TURKS CAN LIVE WITHOUT EU – POLL

Independent Online, South Africa
Oct 24 2006

Less than a third of Turks think Turkey must enter the European
Union, a poll showed on Tuesday, the latest sign of waning support
for membership as Ankara faces increasing pressure from Brussels.

The survey, carried out by pollsters A&G and published in newspaper
Milliyet, showed 32,2 percent thought Turkey "must certainly enter the
EU", a sharp decline on 2005’s 57,4 percent and 67,5 percent in 2004.

Of 2 408 people polled, 25,6 percent said Turkey "should certainly
not enter the EU", more than twice the 10,3 percent who felt that
way in 2005, when Turkey began entry talks.

The poll, which shows a more dramatic decline in EU support than other
recent surveys, comes as Brussels urges Turkey to step up reforms
and make concessions over the disputed Mediterranean island Cyprus
if it is to avoid a possible freeze in talks later in 2006.

The poll was carried out in late September, and since then anti-EU
feeling has been fuelled further by a law passed in the French
parliament making it a crime to deny – as Ankara does – that Ottoman
Turks carried out a genocide against Armenians.

The poll also showed that 76,5 percent of Turks expect tougher
conditions to be imposed on them in the future and only 7,2 percent
trust the EU. Many Turks, including the government, complain that
Brussels is changing the rules as it goes along over the Cyprus issue.

The EU is due to present a report on Turkey’s progress on November 8.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress