EU PARLIAMENT DEALS SETBACK TO TURKEY
By Jeremy Smith
Reuters
09/28/05 14:27 ET
STRASBOURG, France, Sept 28 (Reuters) – European Union lawmakers
chided Turkey on Wednesday, five days before it is due to open EU
membership talks, demanding that Ankara recognise the 1915 killing
of Armenians as genocide before it joins the bloc.
The European Parliament gave grudging blessing to the start of
negotiations next Monday after a heated debate that vented strong
criticism of Turkey’s human rights record.
But it postponed a vote to ratify Turkey’s extended customs union
with the EU in a bid to put pressure on Ankara to open its ports and
airports to traffic from EU member Cyprus.
The non-binding resolution was a political slap in the face for Turkey,
which insists there was no genocide.
The Turkish lira and stock market lost ground on the news, although
traders said they did not believe the Oct. 3 opening of talks was
at risk.
Former Turkish foreign minister Yasar Yakis from the ruling AK party
told NTV television: “These decisions of the European parliament make
things more difficult for Turkey.”
EU governments remain deadlocked on a negotiating mandate for the
talks, with Austria holding out for a more explicit mention of an
alternative to membership.
Ankara reaffirmed on Wednesday it would accept nothing less than
full membership.
Diplomats said the 25 EU foreign ministers would probably hold
an emergency meeting on Sunday night in Luxembourg, hours before
negotiations are meant to start, to seek an agreement.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the revolving
EU presidency, told his Labour Party conference in Brighton, England,
the decision was a test for the EU.
“It would now be a huge betrayal of the hopes and expectations of the
Turkish people and of Prime Minister (Tayyip) Erdogan’s programme of
reform if, at the crucial time, we turned our back on Turkey,” he said.
“For Turkey would lose from a ‘no’ decision. But Europe and its people
would lose even more.”
RECOGNISE CYPRUS
The EU legislature demanded that Turkey recognise Cyprus soon and
said negotiations could be suspended unless it granted access to
Cypriot aircraft and shipping by next year.
The vote followed an emotional debate in which many deputies attacked
Turkey’s record on human rights, religious freedom and minorities,
reflecting widespread public hostility to the poor, populous, mostly
Muslim nation ever joining the EU.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn regretted the decision to delay
ratification of the extended customs union, saying it would weaken
Brussels’ hand with the Turks, but stressed it would have no impact
on the start of negotiations.
Rehn warned Turkey it would have to amend its new penal code, adopted
to meet EU criteria, if hardline judges were still able to prosecute
the country’s leading novelist for expressing his views on the killings
of Armenians under Ottoman rule.
“The case of author Orhan Pamuk is emblematic of the difficulties
to ensure effective and uniform implementation of these reforms, and
also of the struggle between reformers and conservatives in Turkey,”
Rehn told the European Parliament.
An Istanbul judge is prosecuting the writer for “denigrating Turkish
identity” by endorsing the term genocide. He faces up to three years
in jail if convicted.
Other judges tried in vain to halt an academic conference in Istanbul
on the Armenian issue last week.
EU lawmakers demanded an undertaking that when the Turkish parliament
ratifies a protocol extending the customs union to new EU member
states, it will not attach a government declaration refusing to
recognise Cyprus.
Rehn had warned parliament it would be scoring “an own goal” if it
refused to approve the extended customs union.
Many lawmakers questioned the EU’s ability to absorb Turkey financially
and politically, especially after French and Dutch voters’ rejected
a draft EU constitution designed to streamline the bloc’s creaking
institutions to cope with enlargement.
Greens party leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit caused uproar by accusing some
right-wing critics of Turkey of “surfing on a wave of racism.”
Rehn said that on balance, Turkey had made sufficient progress on
human rights to justify opening talks, saying the negotiations would
give the EU crucial leverage over the direction of Turkish reforms.
Opinion polls show a majority of EU citizens, especially in France,
Germany and Austria, oppose Turkish membership.
Hans-Gert Poettering, leader of the conservative European People’s
Party, said if Turkey did not improve its human rights record within
a period after starting talks, “then we should be prepared to suspend
the negotiations.”
(Additional reporting by Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; Zerin Elci in
Ankara and Mike Peacock in Brighton, England)