12
November 2002
2. "Turkey PM: Party Will Install Puppet", lame duck Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Monday warned that the victorious party in Turkey's elections threatened the country's secular political system and would install a puppet leader as prime minister.
3. "Turkey is urged to meet EU entry terms", Turkey can become a member of the European Union if it meets basic entry requirements, the European Union said yesterday, rejecting comments made last week by a former French president that Turkey was not European enough.
4. "U.N. proposes Cyprus solution", Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday sent the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders a proposal he hopes will form the basis for "a comprehensive settlement" of the decades-old problem of the divided eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
5. "Turkey's poll winners warned", Turkey's top political echelons Monday warned the winner of the Nov. 3 parliamentary elections, the Justice and Development Party, not to alter the law to make it possible for its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to become prime minister.
6. "Turkish leader refuses to rise to the baiting", a new broom is sweeping Ankara. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the party set to form a new government, countered an attack on Turkey's bid to join the European Union with the sort of moderation that promises to cast Turkish foreign policy in a new light - and he has not yet taken office.
1. - The Independent - "Giscard predicts 'end of EU' if Turkey joins":
BRUSSELS / 09 November 2002
By Stephen Castle
The man responsible for plotting the future of Europe provoked a political furore yesterday by saying that any decision to bring Turkey in from the cold would spell "the end of the European Union".
In an extraordinarily blunt intervention, the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who is chairing an inquiry into the workings of an enlarged Europe, said those who backed Ankara's candidacy were "the adversaries of the EU".
The comments were rapidly disowned by the European Commission and even by M. Giscard's vice-president on his 105-strong convention into the future of Europe. Pat Cox, the president of the European Parliament, described M. Giscard's contribution as "unhelpful" and "ill-advised".
Nevertheless, his sentiments reflect the private views of many European politicians and illustrate that opposition to Turkish membership runs deep. While M. Giscard has no formal say on the issue, his words are certain to polarise views ahead of a crucial summit next month when European leaders must decide what to do about Turkey's application.
In the interview with the French daily Le Monde, M. Giscard said that Turkey had "a different culture, a different approach, a different way of life". He added: "Its capital is not in Europe, 95 per cent of its population live outside Europe. It is not a European country."
Admitting Turkey to the EU would go "outside the continent" and prompt demands to admit other Middle Eastern and North African states, starting with Morocco, he said. Asked what the effect would be, he said: "In my opinion, it would be the end of the European Union."
Turkey has just held elections in which the Justice and Development
Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots, swept the board. EU policy-makers
are conscious of the fact that, if Turkey's population expands as
predicted, it could be the biggest EU nation by 2020. 
2. - Associated Press - "Turkey PM: Party Will Install Puppet":
ANKARA / 11 November 2002
Lame duck Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Monday warned that the victorious party in Turkey's elections threatened the country's secular political system and would install a puppet leader as prime minister.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party swept Turkish elections last week, is banned from becoming prime minister because of a conviction for inciting religious hatred. The party, which has Islamic roots, has not said who will be premier and Erdogan is expected to play a strong behind-the-scenes role.
"Turkey faces a serious problem of state," the Anatolia news agency quoted Ecevit as saying. "Turkey will be run by a shadow prime minister and government."
Erdogan's party won 363 of the 550 seats in parliament and will be able to form a single-party government — the first time Turkey will have a majority government in 15 years. Only one other party cleared the 10 percent threshold required to hold seats in parliament. Ecevit's party managed to get only about 1 percent of the vote.
Erdogan said Monday the ban against him should be lifted.
"These type of difficulties must be lifted... . They're disrespectful to the will of the nation," Erdogan told reporters.
The Justice Party was founded last year by members of a pro-Islamic
party banned by the courts, but it has been working to distance itself
from its Islamic past. The party denies it seeks an Islamic agenda
and says its top priority is Turkey's bid to join the European Union
3. - Gulf Daily News - "Turkey is urged to meet EU entry terms":
BRUSSELS, 12 November 2002
Turkey can become a member of the European Union if it meets basic entry requirements, the European Union said yesterday, rejecting comments made last week by a former French president that Turkey was not European enough.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said Turkey can join the15 -nation bloc "on the basis of the same criteria as the other candidate countries."
In a statement, Stig Moeller said EU leaders will decide whether or not to give Turkey a date to start entry talks at a December12 - 13summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"When Turkey fulfils the ... criteria, Turkey can start accession negotiations," he said.
The presidency and the EU's executive office have tried to distance themselves from comments made by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing and to soothe fears in Ankara that the EU will reject its membership appeals.
