Turkey's parliament speaker urges lawyer who refuses to eat to end protest

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey's parliament speaker on Tuesday called on a lawyer who has refused food for 265 days in protest of high security prisons to immediately end his protest, promising a review of prison conditions in the new year.
Parliament speaker Bulent Arinc met with family members of Behic Asci, who has been refusing solid foods — but not liquids — since April, 5 to protest conditions in the maximum security prisons, where inmates are kept in one- or three-person cells. Human rights groups say prisoners are sometimes kept in solitary confinement and the cells provide very little opportunity for interaction between prisoners, leaving them isolated and vulnerable.
"Behic Asci must end this struggle which he calls a 'death fast,' that has been continuing for 265 days," Arinc said. "We want this death fast to end so that he may regain his health."
"If this is done, I want to say that in the first week of January, a delegation will work on the issue," Arinc promised.
Asci's mother Fazilet Erdogan however, doubted Arinc's pledge would convince her son.
"My son is as obstinate as I am," Erdogan said. "I don't think he will end the death fast until the isolation (of prisoners) is lifted."
Scores of prisoners or their supporters have died in hunger strikes protesting conditions at high security prisons since October 2000 — when authorities began moving prisoners from large wards housing up to 100 people to one- or three-inmate cells. Authorities said the large wards were unruly and had become recruiting centers for terrorist groups.
The protesters drink tea, sugared and salted water and take minerals to help prolong the strike.
The protest is being led by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, a banned Marxist group which has claimed responsibility for a number of assassinations and bombings since the 1970s.

Turkey and the European Union / The ever lengthening road

Dec 7th 2006 | ISTANBUL
From The Economist print edition

“FIRST they tied our arms, now they are going to tie our legs.” The words of a top Turkish official sum up the gloom in Ankara as European Union leaders prepare for next week's summit in Brussels, where they will once again argue over Turkey. Whatever the outcome, Turkey's prospects of being the EU's first mainly Muslim member have never seemed so bleak.

Turkey's long-delayed membership talks opened almost 15 months ago amid much fanfare. “Hello Europe” read one newspaper headline. But the talks soon ran into trouble over Turkey's rejection of the EU's demand that it fulfil its legal obligation to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus (ie, the internationally recognised Greek-Cypriot republic). The Turks rebuffed a deadline of December 6th, insisting that they will not give way until the Europeans fulfil their own promise to end the trade embargo on Turkish northern Cyprus.

The European Commission has proposed the suspension of eight of the 35 chapters in the membership talks. This week the French president, Jacques Chirac, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, endorsed this plan, and also called for a full review of Turkey's progress in early 2009. “We don't want to set any kind of ultimatums,” said Ms Merkel, who wants Turkey to accept a “privileged partnership”, not full membership. “But we want the commission to say to us what has been achieved and how we could proceed.”

Late into the week, negotiations continued under the Finnish EU presidency. A Turkish offer to open one port and one airport to Cyprus seems unlikely to work as it is clearly dependent on a reciprocal offer by the Greek-Cypriots. If no compromise is found, little progress will be made. Relations will worsen if Nicolas Sarkozy becomes France's president next spring: unlike Mr Chirac, he is fiercely against Turkish membership.

Turkey's hopes are now pinned on the Americans. President Bush is expected to embark on a round of telephone diplomacy this week. He may secure a reduction in the number of frozen chapters. But regardless of their number, suspended chapters can be reopened only with the unanimous approval of all EU members. This “leaves the door open for them to impose further intolerable conditions on us,” comments the top Turkish official.

Most Turks believe that Turkey's detractors simply do not want a large, Muslim country in their midst. Their aim is to wear down Turkey's resistance and induce it to walk away. Yet the mildly Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says he will not fall into that trap. “Forcing Turkey to abandon the [negotiating] table would be a dreadful mistake; Europe, not Turkey would stand to lose,” he said this week. He added that Turkey would pursue its membership goal with determination and, moreover, that it had a plan B and C.

Nobody seems to know what such plans might entail, but government sources hint that consultations with the EU over, say, Afghanistan and Iraq, or on drugs and human trafficking, may be slowed down. Instead Turkey will try to repair relations with America that remain fraught over Iraq, especially over the increasingly autonomous Kurds in northern Iraq. It will also build up its role in the Middle East, the Caucasus and the oil-rich former Soviet central Asian countries.

Most Turks believe that Turkey's detractors simply do not want a large, Muslim country in their midst

Cocking a snook at the Europeans could help Mr Erdogan's AK party to win votes in parliamentary elections due next November. Public support for the EU has already dropped to well below 50%, down from highs of 80% or more two years ago. Mr Erdogan will also take heart from the economy, which has grown by an annual average of 7% since 2001, four times as fast as the EU's. The markets seem unfazed by the rows over EU membership; the Turkish lira rose against the dollar this week.

But economic progress hinges on whether Mr Erdogan sticks with his IMF-imposed reforms. It may also depend on whether he decides to become president when the incumbent, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, retires in May. Turkey's militantly secular generals recoil at the thought of both the presidency and the government being run by Islamists. How far they might go to stop this remains a vexing question. The EU membership talks have provided the most effective rein on the generals so far.

Just as ominously, Mr Erdogan's claim that he will continue with political reforms, regardless of what happens over the EU, is beginning to look shaky. Article 301 of the penal code, under which Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's best-known novelist, was prosecuted last year, remains on the books. Human-rights abuses against the country's 14m Kurds have been curbed but by no means stopped altogether.

Meanwhile, Mr Erdogan's tired assertion that rejecting Turkey would provoke a “clash of civilisations” by sending a message to the Muslim world that the EU is a Christian club, is exaggerated. “Turkey has no real connection to the Arab world, so whether Turkey gets into Europe or not doesn't really matter to the ordinary guy in Amman or Riyadh,” says Yusuf Al Sharif, a Palestinian commentator. “There isn't even an Arab cultural centre in Turkey.” Mr Erdogan's overtures to Iran and Syria (he visited both countries this week) have less to do with Muslim solidarity than with a common desire shared by all three to prevent the emergence of an independent Kurdish state in Iraq.

In short, both sides in this dispute need to regain some perspective. Turkey is right to feel cheated over Cyprus (the Greek-Cypriots won EU membership even though they voted in April 2004 against the UN's Annan plan to reunite the island, whereas the Turkish-Cypriots remain isolated even though they voted in favour). But it must also show that it is sincere about pursuing EU-inspired reforms. If the EU is to regain its moral authority with the millions of Turks who long to have a full-blown modern democracy, it needs to prove that membership of its club is not only the best way to achieve that goal—but also one that is still genuinely on offer.

The Turkish train crash

Nov 30th 2006
From The Economist print edition

MELANCHOLY is Istanbul's defining characteristic, writes Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's Nobel prize-winning novelist. And melancholy has now descended on the country's relationship with Europe. “Almost everyone I know has lost heart,” says Soli Ozel, a political scientist at Istanbul's Bilgi University who wants Turkey to join the European Union.

His disenchantment is justified. Turkey's membership talks are on the edge of collapse. The EU gave the Turks until December 6th to open their ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus (ie, the Greek-Cypriot republic). Turkey refuses to do this unless the Europeans lift what amounts to their trade embargo on the (Turkish-Cypriot) north. The current Finnish presidency of the EU has failed to find a compromise. So the only questions now are how many “chapters” in the negotiations will be suspended—this week the European Commission suggested eight out of 35, all related to trade and the internal market—and whether the suspension is handled with enough delicacy by both sides to let them be reopened easily in a couple of years' time.

It was always going to be difficult to get Turkey into the EU. On top of complications arising from its poverty, its mostly Muslim culture and its mistreatment of the Kurds, it would be the largest member, with the most votes in the Council of Ministers and the most seats in the European Parliament. Even so, the accession talks have been unnecessarily fraught.

During the past year Turkey and the EU have squabbled bitterly over Cyprus, over clauses in the Turkish penal code that limit free speech and over a French proposal to make it an offence to deny the Armenian genocide of 1915. These may be real issues, but they have not affected Turkey's Western orientation, as embodied in its NATO membership and its impressive reform programme. The economy is growing by 6-7% a year; Turkey was the first Muslim country to send peacekeepers to Lebanon.

All this suggests that the quarrel is to do as much with the Europeans as with the Turks. In 2005 European political leaders agreed to negotiate Turkish accession in good faith, but it is not clear that all are doing so. Unwilling to admit that they want to keep Turkey out, France, Austria and Cyprus are making demands that seem designed to induce the Turks to walk away.

Now another insidious argument is being aired. Negotiations with Turkey are not merely failing; they are damaging the country's Westernisation. Because of the disputes, Turkish support for joining the EU, which stood as high as two-thirds in 2004, has fallen to only one-third now. Three-quarters of Turks believe the EU will never let their country in. Better, say some, to suspend the talks now, before these squabbles do more harm.

Some add that it will make little difference. The painstaking work of bringing Turkish law into line with EU law has more or less stopped. Talks on suspended chapters cannot restart soon because, over the next 18 months, three elections will get in the way (presidential and parliamentary ones in Turkey; a presidential election in Cyprus). So, the siren voices argue, Turkey would do better to give up now and settle for a privileged partnership instead (this is what Germany's Angela Merkel wants). Turkey's Westernisation need not be halted, just diverted: it began in the dying years of the Ottoman empire, long before the EU was dreamt of, and is thus independent of it. For the Turks, EU membership is not a matter of identity; it is a matter of choice.

But it is a good choice—and the consequence of abandoning it could be more serious than the Europeans realise. The EU goal helps to stabilise several shaky elements in Turkey. For the moderate Islamist government, it offers protection against military intervention. For the army, it guarantees secularism. For business, it entrenches market reform. For Kurds, it promises minority rights. Turkey would not suddenly become like Iran if its membership bid failed. But any of these elements might wobble—and the risk of a clash between the army and Islamists would rise.

Nor is Turkey about to join the axis of evil. But unlike previous applicants, it has options other than the EU: bad ones, perhaps, but alternatives nonetheless. It could flirt with Russia or Iran (as a former army chief has suggested). Or it could become pro-Western in the way that, say, Egypt is.

Pause, don't stop

For the EU, a rejection of Turkish membership would represent a huge lost opportunity. Europe's foreign policy, and its hopes of global significance, would suffer a catastrophic loss of credibility if it were seen to be blackballing a moderate Muslim country that has NATO's second-largest army. The EU's reputation in the Muslim world, which is watching the membership talks with Turkey closely, would sink, perhaps even below America's.

At home, a failure of the talks would send a message to Europe's 15m Muslims: that you have no place in Europe. There are some 3m Turks in Germany. What is the government going to tell them? “You do not belong here. Please do not riot”? The Germans, who have more at stake than anybody else, have been breathtakingly insouciant about the consequences of a failure of Turkey's membership bid. In many ways Ms Merkel's ambivalence has done more to damage Turkey's prospects than the more obvious hostility of France and Cyprus.

If it is bad policy to freeze the negotiations, and impossible to continue them, what is the alternative? At their summit later this month, the EU's leaders will rule on the plan to suspend talks on eight chapters and, unusually, to keep other chapters open until Turkey allows access from Cyprus. This may send a negative signal to Turkey but, given the doubts of many EU members, it may be the best that can be agreed on. The Europeans, however, should put no new obstacles in the way of reopening talks and also exert far more pressure on the Greek-Cypriots to settle the Cyprus problem. Hitting the pause button may be inevitable. But the pause must not turn into an indefinite stop.

Take Cyprus issue out of our talks on joining the EU, insists Turkey

By Martin Wolf

"We oppose the linkage between the negotiations and Cyprus," insisted Ali Babacan, Turkey's minister of the economy and chief neg-otiator with the European Union, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Mr Babacan said Cyprus was a separate issue from Turkey's accession. "Our proposal on the Cyprus issue is to put it to one side in the accession negotiations and deal with it by lifting sanctions on both sides simultaneously.

"But it is impossible for Turkey to open its ports to Cyprus unilaterally. The prime minister has committed himself publicly on this." Moreover, added the minister, "the whole of Turkey is behind the government's stance".

"In 2004," he stressed, "we tried very hard for a settlement of the Cyprus question. We worked out a detailed plan and then, unfortunately, the Greek Cypriots rejected it in a referendum at the instigation of [the Cypriot president] Mr Papadopoulos." Mr Babacan said the EU was not impartial on the issue because Cyprus had joined the Union shortly after the referendum.

"The EU initially decided to end the isolation of Turkish Cyprus, to balance the accession of Cyprus. But the EU has not carried through on its promise. It is unfair to ask Turkey to make a unilateral concession to take goods from Cyprus within the customs union when the EU is not open to northern Cyprus.

"Turkey is a big and relatively poor country and perceived by some to have a different culture. But this is wrong. Turkey shares Eur-ope's fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law."

Mr Babacan said Turkey's macroeconomic performance was also converging with the EU's.

"The ratio of public sector net debt to gross domestic product has fallen from over 90 per cent at its peak to a forecast of just under 50 per cent at the end of this year.

"Next year, Turkey should hit the Maastricht limit of 60 per cent of GDP for the ratio of gross debt to GDP. Turkey should easily hit all the Maastricht treaty criteria for debt, deficits and inflation within a couple of years."

Growth this year was likely to end up at about6 per cent and inflation was likely to be just under 10 per cent, despite the impact of higher energy prices, he said. Next year's inflation target would remain at 4 per cent. Employment growth was also buoyant.

Inward foreign direct investment is forecast at $15bn (€11.4bn, £7.7bn) this year. Inward FDI and long-term credit will cover the current account deficit of about 8 per cent of GDP.

Most Turks still believed EU accession was a good thing, insis-ted Mr Babacan. But they had been shaken by the German discussion of a privileged partnership and the proposed French law banning denial of the massacres of Armenians during the first world war, quite apart from the Cyprus issue.

"The political reaction in Turkey to such European statements and actions ex-p-lains the decline in support for accession," he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Turkey and EU held hostage by Cyprus

Some 43 years after beginning its long courtship of Europe and barely a year after opening entry talks with Brussels, Turkey's bid for European Union membership may have just hit a wall.

Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner who earlier this year warned the talks could end in a "train crash", said this week his measured response to the impasse in the negotiations meant "there will be no train crash". Rather, "there will be a slowing down because of works further down the line; the train will continue to move". Really? Let us hope he is driving.

Mr Rehn's proposal is to suspend negotiations on eight of the 35 chapters of EU law Turkey needs to adopt before it enters the Union. This is, put overly simply, in response to Ankara's refusal to open up its ports to Cyprus, an EU member. It is harsher than Turkey's EU allies - the UK, Spain, Sweden and Italy - wanted, but has delighted politicians in Germany, Austria, Holland and France who think a poor, Muslim country like Turkey has no business inside the EU in the first place.

In either case, there is a distinct possibility that the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pressed from all sides but up for re-election next year, will simply walk away.

Irrespective of whether it is any longer realistic to believe Turkey will one day join the EU, that would be a geopolitically catastrophic train wreck.

Europe is the ambition that has held together Turkey's otherwise antagonistic and fiercely secular army with Mr Erdogan's neo-Islamist government, with full but now fast-dwindling popular support. It is also the engine of sweeping reform, especially to en-trench democratic and minority rights. It is, above all, proof that the EU can sponsor a marriage between Islam and democracy, a sort of Euro-Islamism analogous to Christian Democracy that can steer a path to modernity and survive the violent dislocations on the way. Mr Erdogan is leading democratic change in a region where Islamists have at best provided alibis to despots determined to prevent democracy.

The EU put all this at risk by its irresponsible attitude to Cyprus. In advance of a 2004 United Nations plan for a confederal system to reunite the island, the EU gave the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government a guarantee of entry. While Ankara cajoled Turkish Cypriots to vote for the peace deal, the Greek Cypriots self-indulgently voted against - and now obstruct Turkey from within the EU.

While demanding Ankara admit Cyprus ships and goods, Brussels has not delivered on its pledge to end the isolation of Turkish Cyprus. The Cyprus issue can be resolved if member states are prepared to put the strategic interests of the Union above the narrow interests of the Nicosia government. On present form, however, the EU is now widely seen to have retreated behind a wall of dissembling waffle and to be acting in bad faith.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

EU nations divided over whether to slow Turkey membership talks

The Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium: European Union nations were divided Wednesday over whether to partially freeze membership talks with predominantly Muslim Turkey over Ankara's refusal to open its ports to EU member Cyprus.

Diplomats and officials said they were braced for difficult meetings to find consensus between all 25 EU countries before a Dec. 14-15 EU leaders summit, which will decide the fate of Turkey's decades-old membership bid.

"We are in quite a problematic situation," said Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. "Opinions are divided on the issue."

Divisions among EU leaders were laid bare after the European Commission recommended partially halting membership talks to protest of Ankara's refusal to extend an agreed-to customs union with Cyprus and nine other countries that joined the EU in 2004.

Prime Minister Tony Blair called it a "serious mistake" to send Turkey a negative message on membership now, and Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged leaders to "work intensively" to keep the EU's doors open to Ankara.

Bildt also criticized the recommendation for going too far and risked destabilizing the region if Europe choses to freeze its ties with Turkey, which many see as a strategic and stable partner in an otherwise volatile region.

"I see a risk they are putting the brakes on too hard," Bildt said. "There is a risk of collateral damage being fairly extensive ... we want to increase the stability in a very volatile part of the world, are these recommendations best geared toward those objectives, that's going to be the debate."

French President Jacques Chirac said France "was in line with Germany and other partners" that the EU "has no other choice" given Turkey's refusal to adopt a customs pact with the EU, which would open Turkish ports to Cyprus — a country that Ankara refuses to recognize.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the EU had to "send a very clear signal" to Turkey that it must live up to its promises on Cyprus and on speeding up what he called the slow pace of reforms there.

"It is Turkey that must adapt to the EU," he said. "It's not the other way around."

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted with dismay at the recommendation.

"Such a decision is unacceptable," private NTV television quoted Erdogan as saying during a NATO summit in Latvia.

"We will not allow anyone to trample on our rights," Egemen Bagis, an aide to Erdogan, told NTV. He said Turkish leaders would still try to avert a partial suspension.

A decision by EU governments to slow entry talks would likely cause a rift in relations with Turkey over its bid to join the bloc and potentially damage the EU's image on the world stage. Negotiations started in October 2005.

"We confirm that these negotiations continue, although at a slower pace," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters. "Failure to meet legal obligations cannot remain without consequences."

Rehn added, however, that Turkey still had time to resolve the standoff over Cyprus and avert a firm EU decision to partially freeze the negotiations.

He said a visit on Friday to Ankara by Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU presidency, still offered a chance for Turkey to change its mind.

The recommendation, drafted by Rehn, called on EU governments not to open negotiations on issues that touch upon Turkey's relations with Cyprus. These include such issues as the free movement of goods, financial services, agriculture, fisheries, transport policy, customs union policy and external relations issues.

They would officially suspend 8 of 35 so-called policy chapters in the negotiations, which have already effectively been at a standstill since September, after Cyprus, Greece and France blocked further talks until the standoff is resolved.

Such a freeze would significantly slow Turkey's EU membership talks, which already were expected to last at least a decade, and which the EU said offered "no guarantee" of eventual membership.

Rehn also recommended that no chapter of the package could be finalized until Turkey moves to open its ports to Cyprus.

He said he expected his recommendation "will receive wide support," however initial reactions drew doubt on an easy first discussion on the measure by EU foreign ministers next week.

Cyprus, Greece and France have taken a hard line against Turkey in recent months over the standoff, demanding that talks be suspended. Britain, Sweden and Spain are urging that the EU ensure talks are not frozen, fearing a rupture in ties with predominantly Muslim Turkey.

Cyprus has been divided into north and south since Turkey invaded the island in 1974, anticipating an attempt by Greek speakers to forge a union with Greece. The breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north is recognized only by Ankara and has been under a crippling international embargo for years.

In 2004, shortly before the island joined the EU, Greek Cypriot voters rejected a U.N. proposal to unify the island while Turkish Cypriots endorsed it.

The continuation of Turkey's EU entry talks had hinged on its readiness to trade with the Greek-speaking part of Cyprus that joined the union in 2004. In exchange, the EU said it would lift an embargo on the northern part of the island.

Take Cyprus issue out of our talks on joining the EU, insists Turkey

By Martin Wolf

"We oppose the linkage between the negotiations and Cyprus," insisted Ali Babacan, Turkey's minister of the economy and chief neg-otiator with the European Union, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Mr Babacan said Cyprus was a separate issue from Turkey's accession. "Our proposal on the Cyprus issue is to put it to one side in the accession negotiations and deal with it by lifting sanctions on both sides simultaneously.

"But it is impossible for Turkey to open its ports to Cyprus unilaterally. The prime minister has committed himself publicly on this." Moreover, added the minister, "the whole of Turkey is behind the government's stance".

"In 2004," he stressed, "we tried very hard for a settlement of the Cyprus question. We worked out a detailed plan and then, unfortunately, the Greek Cypriots rejected it in a referendum at the instigation of [the Cypriot president] Mr Papadopoulos." Mr Babacan said the EU was not impartial on the issue because Cyprus had joined the Union shortly after the referendum.

"The EU initially decided to end the isolation of Turkish Cyprus, to balance the accession of Cyprus. But the EU has not carried through on its promise. It is unfair to ask Turkey to make a unilateral concession to take goods from Cyprus within the customs union when the EU is not open to northern Cyprus.

"Turkey is a big and relatively poor country and perceived by some to have a different culture. But this is wrong. Turkey shares Eur-ope's fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law."

Mr Babacan said Turkey's macroeconomic performance was also converging with the EU's.

"The ratio of public sector net debt to gross domestic product has fallen from over 90 per cent at its peak to a forecast of just under 50 per cent at the end of this year.

"Next year, Turkey should hit the Maastricht limit of 60 per cent of GDP for the ratio of gross debt to GDP. Turkey should easily hit all the Maastricht treaty criteria for debt, deficits and inflation within a couple of years."

Growth this year was likely to end up at about6 per cent and inflation was likely to be just under 10 per cent, despite the impact of higher energy prices, he said. Next year's inflation target would remain at 4 per cent. Employment growth was also buoyant.

Inward foreign direct investment is forecast at $15bn (€11.4bn, £7.7bn) this year. Inward FDI and long-term credit will cover the current account deficit of about 8 per cent of GDP.

Most Turks still believed EU accession was a good thing, insis-ted Mr Babacan. But they had been shaken by the German discussion of a privileged partnership and the proposed French law banning denial of the massacres of Armenians during the first world war, quite apart from the Cyprus issue.

"The political reaction in Turkey to such European statements and actions ex-p-lains the decline in support for accession," he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Turkey's EU talks face partial suspension

By Daniel Dombey in Riga and Vincent Boland in Ankara

Turkey last night faced the near-certainty that its talks to join the European Union would be at least partially suspended, after the collapse of a diplomatic effort to forge a deal between Ankara and Cyprus.

The European Commission will now come under pressure to recommend next week that part of the negotiations be put on hold - a move it had been desperate to avoid for fear of jeopardising the process.

It will then be up to EU governments to decide what proportion of the talks should be suspended, amid fears that too great a punishment could cause Turkey to walk away.

Olli Rehn, EU enlargement commissioner, said yesterday the talks would not be stopped, but would be slowed down.

Britain and several of the EU's Nordic members favour suspending only a relatively small part of the talks - three out of 34 remaining negotiating "chapters". France would like more chapters to be suspended, but believes it is important that the negotiations not be stalled completely. Cyprus and Austria want a more emphatic response.

EU foreign ministers will seek to agree a common EU stance on December 11.

At the root of the dispute is Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognise diplomatically and whose vessels Turkey does not allow to use its ports.

Ankara says it will not change its stance whilethe ethnically Turkish north of the island remains isolated.

Yet Cyprus is an EU member and the EU last year demanded that Turkey permit Cypriot ships to use its ports during the course of 2006.

Yesterday, Finland, the current holder of theEU presidency, announced that the lack of response from the parties had ledit to abandon its attemptto broker a limited deal between Turkey and Cyprus.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Awaiting pope, Turkey is unsure about ties to west

By Sabrina Tavernise / The New York Times

Published: November 27, 2006

ANKARA, Turkey: A short 24 hours before a visit by Pope Benedict XVI to this Muslim country, its prime minister finally agreed to meet him publicly. The venue: the airport, on the Turkish leader's way out of town.

The elaborate, last-minute choreography pointed to the deep divide that has festered within Turkish society since the foundation of the modern state. Should Turkey face eastward, toward its Muslim neighbors, or westward, toward Europe?

In the past five years, Muslims here have repeatedly felt betrayed by the West. The United States began holding Muslims without charges at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It invaded Iraq and abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The European Union has cooled to them. The pope made a speech citing criticism of Islam.

Now, Turkey - a Muslim country with a rigidly secular state - is at a pivot point. It is trying to navigate a treacherous path between the forces that want to pull it closer toward Islam and the institutions that safeguard its secularism. Turkey's government, which is pro-Islamic, is constrained by rules dictating secularism established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's revered founder.

The extremes jostle on Istanbul's streets, where miniskirts mix with tightly tied headscarves and lingerie boutiques stand unapologetically next to mosques.

"There are two Turkeys within Turkey right now," said Binnaz Toprak, a professor of political science at Bosporus University.

The pope's visit, which begins Tuesday, falls squarely on that sensitive fault line and has brought into stark relief a slow but steady shift: Turkey is feeling its Muslim identity more and more. The trend worries secular Turkish politicians, who believe the state's central tenet is under threat. In late October, a senior officer of Turkey's army - which has ousted governments it has seen as overly Islamic - issued a rare warning to that effect.

Others say the threat is overstated, but acknowledge that Turks do feel pushed east by pressures on their country from America and Europe. A poll by the Pew Foundation in June found that 53 percent of Turks have positive views of Iran, while public opinion of Europe and the United States has slipped sharply.

"Many people in Turkey have lost hopes in joining Europe and they are looking for other horizons," said Onur Oymen, an opposition politician whose party is staunchly secular.

It has been more than 80 years since religion was ripped out of the heart of the new Turkish state, which was assembled from the remains of the Ottoman Empire, the political and economic heart of the Muslim world for centuries. But the portion of Turks who identify themselves by their religion, first and foremost as Muslims, has increased to 46 percent this year, from 36 percent seven years ago, according to a survey of 1,500 people in 23 cities conducted by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, an independent research organization based in Istanbul. That is a trend that has emerged in countries throughout the Muslim world since Sept. 11, 2001.

"I'm here as a Muslim," said Fatma Eksioglu, who was sitting on the grass next to her sister in downtown Istanbul on Sunday at a demonstration of about 20,000 people opposing the pope's visit. She did not belong to the Islamic party that organized the gathering, she said, adding, "When it comes to Islam we are one."

But in a paradox that goes to the heart of the nuances of modern Turkey -- a stronger Muslim identity does not mean that, as in Iraq, fundamentalism is on the rise. or even that more Turks want more religion in their government. Indeed, the number of Turks in favor of imposing Sharia law declined to 9 percent from 21 percent, according to the survey, which was released last week.

Perhaps the most powerful factor pushing Turks toward the east has been a series of bitter setbacks in talks on admission to the European Union. To try to win membership, the Turkish government enacted a series of rigorous reforms to bring the country in line with European standards, including some unprecedented in the Muslim world, such as a law against marital rape.

But the admission talks have stalled. And while the official reason is a quibble involving the longstanding Greek-Turkish dispute over Cyprus, most Turks say they believe the real reason is a deep suspicion of their country's religion.

They see that in the opposition to Turkey's admission voiced by some European countries, including Germany, Austria and France. Indeed, in 2002, , former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France said Turkey's admission to the European Union would mean "the end of Europe," and now the French presidential hopeful Nicholas Sarkozy has made his opposition a campaign issue. Even the pope, when he was still a cardinal in Germany, said publicly that he did not think Turkey fit into Europe because it was Muslim. That talk has begun to grate on Turks.

"It hurts me that the E.U. expects Turkey to be something it's not," said Nilgun Yun, a stylish 26-year-old chewing a chocolate muffin in a downtown Istanbul cafe on Sunday.

Her position, shared by many of her friends, was simple: "Accept me as I am. We are Muslim, and we will remain Muslim. That's not going to change."

Mr. Oyman, the Turkish opposition politician, said that talk about Turkey was tougher than ever. "You cannot believe how they accuse Turkey on Cyprus and other issues," he said in a telephone interview from Brussels, where he was attending a meeting of European parliamentarians. "Our European friends are playing a very shortsighted game."

The shift has begun affect trade. While Europe is still Turkey's largest trading partner, business with other neighbors, including Syria, Iraq and Iran, has picked up substantially in recent years, said Omer Bolat, the head of one of the country's largest business associations, whose members are mostly pro-Islamic. He put the growth at about 30 percent from just 3 percent in 2000.

"It is risky for a country with respect to foreign policy to have dependence on one partner and market," he said in English, sitting in a sleek conference room when overlooking a bustling trade fair showcasing Turkish goods. "Now Turkey is opening its muscles, its horizons."

The policies of the Bush administration have deeply worried Muslims, he said, before rushing off to speak to the Pakistani ambassador, who had arrived to the trade fair.

"The United States used to be paradigm of freedom and rights," he said. "But since the Republican period, the U.S. policies have been so detrimental in Muslim eyes."

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in just four years, has managed to get inflation down to historic lows and growth rates to all-time highs. The growing prosperity has eased integration of religious Turks into the country's self-consciously society, which is still suspicious of advocates of Islam, as well as of Mr. Erdogan and his pro-Islamic government.

"This group of people that was more religious has relaxed," Ms. Toprak said. "They are now visible. They go to restaurants they would never have gone; they go to posh shopping malls."

"It was a struggle to get a piece of the pie," she said. "Now they have one."

Even so, the increased religiosity, or at least identification with religion, could eventually present a serious problem for Turkey. There are already rumblings. A killing of a judge whose court had ruled on a headscarf case aroused suspicions among Turkey's securlarists. Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, head of the Turkish Army, has referred to a rising threat of fundamentalism on at least four occasions since he came to office in late August.

Mr. Erdogan's closely watched government has attempted to limit liquor consumption in public places, but later backed down. It also tried to make adultery a crime, but later relented.

Some Turkish officials play down the possibility of real damage to secularism, but say that European suspicion does Turkey no good.

The delay with Europe, for instance, "fans up the disappointment, the disillusionment," said Namik Tan, the spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry. "People say, why are they doing this?"

That is why public officials, including Mr. Erdogan, have shrunk from the visit of the pope, who symbolizes, in the eyes of Turks, a disdain for Islam and the unfair exclusivity of the Western club. A cartoon in a Turkish newspaper last weekend showed two public officials belly-laughing at the bad luck of those Turkish officials obliged to meet him. (The senior official appointed to be his formal guide has the portfolio of youth and sport.) But the pope is coming, and the meetings are happening. Despite growing pains, a neglected Kurdish minority in the south, a thin skin for any reference to the Armenian genocide, and failure to scrap a law that makes insulting Turkishness a crime, Turkey stands out as lively democracy in a larger Middle East riddled with restrictions, and its acceptance by the West is a test case for everyone, officials said.

Muslim countries, Mr. Tan points out, are watching. "Turkey is a beacon for those countries," he said. "Don't forget, if we fail, then the whole dream will fail."

Sebnem Arsu contributed reported from Ankara, Turkey, and Ian Fisher from Rome. Sabrina Pacifici contributed research.

The pope and Islam: A chance to get friendlier

From Economist.com

IT HAS been called the most hazardous journey undertaken by a Roman pontiff in modern times. Some of the hazards of this week’s papal visit to Turkey may be unavoidable, others may have been of his own making. The trip by Pope Benedict XVI, which begins on Tuesday November 28th, was first conceived as an exercise in intra-Christian diplomacy: a visit to the Patriarch Bartholomew I, the most senior bishop of the worldwide Orthodox church, who resides in Istanbul.

It was largely at the insistence of the government in Ankara that the purpose of the journey was broadened into an opportunity for the pontiff to test and possibly re-examine his hitherto sceptical view of Turkey. But the omens in recent months have not been benign. The pope upset two large sections of Turkish society with a lecture on September 12th in which he quoted (without endorsing) a Byzantine emperor who suggested that Islam had engendered nothing but violence. Devout Muslims in Turkey (and around the world) were offended by the insult to their faith. Secular-nationalist Turks bristled at the mention of a Byzantine monarch. No wonder that some leading members of Turkey’s mildly Islamist government have seemed at pains to find excuses not to meet the pontiff, although the prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, now says that he will do so.

Last-minute diplomatic moves appeared to be calming at least some of the tensions that were seething ahead of the visit. On Sunday the pope said he wanted his trip to show his “esteem and sincere friendship for Turkey”. A spokesman confirmed that Benedict would pay a visit to the Blue Mosque during his stay in Istanbul, a trip which the Vatican has presented as a “sign of respect” to Muslims. The Vatican's most senior official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, took a slightly different tack when he spoke of the prospects for Turkey's membership of the European Union.

The Vatican's official position is one of neither supporting nor opposing Turkey's candidacy. But Cardinal Bertone said he hoped that Turkey would be able to fulfil the EU's conditions. There were also signs of a warmer approach on the other side. Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said at the weekend: “we hope that this visit will be a way of ending misunderstandings between Muslims and Christians”. But in a sign of public discontent, a demonstration in Istanbul on Sunday against the pontiff's trip attracted some 20,000 protesters.

The risks are clear. Mr Gul was quoted as saying the security precautions taken by the government were more elaborate than those for the last visit by George Bush. “We cannot forget what happened in St Peter's Square in 1981”, he said. “Unfortunately the person who shot Pope John Paul II was a Turk.”

In fact, the last pope's would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, is safely incarcerated in Kartal jail in Istanbul. But his claims, from his prison cell, that the pope's life is in danger are all too believable. Within the past week, members of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves have carried out a symbolic “occupation” of the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul (alleging that the pope might try to turn it back into a church) and it has been reported that police in Izmir have arrested several members of a group close to al-Qaeda.

Even before September, the Vatican had regarded the trip as a difficult mission. In the first place, Pope Benedict has made it clear he personally has doubts about Turkey's EU membership. A champion of the view that Europe is fundamentally Christian, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, told Le Figaro in 2004 that “Turkey has always represented a different continent, in permanent contrast to Europe”.

Despite the fact that Pope Benedict is hardly their country’s closest friend in the West, many Turkish liberals are deploring the fact that their political leaders have failed to seize the opportunity to turn the visit into a demonstration of openness, tolerance and European ideals.

While indicators suggest that Turks are growing more pious and more inclined to stress their Muslim identity, support for political Islam may be waning. Take the results of a new poll by Tesev, a think-tank which studies society and religion: the number of Turks who put their Muslim identity first has risen to 45% from 36% in 1999; but over the same period the number of people who favoured sharia law dropped from 21% to 9%. So if Pope Benedict learns anything from his trip it may be that pious Islam and political Islam are not the same thing.

The Coming Coup d'Etat?

Newsweek International

Dec. 4, 2006 issue - Turkey is a haunted land. too often in its history, the past has been prologue. It may be so again. Almost 10 years ago, the Turkish military ousted a popularly elected Islamist prime minister. The circumstances that produced that coup are re-emerging today. Once again, an Islamist is in power. Once again, the generals are muttering angrily about how his government is undermining the secular state—the foundation of modern Turkey. As I rate it, the chances of a military coup in Turkey occurring in 2007 are roughly 50-50.

I saw the last one coming, thanks to a conversation with a senior military officer not long before the events of February 1997. "I asked the Iranian generals after the 1979 revolution why they had done nothing to stop it. By the time they realized how far the Islamists had come, they replied, it was too late," he told me. "We will never let that happen in Turkey." Indeed, this very principle is enshrined in the bylaws of the Turkish General Staff, which declare that the military is "the sole protector" of Turkish secular democracy and of the "principles of Ataturk."

And so it is now. Though most Turks agree that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is more moderate than his ousted predecessor, Necmettin Erbakan, he is nonetheless an Islamist. The outgoing president Ahmet Necdet Sezer publicly warns that Erdogan's government is broadening its fundamentalist platform day by day, and challenging the basic principles of secularism as defined in the Turkish constitution. Pointedly, Sezer reminds the Turkish armed forces of their pledge to serve as its guardians.

The hawkish new chief of the General Staff, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, echoes that theme. In a speech at the opening of the academic year at the Turkish War Academy on Oct. 2, he asked: "Are there not people in Turkey saying that secularism should be redefined? Aren't those people occupying the highest seats of the state? Isn't the ideology of Ataturk under attack?" Buyukanit went on to declare that an affirmative answer to any of these questions would confirm that Turkey is threatened with "Islamist fundamentalism."

In recent weeks I have spoken with Turkey's most senior officers. All made clear that, while they would not want to see an interruption in democracy, the military may soon have to step in to protect secularism, without which there cannot be democracy in a majority Muslim country. These are no-nonsense people who mean what they say.

Why is this happening? Chiefly because of the European Union. Never mind Cyprus, or the new human-rights laws Turkey has willingly passed under European pressure. The real problem is the EU's core demand: more civilian control over the military. That, senior officers say, would inevitably produce an Islamic Turkey. As they see it, the nation simply cannot afford to follow the EU on issues that would theoretically ensure, but in reality endanger, its future as a secular democracy—that is, a country in which state and mosque are separated and in which freedom of (as well as freedom from) religion is guaranteed for all.

The Turkish military is especially wary of how the EU is coping with its own Islamic problem. European governments are reaching out to Islamists, ostensibly in order to transform them into allies against domestic terrorism. That may work in the short-run, Turkish critics say. But a similar strategy would be intolerable to a majority of Turks, who fear that once the gates open to "moderate" Islamists, more radical forces will enter and take over.

With Turkey and the EU so sharply diverging, the danger is that the Turkish military, supported as in 1997 by other secularist groups, will no longer feel bound by the need to keep Turkey on its European path. And this time, unlike the past, the United States is in no position to restrain them. That's partly because of Iraq, and Turkey's unhappiness with what it sees as Washington's kid-glove treatment of Kurdish terrorists operating out of northern Kurdistan, and partly because of its embrace of Erdogan, most literally when he met George W. Bush the same day that Buyukanit made his remarks in Turkey. The United States opposed the 1997 coup, and it will do so again. But as one senior Turkish official recently put it: "If there were a coup, what would the U.S. do—enact sanctions against Turkey?"

To be sure, the military may exert its influence without resorting to force. And if a coup were to happen, it would not necessarily translate to a nondemocratic Turkey. More likely, it would simply mean the end of Turkey's current "Islamist experiment" and a return to a more conservative government—stalwartly secular, yes, but a democracy nonetheless. Ironically, this Turkey might ultimately be seen to be a better member of Europe than today's.

Baran is a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

Spotlight: Pope Benedict XVI – Turkey trip will test faiths

By Tony Barber in Rome

Published: November 24 2006 17:31 | Last updated: November 24 2006 17:31

Few would seriously compare it to Daniel’s experience in the lions’ den, but the visit to Turkey on which Pope Benedict XVI embarks tomorrow is undoubtedly the most sensitive foreign trip of his 21-month reign.

The Pope’s four-day visit was originally intended to cement relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the world’s Orthodox Christians, whose spiritual leader, Bartholomew I, will have a private meeting with Benedict on Wednesday.

However, another dimension to the visit was added in September after the Pope enraged Muslims across the world by quoting a medieval Byzantine emperor in a manner that linked the Prophet Mohammed with violence.

Even in Turkey, a secular, democratic republic, many Muslims denounced the pontiff. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, who is a devout Muslim, told Italian television last Thursday: “We have never allowed ourselves to insult the prophets of other religions. Our faith obliges us to show respect. Therefore, it is our right to expect the same treatment from members of other religions.”

Neither Mr Erdogan nor his foreign minister nor his religious affairs minister will meet the Pope in Turkey, the official explanation being that they all have important foreign engagements this week.

After the storm over his September speech, Benedict did not offer an explicit apology to Muslims but rather said he was sorry for the reactions to his remarks.

This response drew attention to what many liberal Catholics, as well as people of other faiths and non-religious commentators, regard as a certain narrow-minded, not to say dogmatic, aspect of the 79-year-old Pope’s character.

Yet Giancarlo Zizola, one of Italy’s most experienced Vatican-watchers, says this view of Benedict is a caricature and obscures his efforts to reshape the papacy into a more modest mould after the 27-year reign of John Paul II, his predecessor.

John Paul was one of the most towering personalities in the 2,000-year history of Christianity but he also disoriented millions of Catholics by leaving a legacy of profound divisions and unresolved ethical controversies in the Church.

The white-haired Benedict, who was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in April 1920 in the German state of Bavaria, has quietly sought over the past 21 months to remove the media-driven “superstar” features of John Paul’s papacy and make the institution appear more humble in the eyes of the faithful.

In a speech to cardinals in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel soon after his election as Pope, Benedict, referring to himself in the third person, said: “In undertaking his ministry, the new Pope knows that his task is to make the light of Christ shine in front of men and women – not his own light, but that of Christ.”

It was the first signal from Benedict that he intended to distance himself from John Paul in terms of style, if not doctrine.

Yet even Benedict’s ethical teachings may prove to be less conservative than many imagine, if a current debate over the Church’s attitude to condoms is anything to go by. The Vatican vigorously disapproves of condom use, but Mr Zizola says the rapid spread of Aids around the world, especially in Africa, an increasingly important region for Roman Catholicism, is forcing a rethink.

Now many senior prelates are advocating “a less restrictive interpretation of moral law” that would permit condom use to prevent “greater evils”, specifically the infection of a person with Aids through sex, Mr Zizola says.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog that Benedict led for 24 years from 1981 to 2005, is currently reviewing the issue. Ultimately, the Pope will decide whether to modify the Church’s position.

Like John Paul, Benedict has spent much of his reign fretting over rampant materialism, moral relativism and the decline of organised religion in the western world, especially Europe.

But Turks are more likely to remember Benedict’s comment in 2004 that the European Union should not admit Turkey as a member because Turkey had always been “in permanent contrast to Europe”.

With Turkey’s EU membership negotiations hanging by a thread, and with persistent tensions over Islam’s presence in Europe, this week’s visit will require all the diplomatic tact of which Benedict is capable.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Religious sightseeing with Pope Benedict XVI in Turkey

Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Turkey is heavy with controversy and political meaning, but it is above all a religious pilgrimage. Here are some of the places that Benedict will visit in the Muslim country, along with their religious significance:
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EPHESUS, Wednesday, Nov. 29

Ephesus, an ancient metropolis near Turkey's Aegean coast, became an important center of Christianity in the early years after Jesus' death. St. John the Apostle and St. Paul the Apostle both lived here, and the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years in a house nearby.

Ephesus was one of the seven churches mentioned in the "Book of Revelations." All seven churches, or communities, were in modern-day Turkey.

Paul's "Epistle to the Ephesians," thought to have been written while he was imprisoned in Rome, expresses his love for the church and urges the residents of Ephesus to find salvation through Christ's teachings.

Ephesus is perhaps best known for its ancient pagan ruins and for once being home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Almost nothing remains of the temple.
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HOUSE OF THE VIRGIN MARY, Wednesday, Nov. 29

Nestled in the woods between Ephesus and the town of Selcuk is a structure that many believe was the last home of the Virgin Mary. A biblical passage (John 19:26-27) says Mary lived in the area, as did John the Apostle, who took her into his family after Jesus' death.

Benedict is scheduled to visit the site and give a small mass and homily on Nov. 29, his only open-air event of the trip. He will be the third pope in modern times to make a pilgrimage here — Paul VI came in 1967, and John Paul II came in 1979.

This site is also considered holy by Muslims, who revere Mary as the mother of a great prophet.
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ISTANBUL, Wednesday, Nov. 29-Friday, Dec. 1

Today one of the world's largest Muslim metropolises, Istanbul was once the center of the Christian world. Benedict still refers to the city as "Constantinople," its name before it was conquered by Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Benedict will visit the following sites in the city:
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CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE

The home church of Bartholomew I, leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.

The two major branches of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Benedict split in 1054 over differences in opinion on the power of the papacy. The primary goal of Benedict's trip to Turkey is to meet with Bartholomew in an attempt to breach the divide and reunite the churches.
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HAGHIA SOPHIA

The Haghia Sophia was the world's largest church for more than 1,000 years until the completion of St. Peter's in the Vatican. The church's present incarnation was built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. Commonly referred to as one of the world's most beautiful buildings, it was converted to a mosque in 1453.

Turkey's secularist founder, Ataturk, converted the Haghia Sophia into a museum in 1935. Religious services are prohibited, so Benedict will visit as a tourist and perform a service in a smaller cathedral later.
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ST. ESPRIT CATHEDRAL

Benedict follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II by delivering a mass at this cathedral, scheduled for the morning of Dec. 1. The cathedral was built in 1846 and is the main building of the Roman Catholic Church in Istanbul, though not the largest Catholic church in the city.

Turkey will not respond to EU deadline

By Dan Bilefsky / International Herald Tribune

BRUSSELS: Turkey said Tuesday that it would not respond to a European Union deadline demanding that it open its ports to Cyprus, raising the stakes in a showdown that could derail Ankara's EU membership talks.

"Issues like Cyprus cannot be solved by blackmail or setting deadlines," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in Ankara after meeting with the chief EU negotiator for Turkey, Ali Babacan, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The warning came just a day after the Finnish prime minister, Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, called on Turkey to open its ports to EU member Cyprus by early December. He said that time was running out for Turkey and that its membership bid faced "an uncertain future" if the Cyprus issue remained unsolved.

But Turkish officials say they will not compromise on Cyprus unless the EU lifts an international embargo against the northern Turkish-speaking part of the divided island, which Turkey alone recognizes.

The EU enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, on Tuesday told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee in Brussels, according to Bloomberg News: "We need less talk about blackmail and red lines. It is, I find, rather outdated talk."

In an effort to overcome the impasse, Finland has proposed that the northern Cypriot port of Famagusta be placed under EU management and be opened to trade with the EU. The United Nations would take over control of the neighboring town of Varosha, which the Greek Cypriots claim as their own. But so far, Turkey has rejected the proposal.

EU officials said that Turkish intransigence made it increasingly likely that the EU would be forced to partly suspend the negotiations with Turkey, when leaders hold a two-day summit meeting Dec. 14. That would be unprecedented in the history of the 25- member bloc. "We seem to have reached a dead end," said a senior Finnish official, requesting anonymity because the talks are continuing.

The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, will issue a recommendation in the matter Dec. 6. In the absence of a diplomatic breakthrough, EU officials say the Commission is quite likely to recommend suspending talks on up to six of the more than 30 remaining chapters Turkey must negotiate before it can join the Union.

Gul, who will go to Helsinki on Sunday for talks on the Cyprus impasse, said he was still hopeful that diplomacy could work. "The Finnish are spending great efforts to resolve the issue and we are supporting them," Gul said. "If a solution can be find, we would gladly say 'yes.'"

Attitudes toward Turkey are hardening in the EU, where public opinion remains deeply skeptical of admitting a large, Muslim country of 71 million that many do not consider to be a part of Europe.

At a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels last week, the French minister for European affairs, Catherine Colonna, said the EU would be forced to consider partly suspending its talks with Turkey if Ankara refused to compromise. Austria and Cyprus were blunter, calling for a halt in the negotiations if Turkey refused.

But France and Britain are reluctant to stop the talks altogether because of concerns that such a move would prompt a backlash in Turkey that could make it difficult to revive the negotiations.

Even a partial derailing of the talks could have far-reaching consequences in Turkey, where skepticism of the EU is increasing. Analysts warn that a rebuff would strengthen the hand of Islamists and nationalists, a growing number of whom are arguing against Turkish economic and political reforms that would be required for membership in the Union.

Turkish officials say the EU is applying a double standard and that it is not well placed to mediate over Cyprus since the Greek-speaking part of the divided island is already a member of the Union. They note with frustration that a United Nations plan to reunify the island failed in 2004 after it was rejected by the Greek Cypriot population and government, but was backed by the Turkish Cypriots.

"There are issues which the EU can no longer be objective or fair about," Babacan, the Turkish EU negotiator, said during a recent debate in Brussels over Turkey's EU ambitions.

A recent European Commission report assessing Turkey's membership progress rebuked the country for its failure to meet minimum standards on human rights and cited concerns over the rights of women.

It also highlighted "serious economic and social problems" facing the minority Kurdish population in the southeast of the country and chastised Turkey for its resistance to amending Article 301 of its penal code, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime and has been used to press charges against writers, including the 2006 Nobel literature laureate, Orhan Pamuk.

EU Sets Deadline for Turkey to Open Up Its Ports

The EU believes that a solution to the Turkish-Cypriot dispute that threatens to derail membership talks for Turkey to join the 25-member bloc is still possible with help from the United Nations.

The European Union on Monday gave Ankara until early December to normalize relations with Cyprus, before EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels, on Dec. 11, to decide on Turkey's prospects for joining the 25-nation bloc.

If Turkey continues to refuse to meet the EU's demands to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic, the country's prospects for membership would face an "uncertain future," said Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

"Time is running out. If there is no agreement and Turkey does not honor its commitments, the EU will need to consider the implications for the accession process," Vanhanen added. "This is not a good scenario."

Looking for compromise

The Finnish leader said he expected the European Commission to table a recommendation on Turkey's progress on the Cyprus issue in the first week of December. An EU decision on whether to suspend or continue membership negotiations would then be pushed to Dec.11, he said.

Finland is struggling to hammer out a compromise deal under which the Turkish Cypriot port of Famagusta would be opened for trade with the EU in return for a move by Ankara to allow Greek Cypriot ships into its harbors. The internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus is controlled by the Greek Cypriot government in the south, with the northern third of the divided island recognized only by Turkey.

In spite of a customs deal that Turkey has signed with all 25 member countries, Ankara does not have diplomatic relations with Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004. Ankara has long argued that it will only comply with EU demands once the bloc ends its current economic boycott of the Turkish portion of Cyprus.

Trying to avert a crisis

The Finnish premier said he was trying hard to avert a crisis in the accession talks before Germany assumes the six-month EU presidency.

"The presidency still believes that a solution is possible," said Vanhanen, adding that it was still up to the United Nations to try to reach a comprehensive settlement on the Cyprus issue.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who met with United Nations chief Kofi Annan in Geneva on Monday, said the outgoing secretary general's proposals remained the best hope for resolving the Turkish-Cypriot impasse and securing unification of the island.

Annan's plan, which was approved by Turkish Cypriots in a 2004 referendum but rejected by the Greek side, "continues to be the basis of any solution in the future," Talat told reporters.

UN help needed

Talat added that he did not see the European Union as capable of reaching a solution, saying it could not act as an "impartial and honest broker" since both Greece and the Greek Cypriot government were EU members.

"Unfortunately, the Finnish plan is giving everything to the Greek Cypriots," he said.

Talat conceded that he had received no guarantee from Annan that the new secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, who takes over in January, would stick to the plan.

Even if the Turkey-Cyprus crisis is resolved, accession talks for the huge, secular country, which is predominantly Muslim, are expected to take at least a decade.

DW staff/dpa/AFP (df)

Report: Orthodox leader warns against "unpleasant incidents" during papal trip

ANKARA, Turkey: The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians cautioned Turks in an interview published Sunday against creating potential "unpleasant incidents" during Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming trip to Turkey.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said in an interview in the Sabah newspaper that the pope's Nov. 28-Dec. 1 trip was a great opportunity for Turkey, and he would tell the pontiff that the country belonged in the European Union, which Ankara has long sought to join.

The pope's visit to Turkey was born out of Benedict's desire to meet Bartholomew, who has his headquarters in Istanbul, once ancient Constantinople. The pontiff has been trying to foster better relations between the Orthodox and Catholics, and will meet privately with Bartholomew on Nov. 29.

Turkish authorities have said they expect protests against the pope, who angered Muslims by a speech he made in September in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor's remarks about Islam and violence.

On Sunday, more a dozen nationalists unfurled anti-pope banners during a conservative nationalist party rally in Istanbul.

"We don't want the pope in Turkey," read one banner; another depicted Bartholomew — a divisive figure in Turkey — and Benedict as the heads of a twin-headed snake.

Benedict has expressed regret that his remarks on Muslims had caused offense, and has stressed they did not reflect his personal opinion. He has also expressed esteem for Islam.

Bartholomew cautioned that if protests turn violent, they could cause problems for Turkey ahead of a critical EU summit in mid-December, where the EU leaders will judge Ankara's progress for membership.

"The pope has a say in all Catholic countries," Bartholomew told Sabah. "If there are psychologically unpleasant incidents, then this would be an issue in Brussels in December. Even if not at the official level, they would talk about it between themselves."

Bartholomew, however, said he would tell the pontiff that "it is not wrong for Turkey to become a member of the EU as a Muslim country because it would bring mutual richness."

"The EU should not remain as a Christian club," daily Sabah quoted Bartholomew as saying.

Bartholomew, a Turkish citizen, said the pope's trip was a great opportunity for Turkey.

"If it used badly, it would be harmful for Turkey's image," Bartholomew said. "While aspiring to be a member of the EU, we should avoid such an image."

Bartholomew, meanwhile, insisted that Turkey should reopen a Greek Orthodox theology school shut down 35 years ago.

Turkey has been resisting pressure from the EU to reopen the Halki Theological School on Heybeliada Island near Istanbul, which was closed to new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military training under state control.

"As Turkish citizens, we pay tax, we serve in the military, we vote and we want the same rights. But it does not happen," Bartholomew said. "If Muslims want to study theology, there are 24 theology faculties. Where are we going to study?"

The seminary trained generations of Greek Orthodox leaders, including Bartholomew. Turkey does not recognize his international role and rejects his use of the title "ecumenical," or universal. It argues instead that the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of Istanbul's dwindling Orthodox community.

"We've have this title since the 6th century. The word of ecumenical has no political content. This title is the only thing that I insist on, I will never renounce this title," Bartholomew said.

The Orthodox school issue is likely to attract attention during the papal trip.

The patriarchate in Istanbul dates from the 1,100-year-old Orthodox Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, today's Istanbul, in 1453.

Benedict will also meet with Turkey's president and the deputy premier, as well as the head of the country's religious affairs, a top Islamic cleric.

Turquía suspende la colaboración militar con Francia

París quita hierro a la represalia de Ankara por la aprobación de la ley sobre el genocidio armenio

Dos países aliados en el seno de la OTAN, Francia y Turquía, enfriaron ayer sus relaciones al decidir Ankara que suspende su cooperación militar con París. La medida responde a una ley aprobada en octubre por la Asamblea Nacional francesa que penaliza la negación del genocidio armenio por los otomanos entre 1915 y 1917. El Gobierno de Ankara ya advirtió cuando se votó la ley que Francia se exponía a la hostilidad de Turquía.

"Las relaciones con Francia en el ámbito militar han sido suspendidas", afirmó ayer el general Ilker Basbug, jefe de Estado Mayor del Ejército de Tierra turco en un escueto comunicado. Basbug no precisó si esta suspensión suponía apartar a las empresas francesas del mercado militar turco.

Francia es el tercer proveedor de armas en el mundo, pero la mayoría de sus empresas están integradas en consorcios europeos. La principal amenaza de la decisión turca recae sobre el grupo EADS, con capital francés, alemán y español. EADS, que fabrica los helicópteros Eurocopter, se ha presentado al concurso para la adjudicación de un contrato de 52 helicópteros militares, que asciende a varios cientos de millones de euros.

Ankara parecía inclinarse hasta ahora por aparatos de fabricación estadounidense, pero el enfriamiento de las relaciones con París parece ofrecer la ocasión de presentar el rechazo turco como una respuesta a una provocación francesa por la ley sobre el genocidio armenio. Turquía, país candidato a ingresar en la UE, se ahorra también la necesidad de justificar su preferencia por los aparatos norteamericanos en lugar de los europeos.

En los 10 últimos años, Turquía ha comprado armas a Francia por un monto de 898 millones de euros. Para Patrice Bouveret, investigador del Observatorio de Ventas de Armas, las exportaciones francesas hacia Turquía "no son fundamentales". Representan el 3% del total, y Turquía sólo es el 13º cliente de Francia. Bouveret recuerda también que los contratos ya firmados serán respetados.

El Gobierno francés intentó quitar hierro a la decisión turca. El portavoz del Ministerio de Exteriores, Jean Baptiste Mattéi, recordó que fuerzas de ambos países colaboran desde hace tiempo en Afganistán, Líbano, Bosnia, Kosovo y República Democrática de Congo. "Existe una cooperación estrecha y un gran respeto mutuo entre las Fuerzas Armadas de ambos países", dijo Mattéi, quien subrayó que en Afganistán ambos contingentes comparten base en Kabul.

Por su parte, el portavoz de Defensa, Jean-François Bureau, rechazó que la declaración del jefe militar turco refleje "una crisis o una gran dificultad".

Asimismo, la OTAN aseguró que la tensión entre dos de sus miembros no tendrá consecuencias en la Alianza. "Entendemos que la decisión turca no va a afectar la OTAN. Se trata de las relaciones bilaterales, no de opera-ciones de la OTAN", dijo el portavoz de la Alianza, James Appathurai.

Con todo, la congelación de la cooperación militar entre ambos países es el último de una serie de desencuentros recíprocos. En 2001, cuando el Parlamento francés -Francia tiene una minoría de origen armenio cifrada en más de medio millón de personas- votó una resolución para reconocer el genocidio armenio, las empresas francesas fueron apartadas de los concursos de adjudicación. La nueva ley, votada por la Cámara baja pero aún no aprobada por el Senado francés, prevé condenar con hasta un año de cárcel y 45.000 euros de multa la negación de la matanza de armenios, que según la mayoría de los historiadores causó en torno a 1,5 millones de víctimas. Turquía niega tales matanzas, y afirma que hubo víctimas en ambos bandos. El propio presidente francés, Jacques Chirac, precisó que estaba en contra del texto legal, pero muchos turcos consideran que el proyecto es una nueva prueba del rechazo en Francia a la entrada de Turquía en la UE.

M. DE TAILLAC / AGENCIAS - Madrid / Ankara

Armenians in Turkey; Not dead yet

Nov 16th 2006
From The Economist print edition

Turkey's Armenian population is growing

IN THE grimy alleys of Istanbul's Kumkapi district the air is thick with a rarely heard language: Armenian. Marina Martossian, who has been working illegally for five months as a cleaner, is typical of 40,000 compatriots there. She is delighted with her $300 monthly pay and calls her Turkish bosses “the kindest people in the world”.

That's a big change. Bitter debate over the fate of the Ottoman Armenians—did the mass killings of 1915 constitute genocide?—has fuelled decades of enmity. A survey by TESEV, a think-tank in Istanbul, showed some 70% of Armenians had a negative view of the Turks: a tenth called them “enemies”; a similar chunk “barbarians”. Among Turks, 34% thought poorly of Armenians (17%, bizarrely, believed the Armenians were Jews).

Turkey's Armenian minority dwindled to 80,000. In 1993 Turkey sealed the border with Armenia, after it seized the province of Nagorno-Karabakh from the Turks' Azeri cousins. The issue poisons other ties too: this week Turkey broke off military relations with France, after parliament there voted to criminalise denial of the genocide.

Now Turkish officials go easy on the Armenians—in contrast to other illegal workers. They also welcome changing attitudes among diaspora Armenians, especially among those who actually visit Turkey. In an e-mail widely circulated among émigrés this month, Kardash Onnig, an Armenian-American artist, who recently returned from an arts festival in the eastern province of Kars, says he “never imagined that an Armenian artist singing Armenian songs could elicit a response of such brotherly humanity. I was in a sea of Turks dancing to Armenian tunes. What joy! My eyes were full of tears.”

Turkey suspends military ties with France over Armenian genocide bill

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey has suspended military relations with France in a dispute over whether the mass killings of Armenians in the last century amounted to genocide, the land forces commander said.

The move raises tensions with a key member of the European Union at a time when Turkey's negotiations to become a member of the 25-nation bloc look increasingly troubled, with neither side willing to give way on a dispute over divided Cyprus.

Gen. Ilker Basbug told reporters on Wednesday that military ties with France were suspended after lawmakers in France's lower house of parliament approved a bill in October that would make it a crime to deny that Turks committed genocide against Armenians. The bill would have to be approved by the French Senate and president to become law.

"Relations with France in the military field have been suspended," the state-owned Anatolia news agency quoted Basbug as saying. Asked whether there were any cancellations of military visits, Basbug said, "There are no high-level visits between the two countries."

Lale Sariibrahimoglu, an expert on military issues, said the cancellation of visits would not have a substantial effect on military contracts.

"In the past few years, France had not had very high chance of winning Turkish military contracts anyway, for example in helicopter and satellite procurement projects," she said. For example, the Eurocopter Group's Tiger helicopter was eliminated from the running to supply attack helicopters to Turkey, she said.

A Turkish, army-owned conglomerate, Oyak, has several partnerships with French companies, including Renault, and these investments were not likely to be affected, Sariibrahimoglu said.

France's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

Turkey vehemently denies that it committed genocide against Armenians, though many nations have classified the World War I-era killings as such and say some 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died in mass expulsions and fighting, but says the number of dead is exaggerated and that most were killed in interethnic battles as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

The Turkish general spoke at a reception in honor of the founding of the breakaway republic in Turkish northern Cyprus.

In 1974, Turkish forces invaded the island to stop a coup by army officers that aimed to unite Cyprus with Greece. Since then, Turkey has propped up a government of ethnic Turks on the north of the island that no other nation recognizes.

When Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, benefits of membership were only extended to the Greek-speaking side , and the conflict has threatened to derail Turkey's hopes of also joining the union.

Turkey has refused to extend its customs union to include Greek Cyprus, despite EU warnings that failing to do so would risk the suspension of membership talks. Turkey insists, however, that it will not open up to Cyprus until an international embargo against Turks on the island is lifted.

"If by the end of the year Turkey still does not recognize the 25 member states, notably including Cyprus, then it appears to me necessary to rethink the timetable for the adhesion of Turkey," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said last week.

France and Turkey are both NATO members, and Turkey has bought French weaponry. The two countries also have participated in military exercises together, and have sent troops to serve in the international peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Turkey has said that the French lawmakers' vote has deeply harmed relations. A Turkish consumer's union has urged a boycott of French goods, and Turkey's broadcasting watchdog suggested a complete boycott of French films and other media.

The European Union has criticized the French bill, saying it is not in line with the principle of free expression. The United States also criticized the bill, saying it obstructs a Turkish-Armenian dialogue.

The Armenian issue is one of the most divisive and emotional in Turkey. Those who classify the killings as genocide are often accused of treason.

The Cypriots and the Kurds

Kirsty Hughes / International Herald Tribune

LONDON: Turkey complains vociferously about the European Union's unfair treatment of the politically and economically isolated Turkish Cypriots. Why then shouldn't Turkey grant a big chunk of its own citizens - the Kurds - the same rights it demands for people who are not even Turkish nationals?

There are many similarities between Northern Cyprus and the Turkish southeast, where many of Turkey's estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds live. They are geographically similar and are located in sensitive areas - the one off Syria's coast, the other bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Both are relatively isolated and poor, though the Kurds are a lot poorer than the Turkish Cypriots. In both cases, poverty is linked to the unresolved political and security issues around their identity and political status.

But it's the differences that are more striking. Turkey is loudly championing the rights of Turkish Cypriots in the EU. But anyone who champions Kurdish rights in Turkey risks being accused of separatism and even terrorism.

While Turkey expects international support for its Cyprus solution, based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality between the two communities, it argues the precise opposite for its own Kurdish citizens.

For many Turks, any Kurdish request for national recognition - whether to be called Kurdish citizens of Turkey rather than Turks, or for a federation, or to use the Kurdish language in schools or in the media - is perceived as an attack on the Turkish nation and its territory.

While many Kurds are ready to remain within a unitary Turkish state so long as they can have full cultural rights, for most Turks the idea of Turkish Cypriots accepting simply minority status in a Greek-Cypriot dominated Republic of Cyprus is anathema.

The Turkish habit of stamping slogans onto mountainsides is evident both in Northern Cyprus and in southeastern Turkey. But on Cyprus, the slogans declaring the north to be the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are directed at the Greek Cypriots across the Green Line, while in the desolate mountains of southeast Turkey, the slogans assert "one state, one flag, one language."

Many Turks will argue that the Cyprus problem and the Kurdish problem are not the same due to the violence of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish military for over 20 years and is and labeled as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. But why should violence by a minority of Kurds mean curtailing the rights of the majority of Kurds?

How can there be any hope of a political solution in either place without respect for the rights of both minority groups?

Where are the political leaders? Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is struggling on many fronts, not least to win re-election next year in the face of a nationalist and secularist onslaught, and also to keep Turkey's EU process on track despite negative signals from Europe and waning public enthusiasm in Turkey. Thus Erdogan may not be capable of making a deal on Cyprus, nor of making any progress on the southeast in the face of growing hostility both to him and to the Kurds.

And yet while some hardline Turkish nationalists may want an independent Northern Cyprus, and some radical Kurds may dream of an independent Kurdistan, the fact is that neither Turkey's southeast, nor Northern Cyprus has a realistic future as independent state.

In both cases the best hopes for an acceptable solution lie with a continuation of Turkey's EU negotiations.

Much of the solution lies in Turkey's hands. If Turkey's government and public stand up consistently for democracy and human rights - whether in support of Turkish Cypriots or Turkey's Kurds - and against the undemocratic political pronouncements of Turkey's military and nationalists, then it will be hard for democratic European politicians to give in to their nationalists and to suspend membership negotiations with Turkey.

Kirsty Hughes is a former senior fellow of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels.

Winning back the Turks

F. Stephen Larrabee / International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON: Once considered one of America's closest allies, Turkey today is engulfed by growing anti-Americanism. A recent survey by the German Marshall Fund found that only 7 percent of Turks polled approved of U.S. policies, while 81 percent disapproved. The poll found that 56 percent of the respondents thought that U.S. leadership was "very undesirable."

The main cause of the current rift dividing Turkey and the United States is the war in Iraq.

The Turks opposed the war - not out of any love for Saddam Hussein, but because they feared it would lead to greater sectarian violence and strengthen Kurdish nationalism. Over the last three years, Turkey's worst fears have come true.

America's invasion of Iraq seriously exacerbated Turkey's Kurdish problem and gave new impetus to the separatist struggle waged by the Kurdistan Workers Party, known by its Turkish initials of PKK.

Since January, more than 91 Turkish security officials have been killed in PKK attacks believed to originate from training camps in northern Iraq. Many Turks blame the United States for the increase in PKK violence, since northern Iraq is under U.S. control.

The government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly called upon the United States to take military action to eliminate PKK training camps in Iraq.

But while the United States has given verbal support to Turkey's struggle against the PKK, America has been reluctant to take any concrete action at a time when U.S. forces in Iraq are stretched thin.

Moreover, the United States has not wanted to irritate the Kurds in northern Iraq, whose support is needed to keep Iraq together.

This has given the impression to many Turks that the United States was siding with the Kurds on a security issue of paramount importance to Turkey, leading to increasing strains in relations between Ankara and Washington.

Frustrated by the lack of action and results, the Turkish government has threatened to take unilateral military action to destroy the PKK camps in northern Iraq.

The United States, however, strongly opposes any Turkish attacks in Iraq, fearing this could destabilize Kurdish areas of northern Iraq that are relatively tranquil.

In an effort to reduce Turkish anxiety, the Bush administration recently appointed a special envoy responsible for coordinating the U.S. response to the PKK. The appointment of retired General Joseph W. Ralston, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, is a welcome sign that the Bush administration is finally beginning to take Turkish concerns seriously.

However, to stem the tide of rising anti-Americanism in Turkey, Ralston's appointment needs to be followed up by further concrete actions by the United States to underscore American seriousness and resolve to end the PKK threat. Specifically, the United States should:

Arrest and turn over to the Turkish government the key leaders of the PKK, many of whom currently roam freely in northern Iraq.

Restrict PKK movements in northern Iraq by cutting the PKK's logistic lines.

Put the city of Kirkuk, which sits astride one of the world's largest oil deposits, under Iraqi rather than Kurdish administration.

This would help defuse Turkish fears that the recent massive return of Kurdish refugees expelled under Saddam Hussein will lead to the "Kurdization" of Kirkuk and an attempt by the Kurds to gain access to Kirkuk's oil wealth. If the Kurds succeed in that effort, they could use oil money to finance the establishment of an independent Kurdish state on Turkey's southern border.

Taken together, these actions would provide tangible proof that the United States is serious about helping Turkey eliminate the PKK terrorist threat, and would give concrete content to recent efforts to develop a serious strategic partnership with Turkey.

Failure to take these actions, on the other hand, is likely to lead to a further deterioration of U.S.-Turkish relations and an increasing estrangement of Turkey from the West.

F. Stephen Larrabee holds the corporate chair in European security at the Rand Corporation.

Harming Turkey's hopes likely to bolster terrorism

By Dennis Dr Sandole

Published: November 14 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 14 2006 02:00

From Dr Dennis J.D. Sandole.

Sir, Against the background of discussion about Turkey's chances of accession to the European Union slipping away, Guler Sabanci's article ("Why the European Union needs Turkey", November 7) should be taken very seriously by Brussels and individual capitals such as Athens, Nicosia, Paris and Vienna.

Ms Sabanci reminds FT readers not just of the multi-ethnic, multi-denominational, geographical, historical and other advantages of Turkey being a member of the EU, but that it was the Greek Cypriots who, at the last minute, rejected the plan of Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, for a "united" Cyprus to enter the EU in May 2004(a plan Turkish Cypriots had approved), thereby consigning Cyprus to remaining a divided island with the Turkish-Cypriot part isolated from the EU and international community up to the present time.

More important, however, is what Ms Sabanci does not say. As chairman of the Sabanci Group, a Turkish conglomerate, she presides over a business empire that established Sabanci University on the Asian side of Istanbul in the 1990s. Sabanci University is a modern, state-of-the-art academic institution where most courses are taught in English by Turkish and other professors who have earned their advanced degrees in the US, Canada, and elsewhere in the west.

Among the courses taught there is the world-class master's programme in conflict analysis and resolution, probably the premier course of its kind in the region. One of its goals is to educate and train cadres of conflict resolution professionals from all over the world who can help transform the current, self-fulfilling "clash of civilisations" into a "dialogue" - something Turkey's entry to the EU is also meant to do.

Turkey, like other states recently admitted (Greek Cyprus) or waiting for entry to the EU in the near future (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia), needs time, patience, understanding and helpful assistance. Anything that serves to undermine prospects for its entry will also probably serve the interests of the perpetrators of global terrorism and, needless to say, exacerbate the near-deterministic dynamics of the "civilisational clash".

Dennis J.D. Sandole,

Professor of Conflict Resolution and International Relations,

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution,

George Mason University,

Arlington, VA 22201, US

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

EU urged to call off talks with Turkey

By Daniel Dombey in Brussels

Published: November 14 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 14 2006 02:00

The battle over Turkey's EU bid began in earnest on Monday, with Cyprus and Austria arguing that the European Union should halt negotiations.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Yiorgos Lillikas, Cypriot foreign minister, said it was not enough to suspend talks on a limited number of topics - one option being studied in Brussels.

Ursula Plassnik, Austrian foreign minister, called for "time out" from the negotiations, at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

The issue has come to a head because of Turkey's refusal to meet an EU demand to open its ports to vessels from Cyprus, which is an EU member but does not have diplomatic ties with Ankara.

Last week, the European Commission attempted to defuse the dispute by deferring its own recommendation on an EU response for a month.

But Mr Lillikas said heno longer held out hope the deadlock could be broken by compromise between Cyprus and Turkey. The Finnish EU presidency has spearheaded efforts to find a deal, but Mr Lillikas said Turkey had shown it was not interested.

Mr Lillikas said it would not be enough to suspend talks on a limited number of the outstanding 34 negotiating topics, since negotiations were already in effect suspended on several topics - where Cyprus has blocked them - and in many other areas it would take years before Turkey was in a position to negotiate.

Instead, Cyprus believes the EU should consider halting the entire talks while stopping short of a formal decision to put the process on hold.

Yesterday, Ali Babacan, Turkey's chief EU negotiator, said such a delay would have serious consequences for the EU, for Turkey, and the surrounding region.

But countries such as the UK and France believe the EU can still agree to halt talks on a certain number of chapters rather than delay the whole process, arguing that if the whole process were halted it might never be revived.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006