EU PARLIAMENT SLAPS TURKEY OVER ARMENIANS
By Jeremy Smith
Reuters, UK
Sept 28 2005
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – EU lawmakers gave only a grudging
blessing on Wednesday to membership talks with Turkey starting next
week and said Ankara must recognise a 1915 massacre of Armenians as
genocide before it joins the bloc.
They also criticised Turkey’s human rights record and held up a vote
to ratify an extended customs union with the 25-state European Union
in a bid to pressure Ankara to open its ports and airports to traffic
from EU member Cyprus.
The European Parliament’s non-binding resolution on the Armenians
was a political slap in the face for predominantly Muslim Turkey,
which insists the killings were not genocide.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan played down the moves, telling
reporters: “The European Parliament’s decision will not affect the
EU process. It has no power of sanction,” according to NTV television.
The Turkish lira and stock market lost ground on the events, although
traders said they did not believe the October 3 opening of accession
talks was at risk.
The EU legislature has no say over the start or conduct of the talks
but its assent is needed before Turkey can join, which is at least
a decade away.
DEADLOCK ON MANDATE
EU governments meanwhile remained deadlocked on the mandate for the
talks, with Austria seeking a more explicit mention of an alternative
to full membership.
EU foreign ministers will have to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday
in Luxembourg, hours before negotiations are to start, unless their
ambassadors clinch a deal earlier in Brussels.
The opening ceremony could slip to Monday evening because Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will not board a plane until the
EU ministers have formally endorsed a framework for negotiations,
diplomats said.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the revolving
EU presidency, said it would be “a huge betrayal of the hopes and
expectations of the Turkish people and of Prime Minister Erdogan’s
programme of reform if, at the crucial time, we turned our back
on Turkey”.
The EU legislature demanded that Turkey recognise EU member Cyprus
soon and said negotiations could be suspended unless it granted access
to Cypriot aircraft and shipping by next year.
Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 in response to a short- lived
Greek Cypriot coup, has some 35,000 troops in the north of the island
and refuses to recognise the Greek Cypriot government in the south,
which is recognised by the European Union.
The vote by the parliament 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 nation ever joining the bloc.
Greens party leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit caused an uproar by accusing
some right-wing critics of Turkey of “surfing on a wave of racism”.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn regretted the decision to delay
ratification of the customs union, saying it would weaken Brussels’
hand with the Turks, but stressed it would have no impact on the
start of negotiations.
CIVIL RIGHTS
Rehn warned Turkey it would have to amend a new penal code, adopted
to meet EU criteria, if hardline judges were still able to prosecute
Turkey’s leading novelist for expressing his views on the killings
of Armenians under Ottoman rule.
An Istanbul judge is prosecuting writer Orhan Pamuk 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.
Opinion polls show a majority of EU citizens, especially in France,
Germany and Austria, oppose Turkish membership.
(Additional reporting by Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; Zerin Elci in
Ankara and Mike Peacock in Brighton, England)