In an interview published in French daily Le Monde on Friday, Giscard d'Estaing, whom the EU chose to draft its constitution, said Turkey could never meet basic membership criteria and that the 15 EU governments should tell Ankara that in clear terms.
"Turkey is an important country close to Europe," the paper quoted him as saying. "But it is not a European country." He added that if Turkey joins, "it is the end of the European Union."
EU officials have rejected Giscard d'Estaing's comments that a large
part of popular right wing political parties support the notion that
the EU should stay a Christian club and that admitting a large, overwhelmingly
Muslim nation like Turkey would only add friction and conflict.
4. - The Washington Times - "U.N. proposes Cyprus solution":
UNITED NATIONS / 11 November 2002
Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday sent the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
leaders a proposal he hopes will form the basis for "a comprehensive
settlement" of the decades-old problem of the divided eastern
Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
The proposal comes in the face of next month's Copenhagen Summit,
when the European Union is to decide on the membership application
of Greek-led Cyprus. Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriots,
while the Greek Cypriots are internationally recognized.
Annan has asked for reactions to his proposal from both sides by Nov.
18. The settlement proposal is based on the model of federally governed
Switzerland.
"The secretary-general hopes that this initiative will help the
parties focus on the decisions that they should take in the next few
weeks in order to seize the opportunity at hand and bring about a
settlement," Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said in a statement.
Annan sent the proposal to Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides and
to Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, Eckhard said.
The statement said Annan asked the leaders not to take a formal public
position on what he has submitted to them but instead to "take
some time to consider them" and use discretion in releasing details
of it.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that Washington
"strongly welcomes" Annan's initiative.
"We fully support this step and the ongoing efforts by the secretary-general,
his special adviser Alvaro de Soto, and (Annan's) good offices mission
to find a just and durable solution to the longstanding division of
the island," Boucher said.
"We encourage the two sides to study the settlement proposal
carefully, to provide their considered responses, and to work urgently
with the secretary-general to achieve a settlement by seizing the
historic opportunity that exists before the European Union makes its
decisions on enlargement in Copenhagen in December," he said.
Copies of the proposal were sent to Greece, Turkey and Britain in
their capacities as guarantor powers under a 1960 Treaty of Guarantee,
the year Cyprus became an independent state and a member of the United
Nations.
Violence between the Greek and Turkish communities broke out in 1963.
In 1964 the Security Council established the U.N. Peacekeeping Force
in Cyprus to keep the Turkish north separated from the Greek south
by a buffer zone.
A Greek-inspired military coup in 1974 led to a Turkish invasion and
further division of the small island.
The EU meeting next month has put on pressure for resolution of the
problem and Annan, as have previous secretaries-general of the world
organization, has been working hard to find common ground for an accord
by next month. De Soto has been his point man and Annan even visited
Cyprus in May.
A summary of the Annan's proposal obtained by United Press International
renounces the use of force by either side, and calls for the relationship
between the two sides to be "not one of majority and minority
but of political equality." It seeks a "common future in
friendship, peace, security and prosperity in an independent and united
Cyprus," while maintaining respect for "each others cultural,
religious, political, social and linguistic identity."
It also is "looking forward to joining the European Union and
to the day when Turkey does likewise."
A meeting of the Security Council was called late in the afternoon
for Annan to unveil his plan.
"We have had to look at many issues and many different possible
options and I believe I put before them (the Greeks and Turkish Cypriots)
what I consider a sound and an optimal proposal," Annan told
reporters after the meeting. "I know it's going to be a tough
decision for them, it's going to require courage, wisdom and vision.
I am confident they are capable of it.
Greece has threatened to veto European Union expansion should the
Cyprus EU application be rejected. Turkey, itself seeking EU membership
although not yet up for membership, has threatened to annex its portion
of the island if Greek Cyprus is accepted in the union.
The proposal summary described the "new state of affairs"
as having a "(open bracket) common state (close bracket) government,
and its (open bracket) component states (closed bracket), is modeled
on the status and relation of Switzerland, its federal government
and its cantons," with one Greek Cypriot canton and one Turkish
Cypriot canton with equal status cooperating and coordinating with
each other and not interfering with each other.
There would be single Cypriot citizenship but a "reconciliation
commission" established with equal numbers of Greek and Turkish
Cypriots and "at least one impartial non-Cypriot, which the secretary-general
is invited to appoint in consultation with the two sides."
5. - UPI - "Turkey's poll winners warned":
ANKARA / 11 November 2002
By Seva Ulman
Turkey's top political echelons Monday warned the winner of the Nov. 3 parliamentary elections, the Justice and Development Party, not to alter the law to make it possible for its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to become prime minister.
The party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, won 363 seats in the 550-member Parliament, only a few short of the number needed to amend the Turkish Constitution.
