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06/20/2006
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1) EU Says Turkey Faces `Major Accident’ over Membership
2) Petrossian Says MKR Must Participate in Search for Missing And Hostages
3) Head of Armenian Church to Visit Istanbul
4) Commission Approves National Security Strategy Project
5) 56 Mayors Risk Jail in Turkey over Letter to Danish PM
1) EU Says Turkey Faces `Major Accident’ over Membership
(Bloomberg)– The European Union’s top expansion negotiator said Tuesday
Turkey
is heading for a "major accident" in its membership bid unless it opens its
ports to ships from Cyprus.
"If we want to avoid a major problem in the autumn, Turkey needs to stick to
its word without hesitation," Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told the
European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee in Brussels. "Turkey should
open its ports to vessels under the flag of all member states, including the
Republic of Cyprus."
The talks hit a snag last week only four days after getting under way when
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan balked at an EU demand that Turkey end its
trade curbs on Cyprus, an EU member since 2004.
Turkey’s bid to become the EU’s first Muslim country is running into
grassroots opposition as well, amid a backlash against lower-paid immigrants
after the EU’s expansion to ex-communist Eastern Europe in 2004.
"I am concerned that the reform process has lost its momentum," Rehn told the
parliamentary panel today. "While there has been legislative progress on the
ground, the implementation of the reforms remains uneven."
Turkey has occupied the northern tier of Cyprus since a 1974 invasion in
response to a Greek-backed coup, and the Mediterranean island’s disputed
status
has been the biggest barrier to the EU bid.
Turkey pledged to end trade restrictions on the southern, Greek Cypriot
Government as part of the EU entry process. Erdogan said last week that Turkey
wouldn’t honor that promise until the EU drops its own curbs on northern
Cyprus.
"When those who broke their word start to keep it, they’ll get an immediate
response from us," Erdogan told lawmakers from his party in Ankara. "But if
promises aren’t kept then nobody should expect our ports or airports."
Turkish officials point out that Cyprus remains divided because the Greek
Cypriots voted against a United Nations-backed reunification plan that was
supported by Turkish Cypriots and by Erdogan’s Government.
Turkey has per-capita economic production equal to 31 percent of the EU
level,
triggering fears that Turkish migrants could price western workers out of
jobs.
EU unemployment is 8.3 percent, compared to 4.7 percent in the US.
Some 63 percent of Europeans fear that further expansion would push up
unemployment and drive down wages, according to an EU-sponsored poll of 25,000
people conducted between February and March.
Referring to the public discontent, European Commission President Jose
Barroso
told the full Parliament earlier today that "we must make sure that the union
does not simply enlarge by default."
EU pressure is also mounting on Turkey to end the discrimination of the
Kurdish minority, give non-Muslims complete religious freedom, improve media
freedoms, crack down on police brutality, and enhance the status of women.
A resolution debated by the Parliament committee Tuesday "regrets the slowing
down of the reform process" and "deplores the fact that only limited progress
has been reported over the least year as regards fundamental rights and
freedoms."
Turkish legislators Monday delayed until late July debate on a law that would
give non-governmental organizations more rights and freedoms, part of the EU’s
catalogue of demands. The government had sought passage of the law by the end
of June.
A progress report to be issued by Rehn’s department in October or November
looms as a key test of Turkey’s commitment to reshaping its society along
western lines and of the EU’s commitment to let Turkey in.
2) Petrossian Says MKR Must Participate in Search for Missing And Hostages
YEREVAN (Yerkir)–Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR) Foreign Minister Georgi
Petrossian met with the delegation of the International Working Group (IWG)
for
Search for the Missing, Hostages, and Release of Prisoners of War in the zone
of the Karabagh conflict to discuss the current state and future of the
ongoing
search for the missing and their graves.
During the meeting, Petrossian noted that the MKR has continuously assisted
IWG activities and is always open to cooperation, while Baku constantly
refuses
to contact the respective MKR state commission.
Petrossian said that politicization of the field is unacceptable and that MKR
representatives should directly and actively participate in search for the
missing, hostages, and the release of prisoners of war.
IWG memberswhich include co-chairs Bernhard Klazen (Germany) and Paat
Zakareishvili (Georgia)–said they agreed with Petrossian about the
openness of
the Karabagh party and its assistance to the Group work.
Klazen said he regrets that former prisoners of war are still judged and
persecuted in Azerbaijan. He said that the IWG will do its best to convince
Baku to end that practice.
The meeting participants also noted that they support active cooperation of
all interested parties in solving problems in that field.
3) Head of Armenian Church to Visit Istanbul
(AP/Armenpress)–The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, His Holiness
Karekin II, is to begin a weeklong visit to the Armenian community of Istanbul
on Tuesday, where he will also meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
During his first Pontifical Visit to Turkey, the Catholicos of All Armenians
will visit Armenian churches and holy shrines, extend his pontifical blessings
to the Armenian community of Istanbul, and meet with Armenian intellectuals
and
young men and women.
On Sunday, June 25, His Holiness will celebrate a Pontifical Divine
Liturgy in
the Armenian Patriarchate’s Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God. His Holiness
will have a number of ecumenical meetings in the Armenian Patriarchate as
well.
Also planned is a meeting between the Pontiff and the Governor of Istanbul.
Turkish nationalist protests during his visit are likely.
4) Commission Approves National Security Strategy Project
YEREVAN (Armenpress)The commission in charge of developing Armenia’s national
security doctrine held a meeting chaired by Defense Minister Serge Sargsian
Tuesday to discuss the final version of the project.
The final edited version of the document, which takes into account all
suggestions made during its development, was approved at the session.
Seyran Shahsuvarian, spokesperson for the Armenian Defense Ministry, said
that
the participants of the session were also presented the draft glossary of the
main terms of the National Security Strategy.
5) 56 Mayors Risk Jail in Turkey over Letter to Danish PM
DIYARBAKIR (AFP)–Fifty-six Kurdish Mayors risk up to 10 years in jail for
signing a letter urging Denmark’s Prime Minister to ignore Turkey’s calls to
ban a Kurdish television station with alleged links to terrorism, judicial
sources said Tuesday.
In an indictment filed with a court in Diyarbakir, the central city of the
mainly Kurdish southeast, the prosecution charged that the December 27 letter
to Anders Fogh Rasmussen amounted to "knowingly and willingly supporting" the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey says that Denmark-based Roj TV is a mouthpiece of the PKK–considered
to be a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union, and the United
States–and has long urged Copenhagen to take it off the air.
The charge sheet says that Roj TV often hosts PKK leaders, carries PKK
statements inciting violence, and follows a broadcasting policy "in line with
PKK propaganda."
It was not immediately clear when the trial will start.
Among the 56 accused is Osman Baydemir, one of Turkey’s most popular Kurdish
politicians and mayor of Diyabakir.
The overwhelming majority of the mayors belong to the Democratic Society
Party
(DTP), the main Kurdish political movement in the country.
Kurdish politicians are routinely suspected by Ankara of supporting the PKK
and are often prosecuted for alleged links to the group, which has been
fighting for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast since 1984.
Two of the mayors, who belong to a small center-left party, have disowned
their signatures in the letter, but the prosecution said they should still
stand trial.
The letter states that silencing Roj TV "would mean the loss of an important
vehicle in the struggle for democracy and human rights" in Turkey.
The station has become a thorn in the side of Turkish-Danish relations.
During a visit to Copenhagen last November, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan boycotted a joint news conference with Rasmussen after the
latter rejected his request that a Roj TV reporter be barred from entry.
Danish authorities said last year that Roj TV’s programming contained no
incitement to hatred of Turkey, and that there was no proof it was linked to
the PKK.
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