Post by Bozur on Oct 3, 2005 18:32:23 GMT -5
Austria Becomes Nemesis to Turkey Again
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 3, 3:37 PM ET
VIENNA, Austria - More than three centuries after it stopped the Ottoman Empire's relentless advance across the continent, Austria has re-emerged as modern Turkey's nemesis in its drive to join the European Union.
Under intense pressure from the EU's other 24 member states, the Austrian government apparently abandoned its attempt to get the mostly Muslim country to settle for something less than full membership.
But the Austrians, who vanquished the Ottoman Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna, still question whether Turkey should join the bloc — and they're not alone.
Polls consistently show a majority of Europeans are jittery about taking in Turkey, laying bare a disconnect between ordinary people and their leaders and igniting a heated debate over the very fabric and future of Europe.
"It's no great loss if Turkey doesn't come into the EU and stays in Asia," said Michael Ertl, an Austrian insurance agent, invoking a popular argument: Most of the country is on the wrong side of the Bosporus Strait many consider the dividing line between the two continents.
Recent EU surveys show only one in 10 Austrians backs the idea of an EU with Turkey as a member — a prospect expected to take at least a decade.
Austrians insist they're not being racist, xenophobic or intolerant of Islam, but merely pragmatic, citing economic and security concerns if the EU's borders were to stretch to Iran, Iraq and Syria. The overwhelmingly Roman Catholic alpine republic is home to an estimated 200,000 Turks, the third-largest Turkish community after Germany and France.
There are fears, too, that EU membership would unleash a flood of cheap Turkish labor into Austria, even though similar worries when the EU expanded last year to take in eight Eastern European nations never materialized.
"There is the question if the EU can take this," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said in Luxembourg, where foreign ministers negotiated an end to the impasse. "Austria is listening to the people."
Austria's challenge appeared to have emboldened others: France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said Monday the French also have "serious reservations" about EU membership for Turkey, and media in Slovakia published a poll showing strong opposition there as well.
Ambivalence about Turkey is rooted in centuries of history in Austria, which takes over the EU presidency on Jan. 1.
The country, which shares its borders with the ex-communist Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, has long been a place where East meets West. Generations of Austrians have had to live within the tensions created by that cultural crossroads, and they've always felt a certain ambivalence and vulnerability toward outsiders.
"Many Austrians obviously have a problem with Turks and other foreigners," the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung noted in a commentary Sunday.
Among Austrians' first lessons at school is the story of the epic battle of 1683 that halted the Islamic empire's westward march. Had the outcome been different, much if not all of modern Europe might have been Muslim today — "under the crescent instead of the cross," as the Viennese expression goes.
Seventy-three percent of respondents to a new poll published over the weekend by the Austria Press Agency said they believe the cultural differences between Turkey and the rest of the EU are too great to justify membership. About 1,000 people aged 18 and over were surveyed; no margin of error was given.
Martin Juergensen, a Vienna businessman, ticks off the risks of extending the EU's borders to Iran, Iraq and Syria: "Uncertain borders, the Islamizing of the West and the financial collapse and internal social breakup of the EU."
To be sure, the debate was tinged with racism in Austria, where "Turk" is a derogatory term for any immigrant of color. Austrians who have been scammed complain they've been "Turked," and poor people who carry their belongings in grocery bags are said to be toting "Turkish luggage."
Religious preferences may also have been a factor: Even as Plassnik and Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel resisted Turkey's bid, they pressed the EU to launch membership talks with longtime ally Croatia, a Catholic bastion in the Balkans, despite its failure to arrest an indicted war crimes suspect.
Economists say Austria, which already has sizable investments in Turkey's banks and petroleum industry, stands to profit from its eventual entry. Yet many Austrians, worried about 6 percent unemployment — the highest joblessness in recent years — are wary of throwing open Europe's gates to the Turks.
Others, like Horst Oellinger of Vienna, can't make up their minds between the pros and cons.
