NICOLAI: E.U. GIVES AN IMMENSELY POWERFUL SIGNAL TO MUSLIMS IN EUROPE AND MUSLIM WORLD BY STARTING ACCESSION TALKS WITH TURKEY

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Oct 6 2005

WASHINGTON D.C. – “European Union (EU) gave an immensely powerful
signal particularly to Muslims in Europe and the Muslim world in
general, by launching accession talks with Turkey,” Dutch Minister
for European Affairs Atzo Nicolai said on Thursday.

Making a keynote speech at Johns Hopkins University in the USA, Nicolai
said, “a strong signal has been given that different cultures and
religions can exist together.” He added that this was the “political
fact” behind the start of negotiations with Turkey.

Asked why the EU made things difficult for Turkey, Nicolai said,
“the EU, it should be remembered, is not NATO. The EU is a
far-reaching contract between societies, not only an agreement
between governments. If it wants to be a member, Turkey has to
change. But that process will also change the EU, its member states
and their citizens. By the time when the accession will be near,
Turkey’s population of 85-90 million will be greater than that of
any other country in Europe. At the same time, Turkey will still be
an agricultural country with many underdeveloped regions.”

Nicolai said Turkey’s membership to the EU would be an advantage from
the point of views of fight against terrorism and avoiding a clash
of civilizations.

“We should well explain the EU people why we want Turkey within the
EU, as the support of people is very important. It is not only the
economic concerns that should be overcome. We have to live and work
together with a different religion and culture,” he emphasized.

“We want to be fair to our citizens, but we also want to be fair to
Turkey,” Nicolai said.

-CYPRUS AND ARMENIAN PROBLEMS-

Nicolai indicated that Cyprus was one of the most difficult issues the
EU has to deal with. “Nothing is black and white in this problem”,
he noted. Nicolai also defended that Turkey has to normalize its
relations with the Greek Cypriot Administration to become a EU member.

When a participant mentioned the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations, Nicolai said this was a very sensitive issue for both
parties. Nicolai recalled that acknowledgement of what had happened
in the past was not a precondition in EU membership process.