EU ON PRECIPICE OVER STARTING TURKEY TALKS
By Marie-Louise Moller and Mark John

Herald News Daily, ND
Oct 3 2005

LUXEMBOURG – Britain said the European Union was on the “edge of a
precipice” on Monday over terms for historic membership talks with
Turkey, and the Muslim country accused critics of hindering a alliance
of civilizations.

EU president Britain said it was no longer certain the talks would
start at all on Monday. Austria was sticking to demands that the vast,
poor, Muslim country be offered an alternative to full membership
and Turkey raised a new potential obstacle.

Diplomats said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had told the 24
other EU foreign ministers upon resuming talks after only a couple
of hours’ sleep: “Yes, we are near (to a deal) but we are also on
the edge of a precipice.

“If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands. If we go the
wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union.”

After meeting Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and speaking
by telephone with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Straw told
reporters he was by no means sure the talks would start as planned
on Monday.

“We are at a difficult stage in these negotiations and I cannot say
what the outcome will be,” he said.

Turkey’s share index fell 2.3 percent from Friday’s close after his
comments. The lira and bonds also weakened.

In Ankara, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of the ruling
AK party that Turkey was not prepared to compromise further on the
conditions for opening the long-awaited talks.

“Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU are against
the alliance of civilizations. What I declare is this: the costs
resulting from all this will be paid by them.” Turkey has frequently
portrayed its entry to the EU as a way of bridging a gap between
the Christian and Islamic worlds and easing tensions that may have
fostered Islamic militancy.

Diplomats said Turkey had raised new objections to a clause in the
talks mandate that stipulates Ankara may not block accession of EU
states to international organizations and treaties.

Turkish nationalists and the powerful military argued that might
prevent Turkey blocking a divided Cyprus from joining NATO , but
Straw and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana insisted the clause
could not impinge on sovereign defense arrangements.

EU officials said the planned 5 p.m. (1100 EDT) opening ceremony was
bound to be delayed, if it happened at all.

Diplomats said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told ministers:
“Time is running out. We have got to get this right. We seem so
close. We cannot let this opportunity slip away.”

Failure to start the talks could deal a blow to political reform
and foreign investment in Turkey, a NATO member which straddles
Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

It would also deepen a sense of crisis in Europe, after referendum
defeats for the draft EU constitution in France and the Netherlands,
and an acrimonious failure in June to agree on a long-term budget
for the enlarged bloc.

“If there is no deal, my personal judgment is that we are increasingly
starting to look like a Union of failing states because we cannot make
any decisions,” Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks told Reuters.

Ratcheting up pressure on Austria, Straw postponed a planned review
of Austrian ally Croatia’s progress toward EU entry talks until the
Turkey issue was sorted out.

A Turkish official said nerves in Ankara were “extremely stretched
.. Every minute that passes is making things more bitter and it.

won’t be nice starting negotiations with all these bruises.”

With Austrian voters overwhelmingly hostile to Turkish entry,
Plassnik waged a lone battle on Sunday to demand that the EU spell
out an explicit alternative to full membership.

But diplomats said Vienna dropped its objection on Monday to a key
phrase that the shared aim of the talks was accession, and they hoped
Austrian concerns could be overcome by adding wording underlining
the need for the EU to be able to absorb Turkey.

WALK AWAY?

Fischer warned his colleagues that Turkey might walk away if the EU
watered down the terms on offer any further.

“If you want to open negotiations, you have to remember we have to
have someone to open them with,” a diplomat quoted him as telling
the meeting.

The European Parliament compounded Turkish irritation last week by
saying Turkey must recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians under
Ottoman rule as an act of genocide before it can join the wealthy
European family.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress