EU DEAL ENABLES START OF TURKEY’S ACCESSION TALKS
Irish Times
Oct 4 2005
The EU narrowly averted a crisis last night when foreign ministers
finally agreed a historic deal to enable the start of accession
negotiations with Turkey, writes Jamie Smyth in Luxembourg.
The negotiations, which will take at least 10 years to conclude,
formally began early this morning when the Turkish foreign minister
Abdullah Gul arrived in Luxembourg.
The agreement followed 30 hours of intense discussions at a council
of ministers meeting in Luxembourg to overcome Austrian objections
to the start of the talks.
Austria, which was the only member state to formally object to
starting accession negotiations, had sought to change the text of
the negotiating framework to include a reference offering Turkey
alternatives to full EU membership.
However, after marathon discussions between British foreign secretary
Jack Straw and his Austrian counterpart, Ursula Plassnik, Vienna
dropped its insistence on a rewording of that aspect of the framework
text for the accession negotiations.
Announcing the deal, Mr Straw said it was important to begin
negotiations as planned with Turkey, a European, secular and Muslim
country.
“We are all winners: Europe, the existing member states and the
international community,” said Mr Straw, who chaired the talks as
Britain holds the EU presidency.
The agreement enabled Mr Gul to board a plane for Luxembourg to attend
an official ceremony to mark the start of the accession talks.
He had earlier refused to travel until Turkey had agreed the framework
text for the start of negotiations.
Despite expressing concern over a paragraph in the framework
stipulating that Turkey would not block EU members from joining
international organisations, Ankara signed off on the framework for
the talks.
Turkish ministers were fearful this could force them into having to
agree to allow Cyprus, which it does not recognise, into Nato. But US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Turkish prime minister
Tayyip Erdogan to assure him that the proposed EU negotiating framework
would not impinge on Nato.
Austria was the only EU member to formally object to starting accession
talks with Turkey, which with 70 million people may have the biggest
population of any EU state if it eventually joins.
A recent opinion poll found that 80 per cent of Austrians do not want
Turkey to join, with just 10 per cent in favour.
Several other EU member states such as France, the Netherlands and
Denmark, are also concerned about allowing Turkey to join the EU.
Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers also signalled yesterday that they
were ready to begin accession talks with Croatia, which is likely to
join the EU well before Turkey.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said Ireland had been a
strong supporter of Croatia’s bid to join the EU.
He welcomed the deal to start talks with Turkey and said it would
have been bad faith not to stick to the date for the start of talks,
which was initially agreed last December.
“Turkey is a bridge between the Middle East and Europe,” said Mr Ahern.
“This will send a strong signal to Islam and moderate countries and
people [ that] the EU is not just a Christian club.”
Asked if there had been enough debate in Ireland about the question
of Turkey’s accession to the EU, Mr Ahern said there would be at
least 10 years to educate people.
The deal with Turkey was not welcomed by several hundred Armenian
protesters gathered outside the council meeting to protest at the
start of accession talks.
“Turkey is not yet a democratic country and has not recognised the
Armenian genocide in 1915,” said Michael Cazarian, chairman of the
Armenian Socialist Party, which helped to organise the protest.
Turkey still refuses to accept responsibility for the murder of more
the one million Armenians in 1915.