Turkish prime ministers are chosen from among the parliamentary deputies but Erdogan was barred from seeking election to Parliament because he was convicted in 1998, while mayor of Istanbul, of inciting religious hatred.
His offense under Turkey's rigorously secular political system was to read a poem at a meeting of Islamist businessmen that said, "The minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets and the mosques our barracks."
AKP officials argue an article in the constitution can be changed to lift the restrictions that prevented Erdogan from running for Parliament.
Another possibility they see is to amend another article to allow a non-deputy to become prime minister.
Both suggestions have caused outcries from secularist political circles and notably from President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
"Stay away from making adjustments special to one person," he warned.
At a ceremony Sunday marking the 64th anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the secular Turkish Republic, Sezer, without mentioning names, urged AKP members to refrain from "adjusting the laws for politics, instead of adjusting the politics with laws."
Outgoing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit also warned Monday against changing the constitution to benefit Erdogan, saying that such a move would jeopardize the political system.
He was echoed by Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican People's
Party, the main opposition body, who said his party was against such
moves.
6. - The Financial Times - "Turkish leader refuses to rise to the baiting":
By Leyla Boulton
ANKARA / November 11 2002
A new broom is sweeping Ankara. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the party set to form a new government, countered an attack on Turkey's bid to join the European Union with the sort of moderation that promises to cast Turkish foreign policy in a new light - and he has not yet taken office.
The assault came from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the head of the European Convention charged with drawing up a new European constitution. The former French president railed against Turkey, whose membership would, he said, represent "the end of the European Union".
"[Turkey's] capital is not in Europe, 95 per cent of its population is outside Europe, it is not a European country," Mr Giscard d'Estaing said.
Turkey's more established politicians, who have long had a near-monopoly on power, rose to the bait. Mesut Yilmaz, the outgoing deputy prime minister, called for Mr Giscard d'Estaing's resignation.
Ali Tekin, who, like Mr Yilmaz, represents Turkey at Mr Giscard d'Estaing's convention, described the ageing French conservative as a "Christian fundamentalist".
Mr Erdogan had every reason to react even more strongly. He is a former Islamist, whose Justice and Development party (AKP) won an electoral landslide eight days ago. He was convicted, in 1998, for inciting hatred on religious grounds after he recited a well-known poem comparing minarets to bayonets. This bars him from becoming prime minister until parliament revises laws banning him from politics.
Instead, however, Mr Erdogan brushed aside the criticism of Turkey as "emotion". He was such a picture of calm that it was Mr Giscard d'Estaing who was made to seem the firebrand.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing's comments came weeks before the Copenhagen summit, and caused an outcry within the EU. As Pat Cox, the president of the European Parliament, put it: "The moment is particularly sensitive."
The dispute over the divided island of Cyprus looms ahead of Copenhagen. As EU leaders plan at the summit to admit 10 members, including Cyprus, the United Nations is in a race against time to reunite the island's Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, is expected today to submit the draft of a compromise settlement for Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to consider.
Both Turkey, as the only country to recognise and support the self-declared Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus, and Greece, the champion of the Greek Cypriots inside the EU, have a vital role to play.
In refusing to be provoked by Mr Giscard d'Estaing, Mr Erdogan was no doubt influenced by his experience in Turkish politics.
Measured calm, he has found, is the best way to parry attacks from his influential opponents at home - including General Huseyin Kivrikoglu, the former chief of general staff who earlier this year suggested that Mr Erdogan was lying about having abandoned his Islamist past and was therefore not fit to run the country.
Mr Erdogan has adopted a conciliatory approach to keep his domestic detractors at bay.
"We have no time for political hostilities," he told his deputies. "You must not do anything at all that will disturb society. I believe that nothing unpleasant will occur in the AKP parliament."
Mr Erdogan's winning of almost two-thirds of the seats in parliament also helps. The AKP is likely to rule Turkey for a full five-year term, after a decade of ineffectual coalitions. This means Mr Erdogan may feel less need to respond to every slight. He has more to gain from focusing on Turkey's objective of joining the EU.
"People like Giscard are sent there to try Turkey. Erdogan's response shows he is not going to rise to every aggressively anti-Turkish opinion, especially if it comes from someone who will not take the decision as to whether Turkey joins or not," says one EU diplomat.
On Friday Mr Erdogan embarks on a tour of European capitals, starting with Rome, followed by Athens and Madrid, to press Turkey's case for a timetable for EU entry.
His less threatening approach to EU criticism may be just what is
needed to win friends in Europe and, whatever Mr Giscard d'Estaing
might say, win a date for Turkey to begin discussions about yoking
its destiny to the EU.