Agence France Presse — English
September 29, 2005 Thursday

EU applying ‘double standards’ to Turkey: parliament speaker

ANKARA

The speaker of the Turkish parliament charged Thursday that “double
standards” were being applied his country’s long-standing membership
bid in an attempt to provoke Ankara to walk away from the talks.

“It seems as if our patience is being tested. Looking at what is
being done to Turkey one sees that there are some quarters that hope
to get rid of us by forcing us to walk away from the (negotiating)
table,” Bulent Arinc said in an interview with NTV television.

“When one compares the treatment of Romania, Bulgaria or Malta to the
different treatment accorded to Turkey one sees … insincerity,
double standards and discrimination,” he added.

Arinc was commenting on a resolution adopted by the European
Parliament Wednesday which urged Ankara to acknowledge that the
Ottomans committed “genocide” against Armenians during World War I
and to recognize Cyprus during its accession negotiations with the
EU.

The resolution came only five days before Turkey is scheduled to
begin membership talks with the pan-European bloc on Monday, but the
start of the negotiations remains uncertain.

EU foreign ministers are to meet Sunday to break a deadlock on
opening the talks after Austria blocked agreement on a negotiation
position by insisting that Turkey be offered something short of full
membership.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned previously that he will turn
his back on the talks if the negotiating framework contains “any
formula or suggestion other than full membership.”

Arinc said: “It is hard to swallow all these… But we should be
patient and I believe that we will overcome many obstacles once the
process starts.”

The speaker stressed that he understood widespread doubts in the EU
over the prospect of admitting a vast, populous country with a
predominantly Muslim faith, but urged European leaders “to keep the
debate away from prejudices and be objective.”

The European Parliament resolution unleashed anger in Turkey where
discussion of the tragic killings in 1915-1917 largely remains taboo
and triggers nationalist sentiments.

“We would like to recall that discussing the issue (the Armenian
massacres) in political platforms would benefit nobody,” the Turkish
foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.

“Turkey has always argued that controversial chapters in history
should be handled by historians and has opened its archives to the
service of all researchers,” it added.

Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen were
slaughtered in orchestrated killings under the Ottoman Empire, the
forerunner of modern-day Turkey, but Ankara categorically denies that
a genocide took place.