Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2004, pages 33, 66

European Press Review

“Turkey Is Not Europe,” According to Germany’s Die Welt

By Lucy Jones

“Turkey’s accession would destroy the European house as we know it,” wrote Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Oct. 6, a day after European commissioners took the milestone decision to recommend the opening of talks on the admission of Turkey to the European Union. Turkey has been working to join the body for years, and under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has implemented significant reforms. According to the German newspaper, however, the kinship Europeans have always felt “even when they were at war with each other” just does not extend to the Turks.

The same day’s edition of Germany’s Die Welt was equally strong in its opposition to Turkey’s entry, which is unlikely to take place for at least a decade. “Turkey is not Europe and never will be Europe,” the newspaper wrote. “There is no compelling need to admit Turkey to the EU.”

“Absurd,” was how Austria’s Die Presse described the debate that day. It said Britain is pushing for Turkey’s membership because the inclusion of Ankara would undermine EU efforts to deepen European integration.

In London, the Oct. 7 Guardian described the commissioners’ decision as a “welcome, highly significant and probably irreversible step,” pointing out that “no country which has started the process of EU accession has yet failed to be accepted.” It added, however, that the European Commission was right to “signal that a backsliding on human rights would mean a suspension of talks.”

Denmark’s Information of Oct. 6 wrote that the “EU simply cannot afford to say no” to Ankara. “If Turkey is not allowed to join,” the paper warned, “we will lose a crucial strategic partner in relation to the Arab and Muslim world.”

The arguments used against Turkey could equally well be used against existing EU members, Finland’s Jakobstads Tidning opined the same day. Turkey’s view of gender equality, it said, “is not so different from that in many Latin regions of the south” of Europe.

In France, where a poll conducted by Le Figaro in September showed 56 percent of people opposed to Turkey’s membership, newspapers reacted cautiously.

The Turks are no “ordinary candidates”, wrote Le Monde on Oct. 7. “Never before have there been so many precautions taken prior to admitting a new member,” the paper pointed out, noting that Turkey’s membership has sparked controversy in every EU state.

The United States was favoring Turkey’s accession to the EU because it would be the surest way of the destroying the union, wrote Le Figaro on Sept. 30.

Bigley “Defining Image of Iraq War,” Says UK’s Guardian

The beheading of British hostage in Iraq Ken Bigley on Oct. 8 provoked fury in the UK.

“Nail the b*****ds,” exclaimed the tabloid Sun on its front page the day after his execution was shown on an Internet site. The Oct. 9 Daily Mirror called Bigley’s execution “inhuman.”

“How much more distressing, disastrous, and downright embarrassing can the consequences of Britain’s ill-fated involvement in Iraq become?” The Independent asked on Oct. 8. The newspaper went on to say that Ken Bigley’s death, coming after the UK’s Iraq Survey Group reported that Saddam Hussain did not have banned weapons that provided the justification for war, “demonstrates once again how ill-conceived and how reckless the enterprise has been.”

“The haunting pictures of Mr. Bigley, caged and vulnerable, may for many become the defining image of this war,” wrote The Guardian in an Oct. 8 editorial titled “A barbaric murder.”

“Mr. Bigley’s murder is intended to intimidate the British government and the British people,” wrote the same day’s Daily Telegraph. “It will not—must not—succeed.”

The next day’s London Times also was appalled by the hostage’s murder, saying it was carried out by “selfish, macho medievalists, criminals without vestiges of faith.”

It is noteworthy that on Sept. 27 the newspaper had strongly welcomed the initiative by the Muslim Council of Britain to free Bigley. The body had sent two high-level officials to Iraq.

“Attempting to save a fellow Briton to demonstrate the compassionate values of Islam is an important sign that the self-indulgent barbarism of a few is an insult to humanity,” the Times wrote.

In France, where officials were still trying to secure the release of two French journalists held in Iraq, the Oct. 8 Le Monde said the appeals by Bigley’s family to the British prime minister to agree to the kidnappers’ demands for the release of female prisoners “had no chance of being acted upon.”

Calling for a “united response” to the hostage crisis in Iraq, the paper argued that “There is no longer any point in draping oneself in the historic roots of France’s Arab policy.”

As far as “the spreading cancer of al-Qaeda is concerned,” it wrote, “the French are Westerners like any others, descendants of the Crusaders, and therefore enemies.”

Blair Speech Showed “Uncharacteristic Humility on Iraq,” Says Le Monde

Tony Blair is still “handicapped” by the Iraq war, wrote the UK’s Independent the day after the British prime minister’s keynote speech at the Labor party conference Sept. 28.