"I'm skeptical. There are a lot of risks," he said. "But with a little luck, we could be the ones who profit most from it."
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Mon Oct 3, 3:37 PM ET
VIENNA, Austria - More than three centuries after it stopped the Ottoman Empire's relentless advance across the continent, Austria has re-emerged as modern Turkey's nemesis in its drive to join the European Union.
Under intense pressure from the EU's other 24 member states, the Austrian government apparently abandoned its attempt to get the mostly Muslim country to settle for something less than full membership.
But the Austrians, who vanquished the Ottoman Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna, still question whether Turkey should join the bloc — and they're not alone.
Polls consistently show a majority of Europeans are jittery about taking in Turkey, laying bare a disconnect between ordinary people and their leaders and igniting a heated debate over the very fabric and future of Europe.
"It's no great loss if Turkey doesn't come into the EU and stays in Asia," said Michael Ertl, an Austrian insurance agent, invoking a popular argument: Most of the country is on the wrong side of the Bosporus Strait many consider the dividing line between the two continents.
Recent EU surveys show only one in 10 Austrians backs the idea of an EU with Turkey as a member — a prospect expected to take at least a decade.
Austrians insist they're not being racist, xenophobic or intolerant of Islam, but merely pragmatic, citing economic and security concerns if the EU's borders were to stretch to Iran, Iraq and Syria. The overwhelmingly Roman Catholic alpine republic is home to an estimated 200,000 Turks, the third-largest Turkish community after Germany and France.
There are fears, too, that EU membership would unleash a flood of cheap Turkish labor into Austria, even though similar worries when the EU expanded last year to take in eight Eastern European nations never materialized.
"There is the question if the EU can take this," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said in Luxembourg, where foreign ministers negotiated an end to the impasse. "Austria is listening to the people."
Austria's challenge appeared to have emboldened others: France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said Monday the French also have "serious reservations" about EU membership for Turkey, and media in Slovakia published a poll showing strong opposition there as well.
Ambivalence about Turkey is rooted in centuries of history in Austria, which takes over the EU presidency on Jan. 1.
The country, which shares its borders with the ex-communist Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, has long been a place where East meets West. Generations of Austrians have had to live within the tensions created by that cultural crossroads, and they've always felt a certain ambivalence and vulnerability toward outsiders.
"Many Austrians obviously have a problem with Turks and other foreigners," the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung noted in a commentary Sunday.
Among Austrians' first lessons at school is the story of the epic battle of 1683 that halted the Islamic empire's westward march. Had the outcome been different, much if not all of modern Europe might have been Muslim today — "under the crescent instead of the cross," as the Viennese expression goes.
Seventy-three percent of respondents to a new poll published over the weekend by the Austria Press Agency said they believe the cultural differences between Turkey and the rest of the EU are too great to justify membership. About 1,000 people aged 18 and over were surveyed; no margin of error was given.
Martin Juergensen, a Vienna businessman, ticks off the risks of extending the EU's borders to Iran, Iraq and Syria: "Uncertain borders, the Islamizing of the West and the financial collapse and internal social breakup of the EU."
To be sure, the debate was tinged with racism in Austria, where "Turk" is a derogatory term for any immigrant of color. Austrians who have been scammed complain they've been "Turked," and poor people who carry their belongings in grocery bags are said to be toting "Turkish luggage."
Religious preferences may also have been a factor: Even as Plassnik and Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel resisted Turkey's bid, they pressed the EU to launch membership talks with longtime ally Croatia, a Catholic bastion in the Balkans, despite its failure to arrest an indicted war crimes suspect.
Economists say Austria, which already has sizable investments in Turkey's banks and petroleum industry, stands to profit from its eventual entry. Yet many Austrians, worried about 6 percent unemployment — the highest joblessness in recent years — are wary of throwing open Europe's gates to the Turks.
Others, like Horst Oellinger of Vienna, can't make up their minds between the pros and cons.
"I'm skeptical. There are a lot of risks," he said. "But with a little luck, we could be the ones who profit most from it."