My apology to all Hakkari. May they stay free and grow rich.
========= Hakkari, Turkey=========
In Hakkari, Tukrkey, near the Sumbul mountains.
The official, speaking to reporters traveling with U.S.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, cataloged
Turkish constitutional reforms made over the last several
months. He counted off the cessation of military rule in
the southeastern provinces, more free speech, rights of
assembly, and conferring linguistic and educational rights
to its Kurdish population.
The official noted the U.S. and British governments are
promoting Turkish entry into the European Union, a 15-
nation bloc that wields significant economic and political
clout on the continent. Turkey, which has sought EU
admission for years to no avail, is struggling with a
sluggish economy and rampant inflation.
The European Union is composed of Austria, Finland,
Ireland, Sweden, and 11 NATO members -- Belgium, Denmark,
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom. Eight
current NATO allies, including Turkey, are not in the EU:
Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland
and the United States.
In recent years Turkey has demonstrated a desire to work on
human rights, to work on their relationship with Greece,
the U.S. official said. Such efforts helped Turkey to gain
entry into the European Customs Union a few years back, he
said.
Turkey and Greece, he explained, have wrangled for years
over the status of Cyprus.
(Turkey responded to an alleged Greek-sponsored coup in the
mid-1970s by invading and occupying the island nation,
ostensibly to protect the ethnic Turkish Cypriot minority.)
"We believe that if we could … create more human rights
changes in Turkey, advance Turkish democracy, move on a
Cyprus settlement and continue the more positive relations
between Greece and Turkey, then there is a chance" the
Turks would be provided an opportunity to join the European
Union, the U.S. official said.
In meetings Dec. 12 in Copenhagen, Denmark, he noted, the
European Union will discuss expansion. The Turks, he
pointed out, could obtain a date from that meeting to begin
negotiations to join.
"There is a big opportunity brewing between now and the
twelfth of December" for Turkey, the official remarked.
However, he noted, Turkey's fortunes will likely depend
upon Cyprus' entry into the EU, a Turkish-Greek agreement
to settle the Cyprus political question, and that Turkey
gets a date to discuss joining the EU.
Earlier in the day, Wolfowitz emphasized to members of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British
"think tank" in London, that Turkey's commitment to
democracy has helped to bridge differences between Muslim
and Western societies.
"Europe now has a strategic opportunity. By helping Turkey
realize its aspirations to join the EU, Europe would
contribute to the progress of a country that has the
potential to be a model for the Muslim world," he pointed
out.
Turkish societal and economic success "can demonstrate to
the world's 1.2 billion Muslims that there is a far better
path than the path of destruction and despair offered by
the terrorists," Wolfowitz added, which would also
"demonstrate that the benefits of free and prosperous and
open societies are available equally to Muslims as to
everyone."