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LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The United States
intervened on Monday to try to rescue membership
talks between the European Union and Turkey as a
diplomatic deadlock deepened hours before the
historic negotiations were due to open.
EU president Britain said the 25-nation bloc was "on
the edge of a precipice" after Turkish objections to
a clause it fears could affect NATO membership piled
on top of Austrian demands that the Muslim nation be
offered an alternative short of full membership.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to assure him
that the proposed EU negotiating framework would not
impinge on NATO, diplomats said.
A presidency spokesman said Britain still hoped to
hold the opening ceremony on Monday but it would
clearly be later than the planned 5 p.m. (1500 GMT)
start.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was waiting
nervously in Ankara for the EU to adopt a
negotiating mandate before he could set off for
Luxembourg.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw telephoned
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to try to
clinch agreement on a formula to satisfy Austrian
concerns that the EU may not be able to absorb the
vast, poor, Muslim country, diplomats said.
The United States had also contacted Vienna to try
to overcome objections fueled by overwhelming public
hostility to Turkish membership, they said.
Turkish financial markets yo-yoed amid the
uncertainty. Stocks fell some 2.3 percent from
Friday's close and the lira was down nearly 2
percent against the dollar, but both recovered in
mid-afternoon amid hopes the problems would be
resolved.
Rice's involvement was potentially embarrassing for
the EU, highlighting its inability to solve its
problems alone.
"CATASTROPHIC"
Straw told the 24 other EU foreign ministers upon
resuming talks after only a couple of hours' sleep:
"Yes, we are near (to a deal) but we are also on the
edge of a precipice.
"If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands.
If we go the wrong way, it could be catastrophic for
the European Union."
In Ankara, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a
meeting of the ruling AK party that Turkey was not
prepared to compromise further on the conditions for
opening the long-awaited talks.
"Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in
the EU are against the alliance of civilizations.
What I declare is this: the costs resulting from all
this will be paid by them."
Turkey has frequently portrayed its entry to the EU
as a way of bridging a gap between the Christian and
Islamic worlds and easing tensions that may have
fostered Islamic militancy.
Diplomats said Ankara had objected to a clause in
the EU negotiating mandate that stipulates it may
not block accession of EU states to international
organizations and treaties.
Turkish nationalists and the powerful military
argued that might prevent Turkey blocking a divided
Cyprus from joining NATO. Cyprus refused to let the
EU change the wording.
But diplomats said Straw and EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana hoped to assuage Ankara with a letter
clarifying that the clause did not impinge on
sovereign defense arrangements.
TIME RUNNING OUT
As the clock ticked down, German Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer told ministers: "Time is running
out. We have got to get this right. We seem so
close. We cannot let this opportunity slip away."
Failure to start the talks could deal a blow to
political reform and foreign investment in Turkey, a
strategic country of 72 million people straddling
Europe and the Middle East.
It would also deepen a sense of crisis in Europe,
after referendum defeats for the draft EU
constitution in France and the Netherlands, and an
acrimonious failure in June to agree on a long-term
budget for the enlarged bloc.
"If there is no deal, my personal judgment is that
we are increasingly starting to look like a Union of
failing states because we cannot make any
decisions," Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks
told Reuters.
Ratcheting up pressure on Austria, Straw postponed a
planned review of Austrian ally Croatia's progress
toward EU entry talks until the Turkey issue was
sorted out.
A Turkish official said nerves in Ankara were
"extremely stretched ... Every minute that passes is
making things more bitter and it won't be nice
starting negotiations with all these bruises."
The European Parliament compounded Turkish
irritation last week by saying Turkey must recognize
the 1915 killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule as
an act of genocide before it can join the wealthy
European family.
Several hundred Armenians staged a noisy
demonstration outside the EU meeting, demanding that
Turkey be forced to make amends for what they called
the Armenian genocide.
Reuters
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