychiatric
hospitals and was published days before Turkey is scheduled to begin
negotiations to join the EU.
“As the European Union meets to consider Turkey’s human rights record… we ask
them to demand action by the government of Turkey to end these human rights
violations,” the report concluded.
According to the report, people with mental or psychiatric disorders are
“subjected to treatment practices that are tantamount to torture.”
The group said electric shock therapy was “massively overused in Turkish
psychiatric facilities in cases for which there is no clinically proven
justification,” and that they were used as a form of punishment.
Electric Shock Therapy is normally administered with anesthesia and muscle
relaxants. Without them it can be painful, terrifying, and dangerous. Patients
can break jaws or crack vertebrae during the induced seizures.
The investigators also found that the treatment was used as punishment. The
report describes patients being dragged to electroshock therapy in
straitjackets and forcibly held down during the procedure.
“If we use anesthesia the ECT [electroconvulsive therapy] won’t be as
effective, because they won’t feel punished,” the report quotes Musa Tosun,
the
director of the electroconvulsive therapy center, as saying.
Referring to that statement, Eric Rosenthal, the founder of the rights group,
said in a telephone interview from Istanbul, “That was one of most horrifying
statements I’ve ever heard in 12 years of doing this work.”
Much of the documented abuse took place in orphanages and rehabilitation
centers for children with developmental or intellectual disabilities.
Investigators saw emaciated and neglected children, many of whom had
behavioral
problems that were likely to have been the result of mistreatment rather than
pre-existing illness, Rosenthal said.
“We saw children who were essentially abandoned, starving, tied down to their
beds,” he said, adding that investigators had not been allowed to see the
worst
wards.
Although the center keeps no mortality records, a footnote in the report
notes
that the large number of admissions without a corresponding number of
discharges suggests that many children die at the center.
“We believe there’s a very high death rate in these facilities,” Rosenthal
said.
Turkish Health Ministry officials were not immediately available for
comment.
3) Armenian-US Sides Review Defense Cooperation
The fourth annual US-Armenia Bilateral Defense Consultations were held in
Yerevan, Armenia, in order to review cooperation during the past year, and
formulate a plan for cooperation in 2006.
The September 28-29 meetings covered a broad range of issues, including
national security, defense reform, peacekeeping operations, military training,
military education, and the military’s role in disaster response.
The US delegation, led by Mr. Scott Schless, Principal Director for
Eurasia in
the Office of the Secretary of Defense, met with Armenian Ministry of Defense
officials. The Armenian delegation was led by General-Major Artur Aghabekyan,
Deputy Minister of Defense. Both the Defense Minister of the Republic of
Armenia, Serge Sargsian, and the US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans also
attended. The Ambassador noted the “broadening and deepening” defense
relationship between the two countries.
The site of the annual meeting alternates between the US and Armenia.
4) Georgia’s PM Arrives in Armenia
YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli arrived in
Armenia for the 4th session of the Armenian-Georgian inter-governmental
commission.
Nogaideli met with his Armenian counterpart Andranik Margarian to tackle a
variety of issues between the neighboring countries, including the present
state of Javakhk, a majority Armenian region in Georgia.
Margarian commended the Georgian government’s plans to improve socio-economic
conditions in the impoverished region, and again confirmed the Armenian
government’s readiness to cooperate in development programs.
The prime ministers also discussed the opening of the ferry line between
Kavkaz and Poti, Armenia’s support of the re-opening of the Abkhazian section
of the Georgian railway, construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi railway,
the establishment of a Georgian-Armenian university in Georgia, and the
possibilites sfor direct flights between Yerevan-Batumi-Kabuleti.
Georgia’s delegation is composed of the country’s energy minister, as well as
deputy ministers of foreign affairs, finance, economic development, and health
and social security.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress