EU to criticise Turkish progress

The European Commission is to issue a critical verdict on Turkey's progress towards EU membership, while trying to avoid a breakdown in relations.

The report says the pace of reforms in Turkey has slowed, and calls for urgent steps to ensure freedom of speech.

But it stops short of recommending any slowing or freezing of membership negotiations with Turkey.

The Commission also says it will step up scrutiny of all candidate countries' political reforms in future.

There will be a "closer link" between these reforms and the pace of entry talks, it says in its annual review of progress made by states queuing up to join the bloc.

Cyprus obstacle

Turkey is likely to be told that it has one last chance to open its ports to ships and planes from Cyprus, reports the BBC's Mark Mardell.

If it doesn't do so, EU leaders will have to decide next month whether to call off some of the talks.

The precise wording has yet to be decided, but the draft text does say Turkey has made no progress towards normalisation of relations with Cyprus, which joined the EU in May 2004.

An EU summit in December is expected to discuss a possible suspension of membership talks if there is no progress by then, but the Commission is keen to avoid jeopardising Finnish-led negotiations on the Cyprus issue now.

The report includes a long list of other problems Turkey has to address.

It says Ankara must ensure freedom of expression "without delay" by repealing or amending article 301 of the penal code, which has led to the prosecution of numerous writers for "insulting Turkishness".

It also raises serious concerns about allegations of torture, freedom of religion, women's and trade union rights, civilian control over the military, and the rights and freedoms of the Kurdish population.

Further enlargement

The European Commission says the 2004 enlargement of the EU, which took membership from 15 to 25 states, has been a "considerable success" increasing prosperity across the bloc.

However, it says there will not be another "big bang" expansion, when several countries join at once.

Bulgaria and Romania are due to join in January 2007, but the Commission says "a new institutional settlement" streamlining the way the EU operates should have been reached before any further members can join.

Officials emphasise that reaching an institutional settlement does not necessarily mean passing the constitution, which was voted down by voters in French and Dutch referendums last year.

They also insist that Croatia could still join the EU by the end of the decade.

Another Commission report to be issued on Wednesday on the EU's capacity to absorb new members, avoids setting geographical limits to the EU.

Correspondents say it gives some hope to would-be members such as Ukraine or Moldova - but stresses that keeping its promises to existing candidates in the Balkans and Turkey is a higher priority.

Fürsprache trotz mieser Noten

Der neue EU-Fortschrittsbericht über die Türkei steht ins Haus - und trotz der zu erwarteten Mängel beharrt Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier auf Fortsetzung der Verhandlungen. In Gegensatz zur CSU.

Außenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier befürwortet eine konsequente Fortsetzung der EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen mit der Türkei. Zum Fortschrittsbericht der EU-Kommission sagte der SPD-Politiker der "Bild"-Zeitung: "Die Botschaft lautet: Trotz Fortschritten sind in der Türkei noch erhebliche Reformanstrengungen nötig. Klar ist aber auch: Wir wollen den Erfolg der Verhandlungen."

Steinmeier warnte davor, die Verhandlungen in Frage zu stellen oder zu zerreden. "Manche in Europa scheinen ein Scheitern der Beitrittsverhandlungen regelrecht herbeireden zu wollen." In der Türkei verstärke das den Eindruck, in der EU nicht willkommen zu sein. "Diesem Eindruck müssen wir entgegenwirken."

"Alle Seiten müssen zum Erfolg beitragen"

In der Zypern-Frage müsse man alles dransetzen, noch in diesem Jahr einen fairen Kompromiss zu finden, sagte der Minister. Die Türkei müsse ihre Häfen und den Luftraum auch für Zypern öffnen, gleichzeitig müsse die EU ihr Versprechen erfüllen, den direkten Handel mit Nord-Zypern zu ermöglichen. "Alle Seiten müssen jetzt zum Erfolg der finnischen Vermittlungsbemühungen beitragen", sagte Steinmeier.

Vor dem Hintergrund stagnierender Bemühungen um eine Lösung des Zypern-Streits und der erwarteten Kritik der EU-Kommission an den Fortschritten der Türkei fordern konservative Politiker dagegen einen Stopp der Verhandlungen.

So will CSU-Chef Edmund Stoiber die Beitrittsverhandlungen einfrieren. Dies müsse die Konsequenz aus der türkischen Ablehnung einer Anerkennung Zyperns und dem negativen Bericht der EU-Kommission über Fortschritte in der Türkei sein, sagte der bayerische Ministerpräsident der "Welt". Stoiber bekräftige seine Ablehnung einer türkischen Vollmitgliedschaft in der Europäischen Union und forderte stattdessen, das Land in eine "intensive Nachbarschaftspolitik" einzubeziehen. "Die Türkei ist kein europäisches Land und kann deshalb am Ende der Verhandlungen auch nicht EU-Mitglied werden", sagte Stoiber.

AP

EU urged to alter approach to Turkey or jeopardise links

By Leyla Boulton in London

The European Union needs to overhaul its approach to Turkey or face the collapse of a strategically important relationship with unpredictable consequences, the country's most senior international civil servant has warned.

Kemal Dervis, the architect of Turkey's economic recovery who now runs the United Nations Development Programme, said that constant EU pressure and lecturing, seen by Ankara as raising the bar for membership, was "no longer on".

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"A very deep shift in Turkish public opinion" meant it was no longer a political asset for politicians to be "strongly pro-EU", Mr Dervis told the FT.

Mr Dervis was speaking on a visit to London this week to promote the UN's human development report on water and prepare a strategy on climate change. Mr Dervis agreed this would build on the economic analysis of the problem by Sir Nicholas Stern, the British former chief economist of the World Bank.

Mr Dervis is also a member of a high-level panel that next week comes up with proposals on how to make UN decision-making and aid more effective.

He said that since a sharp devaluation in 2001, Turkey's transformation into a "very credible economic powerhouse" - with the help of deep reforms backed by loans from the International Monetary Fund - had "lifted Turks' self-confidence".

However, many EU officials fault Turkey for slowing the pace of reforms over the past two years.

The scale of Turkey's difficulties was thrown into stark relief this week when Costas Karamanlis, Greek prime minister, criticised Ankara for failing to do more on constitutional and human rights reform.

But Mr Dervis, a former economy minister, argued that big progress on a previously bad human rights record meant "Turks feel they have done their bit".

For all the criticism - including a Commission report next week that will highlight Turkey's shortcomings on human rights - wide-ranging liberalisation had included the opening of new churches when some EU capitals still had no mosque.

International indicators showing the Turkish economy was stronger and corruption weaker than that of some new EU members reinforced a sense in Turkey that EU objections were not "really about human rights" but more about its predominantly Muslim identity and fears of unemployed Turkish workers swamping the EU.

To avert the risk of the relationship "falling apart", Mr Dervis said "Europe needs to change the way it talks to Turkey". This need-ed to happen along the lines of "Look, please understand we have to take extra care [in admitting new members] but we will get there eventually. You are Europeans and we want to build a Europe where Muslims have a natural place. But we have problems including governance [in EU decision-making], and unemployment."

Such problems could be solved by setting "objective criteria" - such as a rule Turkish workers would only be allowed full freedom of movement inside the bloc once Turkish unemployment was below the EU average.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Turkey's defiance puts membership talks at risk

Turkey's refusal to open up its ports is dividing the European Union, with several member states pressing for a tough stance against Ankara this week.

The European Commission will decide on Wednesday whether to recommend a partial suspension of Turkey's membership negotiations because of the country's failure to open its ports to Cyprus, an EU member.

The Commission debate opens the way for a full-blooded dispute among EU countries, which officials fear could bring the Turkey negotiations to a halt.

José Manuel Barroso, Commission president, and Olli Rehn, enlargement commissioner, want to limit the impact on the membership negotiations. One step under their consideration is to recommend the suspension of three negotiating topics linked to trade.

But commissioners Jacq-ues Barrot of France, Markos Kyprianou of Cyprus and Stavros Dimas of Greece all want Brussels to send out a strong message that more parts of the negotiations will be affected if Ankara does not meet the EU's demand.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner of Austria is also keen that the Commission should set out a firm line on Turkey, distinguishing it from Croatia, the other country in EU membership negotiations.

France, Cyprus, Austria and Greece are all pushing for a tough stance on Turkey, with the UK championing efforts to keep the talks on course. Cyprus has said it will veto any attempts to begin negotiations on new topics with Turkey unless it meets the EU demand.

"If the issue was just Turkey not opening its ports, that would be one thing," said an EU diplomat, who argued that if the dispute were purely commercial it might be appropriate to suspend only a small number of negotiating topics. "But remember that the Commission will also report on Wednesday that Turkey is not making progress on reforms. This is a question of political control of the EU's enlargement process."

In a sign of the sensitivity of the debate about reforms, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, indicated yesterday that he was ready to amend an article of the Turkish penal code that the Commission says inhibits free speech.

"We are ready for proposals to make article 301 more concrete if there are problems stemming from it being vague," he said.

On Wednesday, the Commission will also adopt a strategy paper for future enlargement, which says that before any new expansion takes place, the EU will have to deal with its own institutional arrangements - which were to have been decided by the ill-fated European constitution.

A draft of the paper seen by the Financial Times also says that the "EU is defined by its values rather than by fixed geographical limits" - a phrase to which Mr Barrot objects.

Nicolas Sarkozy, a front-runner for France's presidency, says Turkey should not be in the EU, partly because most of the country's land mass is in Asia.

Additional reporting by Andrew Bounds

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Analysis: Turkey and the EU Drift Apart

By BENJAMIN HARVEY

The Associated Press
Sunday, November 5, 2006; 4:19 PM

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The cautious courtship between Turkey and the European Union looks like it might be headed for a messy and acrimonious breakup.

They were a mismatched couple from the beginning: one wealthy, mostly Christian and liberal, the other far poorer, overwhelmingly Muslim and largely conservative. Perhaps it's no surprise the initial optimism over Turkey's bid to join the bloc has deteriorated into mutual recriminations and a seemingly hopeless inability to communicate.

The mood is likely to worsen after Wednesday when the EU releases a progress report on Turkey's bid which says Ankara is dragging its feet on reform and failing to meet minimum human rights standards, according to a draft copy viewed by The Associated Press.

The consequences of worsening relations between Turkey and the EU could be dramatic and far-reaching: At stake is an ambitious vision of bringing a Muslim nation into European society, proving that a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam is not inevitable.

Many analysts say that is why negotiations are likely to continue for the foreseeable future, with neither side committing to a clean split that would send the message to Muslims everywhere that the West is not prepared to deal with them on equal footing.

"Of course I support the EU (bid)," said Bayram Kapici, a 38-year-old security guard in Istanbul. "But the question is, what will our place in the EU be? I mean, we're Muslims. Are we barbarians? How will they see us?"

For the moment, enthusiasm toward Turkey's bid has cooled dramatically on both sides, and Turkish leaders' passionate claims it could bridge the gap between Europe and the Muslim world are starting to ring hollow.

Turkish public support for membership has fallen below 50 percent, and many believe that perceived insults from the EU _ in the form of frequent criticism and seemingly endless demands for reform _ play directly into the hands of nationalists and Islamists who are largely opposed to the bid.

Europeans, meanwhile, have a litany of complaints about Turkey, including its poor record on human rights, intolerance to free speech and hardline attitudes toward adultery and homosexuality.

Many Europeans also say Turkey has refused to look objectively at its past, notably the massacre of Armenians after World War I that many historians call a genocide. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says the overall figure is inflated and that the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Many Turks fault the country's old rivals Greece and Cyprus for the growing acrimony, claiming they are lobbying the EU to take a hard line over Turkey's refusal to open its ports to planes and ships from the Greek-speaking part of Cyprus. Turkey does not recognize the Cypriot government and props up the internationally unrecognized administration in the north of the island.

A last-ditch meeting last week to settle the Cyprus issue was canceled, leaving the Turks with very little time to negotiate before the EU's year-end deadline to concede or see talks suspended.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in remarks released Sunday that the standoff over Cyprus was "very serious." Asked if the talks would be frozen, she said: "The EU cannot simply carry on. Turkey must understand that there will be no simple 'carry on' if there is no movement" on Cyprus.

If talks collapse, the symbolic value of having an overwhelmingly Muslim, democratic nation firmly integrated into the West would be lost. Turkey's 71 million citizens, taught to look to Europe for inspiration since the secular Turkish state was founded in the 1920s, might look elsewhere for positive reinforcement.

The Islamic countries of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, with which Turkey's Islamic-rooted government has been forging increasingly close ties, could be natural surrogates.

"Nationalists are benefiting from this, there's no question about it," said pollster and political science professor Hakan Yilmaz.

But many Turks feel that a complete breakup with the EU is out of the question.

Yilmaz said many EU leaders were just playing to the crowd by publicly belittling Turkey.

"Some in the European Union public love this humiliation _ particularly in France," he said, alluding to a proposed French law that would make it a crime to deny the Turkish genocide of Armenians.

Meanwhile, some leading politicians on both sides are trying to make the relationship so miserable that Turkey will just walk away on its own, said Ilter Turan, a political analyst at Istanbul Bilgi University.

Turan said, however, the government would be excoriated by the Turkish public if it walked away from the EU, despite the current anti-EU mood in the country.

The key question appears to be how to persuade Turkey to reform without damaging national pride.

"There is one thing where the Turkish public seems to be rather adamant," Turan said. "If there is to be a union, it is to be on equal grounds."

___

Associated Press Writer Stephen Graham contributed to this report from Berlin.

Blow to hope of Turkey-Cyprus deal

Turkey's troubled bid to join the European Union endured another blow on Thursday, after an attempt to negotiate a deal over Cyprus was called off.

Finland, holder of the EU presidency, announced it was cancelling plans for a ministerial-level meeting on Sunday intended to address the biggest current difficulty in the negotiations - Turkey's failure to comply with an EU demand to open its ports to vessels from Cyprus. Ankara does not have diplomatic relations with Cyprus, but Finland had hoped to reach a deal at the meeting, which would have involved Turkey, Cyprus and the self-styled Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus.

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The European Commission is now due to report on November 8 that Turkey has failed to meet the demand - a finding that could lead to a "train crash" in which the talks are suspended or cast into limbo.

"This is not very encouraging," Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish foreign minister, told the Financial Times. "It would have been helpful, particularly for Turkey, if we could have achieved a solution or at least shown that negotiations were under way. It would have taken the edge off some of the quite justified criticism."

However, Mr Tuomioja said Finland would continue its efforts, if necessary engaging in shuttle diplomacy.

People following the talks said the three main parties had all been reluctant about the proposed deal, which would have involved the EU taking charge of Famagusta port in Northern Cyprus, the United Nations assuming responsibility for a neighbouring town, and Turkey beginning to open ports to the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government. The failure to reach an agreement puts pressure on the Commission to recommend how the EU should respond to Ankara's defiance, a scenario Brussels has been desperate to avoid.

EU lawyers say that unless Turkey opens its ports it will be impossible to start negotiations on topics directly related to the dispute, such as the customs union, tax and transport.

Some EU member states want to go much further. Cyprus insists that all Turkey's membership negotiations should be frozen if Ankara continues to refuse to open its ports.

The atmosphere surrounding the negotiations is al-ready tense. A copy of the EU's draft strategy paper, seen by the FT, says that "the pace of reforms has slowed down in Turkey" and calls for "determined efforts to broaden the reform momentum in Turkey". Because of the sensitivity of the Cyprus dispute, the draft leaves the section for conclusions and recommendations blank.

Some observers cautioned that a deal on Cyprus was always most likely in the run-up to an EU summit in December which will focus on enlargement and Turkey's EU aspirations. "It would have been tremendous if we had been able to reach a deal at this stage but it's not surprising that we haven't," said one. "My feeling is that this will run into December."

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

EU’s relations with Turkey schizophrenic: Rehn

EU’s relations with Turkey schizophrenic: Rehn

The EU has to keep its promised to Turkey, not just expect Turkey to respect the bloc’s membership requirements.

PARIS - The European Union Commissioner in charge of the bloc’s expansion process has described the EU’s relations with Turkey as being schizophrenic.

–>

In an interview with the French newspaper Liberation EC Commissioner Olli Rehn said that while the EU expected Turkey to meet the bloc’s accession criteria in regard to fundamental freedoms, freedom of speech, thought and religion, the EU also had to keep its promises to Turkey.

“Our relationship with Turkey is schizophrenic. We are downplaying Turkey’s strategic significance,” Rehn said.

The Commissioner said that as long as Ankara did what was required of it regarding the accession process there was no need for membership negotiations to be suspended.

Rehn said there was a perception in Turkey that the EU did not want the country as a member, a perception that needed to be changed.

“The Turkish public has a disappointment as if the EU did not want them,” he said. “Similarly, the European public has a disappointment as if there had not been enough progress in Turkey’s democratisation. This is a vicious circle that must be broken. Otherwise, we cannot proceed. We cannot accomplish it by suspending the negotiations.”

The implementation of the requirements of the Ankara Protocol were a key issue for this autumn, Rehn said, adding that the current EU term president Finland was continuing to resolve the problem and end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots.

© 2006 NTVMSNBC.com

Many dead in Turkey flash floods

At least 20 people have died in severe flooding across south-eastern Turkey, many swept away by deluges caused by overnight torrential rain.

Victims include a party of 14 wedding guests travelling in a minibus from Diyarbakir to neighbouring Mardin.

Helicopters and boats are struggling to rescue some 300 people trapped in their flooded homes in Cinar and Bismil.

Officials have warned that heavy rains, which began over the weekend, are likely to continue in the region.

In Cinar, a woman and her two children drowned when water flooded into their house, news agency AFP reported.

District governor Haci Mehmet Kara said two young siblings had also died in similar circumstances in Silopi, the news agency reported.

Many of the homes in the poor, mainly Kurdish region of Turkey are constructed with mud bricks and cannot withstand floods and earthquakes.

Turkey's membership bid

EU diplomats are trying to organise an emergency meeting this weekend in the hope of resolving problems surrounding Turkey's membership bid.

The Finnish government - the current president of the EU - has offered to host talks between some key players.
The European Commission is to produce a report next week on Turkey's progress in its membership negotiations.There are already some voices in the EU calling for the talks, which opened in October last year, to be suspended. n return for the start of the talks, Turkey was supposed to open its ports and airports to all EU traffic, including that from the divided island of Cyprus. But the Cypriots are still waiting for access.
One EU diplomat described the current draft of the Commission's report on Turkey as highly critical.
There are hopes that Turkey may agree to open its ports and airports if the EU's economic isolation of Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus is lessened somewhat.Even so, the Commission's report card is also likely to bash Turkey for its record on human rights and free speech.This process was supposed to be, as much as anything, about the symbolism of Europe and Asia, the West and Islam, working together.
That is why diplomats are describing the current situation as very high-risk.

sunny days in istanbul...

Hi all,
since 14th of September I have been in istanbul. enjoying very sunny days recently while lara in Bilbao is suffering from storms, rain and huge wind streams. :-), starting from today I would like to put some content from internet on my blog. so you could have some opinion about what i read, what i like or in which subjects I am interested. sure every person has her or his choice depending on education, environment or family. what shapes one's mind or behaviours? but the answer will change also the responder's features. so a chicken or an egg, which comes first? today i would like to write some nwes links that I read almost everyday. take care...
www.jungewelt.de
www.elmundo.es
www.sol.org.tr
www.economist.com

to be continued...

greetings from istanbul...

hello there,
since last friday I have been in Istanbul to spend some time with my family well especially with my mother. Yet dont know how long I will be here. hope will be shorter than I had supposed. Cancer treatment of my mother will last during the coming months . In her last visit to the hospital I had the opportunity to go into the room where she had her examination. And again I saw how the things work here in Turkey. Doctor asks some questions without any touch on the body of my mother. she doesnt know about my mother's previous use of medicines. only she had some papers where she wrote what my mother told her. well hopefully she could get better soon if not some difficult times are coming for me in the near future. we will se beatiful days son...

after a visit to Cuba

long long time since my last post, well we have been to Havana where I have learned too much about the life there. people seem quite unhappy with what is going on there, likely they are not capable of changing sth there. I ll write soon my observations during one week visit. tomorrow i am leaving Bilbao heading to first Cologne then to istanbul. quite exhaustive nowadays in every aspect, physically also mentaly. I will try to explain why...

on Friday leaving for Cuba...

Dear all,
this will be my last message for this week and for the next one. On Friday we are leaving Bilbao at 7.30 to get our flight to Madrid and from Madrid at 14.30 we will take off for Havana. Hope everything will be fine and we will enjoy our trip to this magnificient country. personally I am really excited. a new world a new way of living makes me quite nervous. anyway one of my dreams comes into reality. should be content and without any worry. take care all...will try to connect from cuba...

recent photos from the Bilbao Fest...

This is a percussion band who walks around the city with people who join them during their performance.

These are the girls who came together to celebrate the last day of their single friend who might get married today or tomorrow...

Aste Nagusia photos

Las fiestas de aqui son diferentes. Mayores, jovenes y ninos saben disfrutarlas juntos y por separado. El primer dia todos reunidos para dar la bienvenida a las fiestas con el disparo del Txupin. Despues a lo largo de la semana cada uno busca su ambiente..los ninos en las attracciones, los mayores bailando musica popular, los jovenes degustando el famoso kalimotxo (coca cola mas vino tinto). por las noches durante unos minutos mayores, jovenes y ninos se reunen de nuevo para ver el espectaculo de los fuegos artificiales. gora aste nagusia...

more photos from Bilbao Aste Nagusia Semana Grande

Welcome to istanbul-bilbao,
Dear all, I am uploading all new photos from Bilbao Aste Nagusia Semana Grande Fest...

opening of the fest in Bilbao

Welcome to istanbul-bilbao!!!!

best photos from bilbao fest...

final countdown for Cuba...

last 14 days for Cuba. we will leave bilbao to go first to madrid in order to get our flight to havana in 1st of september. I think flight to Cuba will take 10 hours aprox. spending the last days planning the journey, thinking about the places that we will visit. it seems that we will be exhausted when we returned to bilbao. Surely I will be taking photos all the time, but I dont want to be seen there as a tourist by people there. In some way I have to integrate myself to the daily life there rapidly. As soon as I do that I think I could understand the way of living there. we will be staying all the time in Havana but one day may be we will go to Varadero to see the most beatiful beaches in the world. I would like to ask some questions to people living there about their lives. And we will be visiting everyday a pub or bar to see live performances. I hope we will enjoy in my dreamland. take care all.

pyjamas fest in Bilbao...

Hi there. yesterday we were at pyjamas fest in bilbao in algorta quarter. algorta is an attracting point for the people in Bilbao also for the visitors of Bilbao. we arrived there at 21.15 and left the fest at 22.30. why so early? because there was no metro service after 22.30. quite astonishing for the people of Bilbao who visit many fests lately. there will be big fest in bilbao during the next week. some concerts and different activities will take place during whole week. Prodigy, Chambao, Coti, Machacho, Pereza are some names who will perform during this one week fest. We will attend all the main concerts where I suppose many young people will come also to drink and to have fun. During my observations here in Bilbao I realized that Vascos drink more than Germans who claim that they are the champion of drinking. I dont know too much about other parts of Spain but here people drink without any limit. well some clashes are inevitable during the fests between police forces and young people. there in istanbul we drink to enjoy the meeting of friends or celebrating the event which could be birthday or farewell for a friend. here youngs drink only to get drunk in a very short time span. and whole pleasure of drink in a pleasent manner among fellows disappears. as my best friend asks always where is the solution? was/wo ist die losung?