Posted on 10/03/2005 9:38:38 AM PDT by knighthawk
AUSTRIA has pushed the European Union to the brink of a diplomatic crisis by refusing to drop its objections to Turkey's bid to become the first predominantly Muslim nation to be a full member of the European Union.
The Austrian stonewalling pushed Turkey's 40-year campaign to join the EU close to collapse after emergency talks between EU foreign ministers broke up without agreement just hours before entry negotiations were due to start.
Amid frenetic diplomacy and warnings of dire consequences if the EU rejected Turkey, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw chaired fraught negotiations through the night in an attempt to stop Austria from torpedoing the membership talks.
"It's a frustrating situation, but I hope and pray that we may be able to reach an agreement," Mr Straw said.
Membership talks with Turkey, which were agreed in principle last December, had been due to start at a special ceremony yesterday, beginning a process that is expected to take 10 years.
The deadline for an agreement to begin the talks passes overnight, Australian time.
Failure to start the talks on time would only deepen an EU crisis triggered by French and Dutch voters' rejection of the bloc's draft constitution in May and June. Opposition to Turkey's EU hopes was one reason the constitution was voted down.
Austria has demanded that Turkey be offered a "privileged partnership" as an alternative to full membership, an offer that Turkey has made clear is unacceptable. Although Austria stands alone on the issue, it has the power of veto.
In a final attempt to change Austria's mind, British Prime Minister Tony Blair telephoned Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, and Mr Straw held repeated meetings with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, warning her of serious consequences if the EU rejected the Muslim country.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also phoned Mr Schussel to try to reach a deal.
Mr Erdogan told Turkish television: "Either the EU will decide to become a world force and a world player, which would show its political maturity, or it will limit itself to a Christian club."
Failure to secure the start of Turkey's entry into the union would be humiliating for Mr Blair, who made it one of the priorities of his six-month presidency of the EU.
Ms Plassnik refused to bow under the pressure of being confronted by all her fellow EU members.
"We are not afraid of difficult situations," she said. "There are limits, and we are about to explore them now."
Opponents of Turkish membership claim that the country is too big, too poor and too culturally different to join the EU. With the EU in crisis over the rejection of its constitution by French and Dutch voters, they claim that it is not capable of absorbing the Muslim country.
Before the talks, Mr Straw gave warning about the effect it would have on relations between Islam and the West if Austria wielded its veto: "This is a crucial meeting for the future of the European Union. We're concerned about a so-called clash of civilisations.
"We are concerned about this theological-political divide, which could open up even further the boundary between so-called Christian-heritage states and those of Islamic heritage. The heavy responsibility rests on all member states."
In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul huddled with his advisers awaiting news that Austria had ceded ground.
Despite its EU ambitions, Turkey has threatened to turn its back if Vienna gets its way.
AFP, AP, The Times
Turkey can kiss my red white and blue...
The EU will open an islamist can of worms if Turkey's accepted. I couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams, Turkey being admitted to the US as the 51st state.
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By your standard Koreans, Taiwanese and Japanese are European. Your profile puts you in Israel. Turkey's current position is pro-Israel (but if Turkey's modern history has shown us anything it is that none of their positions is safe from the light breezes of political expediency - remember, turkey was Hitler's number one trading partner - until January 1945 when the writing was on the reichstag wall). I do suspect AK that this colors your opinion somewhat.
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I thought my post made it clear that I understood this.
So what's your solution? The Bush Administration and I are of one mind -- the way to deal with Islamist terror is to promote freedom and democracy across the Middle East, and one very easy way to do that is to see Turkey admitted to the European Union. If you have a counter-plan, lets hear it.
It did. I was just making sure everybody understood it as well. With some here, a person has to be exact in their meaning.
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Utterly irrelevant to your calling turkey a pluralistic european nation. turkey is 99.8% muslim and it is against the law for more than four Christians to gather outside one of the very few government recognized churches.
And, Christianity is not at war with the world, islam is, in at least 22 countries.
And, Italy's mortality rate is 15% higher than its birth rate. The only growth it is seeing is in muslim immigration. turkey will not allow non-muslims to move there.
You should be honest. Your only reason for carrying turkey's water here is because of their current attitude toward your country.
In any case:
Greece's per capita GDP: $21,221
Turkey's per capita GDP: $7,302
So, no, Greece is far more economically developed than Turkey.
Freedom House Ratings
Greece: Political Rights 1; Civil Liberties 2; Status - Free
Turkey: Political Rights 3; Civil Liberties 3; Status - Partly Free
Hmm.. Doesn't seem that Turkey is more politically developed either (by typical Western standards)
More culturally developed??
Greece: Earliest records of any European language/culture 1,260 BC, from Achaia (the Peloponessus - in Europe).
Turkey: First historical references appear in Chinese records ca. 200 BC. Earliest known writing in Turkic language dates to 730 AD, from the vicinity of Asian Lake Baikal.
Strike three. You're out, bud!
My plan is---'do unto your enemy before they do unto you.'
No, while I'm not a far-East expert, I think Turkey is closer culturally to Europe than are any of those countries. But more to the point, it's closer economically. Turkey's #1 trading partner, for both imports and exports, is the EU. Turks buy European cars, they work in factories owned by European companies producing goods sold in Europe, they are as much a part of Europe as Poland was before its entry into the European Union.
none of their positions is safe from the light breezes of political expediency - remember, turkey was Hitler's number one trading partner - until January 1945 when the writing was on the reichstag wall)
I'm not sure what that means. Turkey refused to enter the war on the side of Germany, as it had in 1914. And Turkey rescued thousands of Jews from extermination.
God bless Austria.
Great.
Giving 80 million Mohammedans unfettered access to any and every EU state.
Wonderful.
Austria should've held out, but it matters not. There is no chance whatsoever IMHO that Turkey will ever be part of the European Union. It's all a grand political show for nothing. Any EU member state that holds a referendum on Turkish accession will reject it by a supermajority, and there will be at least a couple that hold referendums.
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Allow me to explain then...turkey signed a mutual non-aggression pact with Hitler and was, throughout the war, the Nazis number one trading partner and their chief supplier of chromium. This in spite of continuous requests from the US and UK to refrain. It was only after the foundling UN set having declared war on one of the Axis powers as the bar for charter membership that turkey, in January 1945, voided the pact and declared war on Germany.
Turkey's behaviour in 1950 (Korea) and 2003 (Iraq) kept their duplicitous, self-serving, un-principalled record intact.
Their heading down that road, though. If I remember correctly, they voted in (as President or Prime Minister???) a Islamic fundamentalist. Recall also that Turkey, who had been a staunch secular ally of the US for years, refused to let us use their soil for the Iraq invasion, which screwed up the plan. This shows the change of mindset of this country since the new governmnet (Islamic led government.
As I said, it is only a matter of time. Giving any fundamentalist Moslem country a seat at the table is suicide for the west.
May Europe rest in peace...not pieces.
UK get out of that sh*thole for your own good.
Austrian politicians will give up. Turkey will be in EU despite wishes of the European societies.
Sorry my friend but that does not tally with the recent historical record of the EU. There any number of decisions that from a purely rational view seemed to be impossible and directly harmful to the various countries and even to the EU as a whole, (eg: the euro, inviting Greece into the euro, the EU constitution (the voters in France and NL said no, not the pols) the accession of the Eastern bloc countries, soon to include Bulgaria, and Romania etc) but they have all come to fruition or is about to. So, unless the EU implodes which is not totally impossible, Turkey will become a member, as will Croatia. Let me end with another prediction: We know from polls that 80% of the Austrians are against a Turkish entry. They wanted their government to stick up for them. The government failed. I predict that after the next election Jörg Haider will form the new Austrian government.
Turkish membership will require a new treaty. Several EU nations constitutionally mandate a referendum to approve all new treaties. If nothing else puts a stop to all this sound and fury, signify nothing, then the task will fall to the Irish or the Danes..
In my view, for Turkey to join, some way will have to be found so that not a single EU nation votes on approving membership, because I think the voters of every single EU nation will reject Turkey easily.
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