That was evident, the paper said, “from the protests in the hall and the discomfort of many in his audience.”

“The prime minister insists the invasion was right because ‘the decision was taken genuinely,’” wrote columnist Paul Routeledge in the Sept. 29 Daily Mirror. “This is emotional fraud.”

Others, however, saw the way in which Blair handled the Iraq debate at the conference as evidence as his skills as a politician.

“Nobody else would have induced so hostile an audience to give him the benefit of the doubt on Iraq,” wrote the Daily Telegraph the same day.

“In the real world, two more British soldiers lie dead,” noted the Sept. 29 Daily Mail. “Only a politician of genius—and in his communication skills, Mr. Blair comes close—could give Labor’s faithful something to cheer about.”

In France, the same day’s Le Monde wrote that although Blair admitted to Labor Party members that intelligence suggesting Saddam Hussain had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was unsound, this did not warrant “an act of contrition for going to war.

“The British prime minister displayed... an uncharacteristic humility on the issue of Iraq,” the paper went on, “but refused to apologize.”

“Hysteria” in Russia as Passengers Bar Arabs From Flight

“Russia is in the grip of mass hysteria,” warned Russky Kuryer on Sept. 24, after passengers on a flight from Moscow to Egypt barred two Arab women dressed in black from taking their seats.

Russians were asked to “show public spirit and do what they can to fight terrorism,” noted the same day’s Vremya Novostey. “But what has actually happened,” it suggested, is that “Russians have decided to take their own measures to protect themselves, rather than relying on the authorities.” Such “spontaneous protests,” the paper said, “might not only lead to serious conflicts, but also cause chaos in the transport system.”

Killing of Hamas Leader in Syria Will Spark Revenge, Says Independent

The killing by Israeli forces of senior Hamas leader Izz el-Dine al-Sheikh Khalil on Syrian soil Sept. 26 showed “that Ariel Sharon’s government is taking its assassination campaign to new lengths,” wrote the UK’s Independent the following day. “All the Israeli government will achieve through picking off Hamas members in this way is a further spiral of revenge attacks,” the paper continued. “The only way for Israel to guarantee its security is through peace talks and, eventually, a two-state settlement.”

The same day’s Guardian described the killing as “more brazen and potentially dangerous than many of its past strikes.…Critics of Ariel Sharon’s government, including some Israelis,” it continued, “point out that just because something is possible, and can be done with impunity, it is not necessarily the right thing to do. Factor in the provocation and humiliation of state-sanctioned murder in the heart of an Arab capital and Mr. Sharon looks not only reckless but short-sighted,” the newspaper concluded.

Making Gaza a “Basket Case” not in Israel’s Interests, Says UK’s Guardian

Ariel Sharon’s continued campaign in Gaza ahead of Israel’s likely withdrawal from the area is “only likely to deepen hatred and fuel Palestinian resistance,” wrote the UK’s Guardian on Oct. 5, adding that it was not in Sharon’s interests to make Gaza “even more of a basket case than it already is.…Mr. Sharon, who faces strong domestic opposition, is clearly determined to avoid the impression that he is being driven out of Gaza under fire,” the newspaper continued. “But Hamas is playing politics and propaganda too by launching its rocket attacks—from within densely populated civilian areas—that it must know will attract massive retaliation by the Israelis.” The outside world must warn both sides that they must negotiate, the newspaper said.

Powell’s Iraq Summit “Will Solve Nothing,” Says Spain’s El Pais

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s proposal at the end of September for an international summit on Iraq was greeted with pessimism by European newspapers.

The situation in Iraq is “so desperate” that an international conference “will solve nothing,” wrote Spain’s El Pais Sept. 28. “Washington has failed in its attempt to get a number of Arab countries to send troops” to Iraq, the newspaper noted. “It is hard to see how such a conference could reverse this state of affairs.”

“An Iraq conference not under the auspices of the U.N. and which does not discuss a timetable for the withdrawal of the occupation troops makes no sense,” wrote Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau the same day. It went on to back the French position that any summit would need to address the issue of U.S. troop withdrawal and include representatives of the armed opposition.

Hungary’s Magyar Hirlap of Sept. 28 linked the proposed summit with the American elections. “The Bush camp is noticing that, in a situation of social tensions and a far from rosy economy, a new Vietnam-like failure is increasingly worrying the voters,” it wrote.

Lucy Jones is a free-lance journalist based in London.