DAILY MAIL (London)
September 30, 2005
EU REBELLION COULD SLAM DOOR ON TURKS
by BENEDICT BROGAN. POLITICAL EDITOR
TONY Blair’s European presidency was under strain last night after
Britain was forced to call an eleventh-hour crisis summit on Turkey’s
entry to the EU.
Austria yesterday threatened to scupper the whole process by holding
out for Turkey to be offered an alternative to full membership,
something rejected by Ankara as ‘second class’.
It forced Britain to call a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Luxembourg on Sunday to try and break the deadlock.
Landmark accession talks with Turkey are due to begin the following
day.
Mr Blair has championed Turkey’s entry as an example of the West’s
positive engagement with the Muslim world at a time of heightened
tension, and the failure of talks to get off the ground would be a
devastating blow to his presidency.
Mounting grassroots opposition to Turkish membership in several
countries has jeopardised the whole accession process, which would
see the EU expand beyond Europe’s historical frontiers.
Polls show 80 per cent of the Austrian electorate opposes the move.
In France the public is overwhelmingly opposed, causing President
Jacques Chirac to pledge a referendum on the issue. Likely German
chancellor Angela Merkel is firmly against Turkey joining.
Public opposition was fuelled this week by accusations that mental
health patients in Turkey have been subjected to serious abuses,
including the use of electric shock treatment without anaesthesia.
Several countries have also been pushing Turkey to recognise EU
member Cyprus, and the European Parliament this week called on it to
recognise the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning
of the 20th century as genocide.
Yesterday, ambassadors were unable to agree even a negotiating
framework for the accession talks – which themselves are expected to
take ten years.
Turkey’s foreign minister Abdullah Gul said that his country will not
send its delegation to Luxembourg for talks on Monday unless his
officials have seen the details of the EU’s negotiating positions.
‘Of course there is a possibility that negotiations will not start,’
he said.