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EU Turkish entry talks postponedU.S. Secretary of State Rice steps in to try and save meeting
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QUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLUXEMBOURG -- Diplomats say the European Union has postponed a ceremony to mark the historic start of Turkey's membership talks, setting no new time. The ceremony was due at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) in Luxembourg and was to have involved Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul. In the end following Austria's opposition to full Turkish membership, he did not leave Turkey in time to attend -- and a bid from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to get the talks started on schedule failed. Austria was sticking to demands that the vast, poor, Muslim country be offered an alternative, less-than-full membership. Turkey said it angrily rejected any second-class status.(Turkish PM: No compromise) British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw -- due to chair the talks --said negotiations were "hard and difficult," but continuing. Straw had told reporters after a private meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and a telephone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Gul Monday morning he was not sure the talks would go ahead. Diplomats told Reuters he had told the 24 other EU foreign ministers upon resuming talks after only a couple of hours' sleep: "Yes, we are near 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." Diplomats said there were also problems between Turkey, on the one hand, and Greece and Cyprus, on the other, over a clause in the draft negotiating mandate demanding that Ankara not block the accession of EU states to international organizations and treaties. Turkey was concerned the wording could give a divided Cyprus a lever to join the NATO defense alliance without a U.N.-brokered peace settlement on the Mediterranean island. Turkish hardliners had argued that Turkey could prevent Ankara blocking a divided Cyprus from joining NATO. Diplomats revealed how U.S. Secretary of State Rice had stepped in Monday to try to rescue the talks. They told Reuters that Rice had spoke by telephone with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and assured him that the EU's proposed negotiating framework for the talks, due to open later on Monday, would not impinge on NATO. Cypriot officials denied to The Associated Press that they sought additional demands. But the central problem remained Austria's insistence -- alone among the 25 EU nations, including Cyprus -- that Ankara be offered a status short of accession if it failed to meet the criteria or if the EU was unable to absorb it. Straw had urged that all member states had to fulfil their many promises to Turkey, a long-establish NATO member and strategic ally of America and Europe, British sources said. He also warned that pulling the plug now risked widening the divide between the Christian and Muslim worlds, the UK's Press Association reported. Turkish financial markets weakened on the uncertainty in Luxembourg, with the main share index down 2.3 percent and the lira down almost 1 percent against the dollar. Although there was no apparent markets panic, failure of talks could deal a longer term blow to political reform and foreign investment in Turkey. "We are not striving to begin negotiations no matter what, at any cost," Gul said in an interview published Sunday in Turkey's Yeni Safak newspaper. "If the problems aren't solved, then the negotiations won't begin." Outgoing German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned his colleagues that Turkey might walk away if the EU watered down the terms on offer any further. "If you want to open negotiations, you have to remember we have to have someone to open them with," a diplomat told Reuters he had told the meeting Sunday. Cyprus issueThe EU has already angered many Turks by demanding that it recognize Cyprus soon and open its ports and airports to traffic from the divided Mediterranean island. The European Parliament compounded Turkish ire 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 EU. EU diplomats had hoped Austria would ease its stance after regional elections in Styria province Sunday. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's People's Party lost power there for the first time since 1945 despite his brinkmanship on Turkey. Schuessel has informally linked the Turkish issue to a demand that the EU open accession talks immediately with Austria's largely Roman Catholic neighbor, Croatia. But those talks have been frozen until Zagreb satisfies U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte that it is cooperating fully in the hunt for a fugitive indicted ex-general. Accepting the mostly poor, predominantly agricultural Turkey into the bloc has been met with resistance across the EU. Recent polls show a majority of French, German and Austrian voters oppose admitting Turkey, and a majority of Danes would rather see non-EU candidate, Ukraine, in the EU than an Islamic country. Turkey has accepted unprecedented conditions to take part in the EU negotiations, including an open-ended halt to the movement of Turkish workers into the bloc. Turkish immigration remains a thorny issue in many EU states and anti-Turkish sentiment figured in votes in the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands. Austrians in particular have some deep-rooted historical mistrust of Turkey, seeing themselves as Europe's gatekeepers ever since they vanquished the Ottoman Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. (Austrians troubled by Turkey) Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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