You can take a look at the "obscene" pictures following the link: http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/galeridetay.aspx?cid=11455&rid=2

Siyami Palazoğlu, the manager of the Municipality's Art Center, claimed that the exhibit had to be closed down because of "maintenance work," and would be reopened "after repairs are finished." Tuğba Menteş, an Izzet Baysal University Photography Department senior, whose artwork has been shunned, said on the other hand that the officials had told her outright that they found her photographs bawdy and wanted her to replace them with more "family-friendly" ones.

This is a typical example of the countless moves by the government and local officials of AKP, the ruling Islamic party, against which the chief prosecutor in Turkey has brought charges for trying to destroy the secular nature of the republic.  European Union officials like Jose Manuel Barrosso and Olli Rehn have surprisingly sided with AKP by criticizing the chief prosecutor's action, clearly and unabashedly interfering with an ongoing judicial process, which they could not have dared in their own countries. EU's love affair with the dark-minded jihadists in Turkey is frightening - and disgusting.

Nachdem die Beitrittsverhandlungen durch das in Kraft treten der kroatischen Fischfangzone "ZERP" in der Adria ins Stocken geraten waren, sind Zagreb und Brüssel wieder an den Verhandlungstisch zurückgekehrt. Die kroatischen und die europäischen Verhandlungspartner haben ihre Vorbereitungen zu den noch ausstehenden Verhandlungskapiteln abgeschlossen und sind nun bereit, die Gespräche fortzusetzen. Olli Rehn äußerte sich zuversichtlich das die Verhandlungen 2009 abgeschlossen werden können.

Meinung: Das ist eine sehr optimistische Prognose, die nur noch sehr schwer eingehalten werden kann.

Olli Rehn fails to see, or prefers to ignore, AKP's concerted and well-organized efforts to overthrow the secular regime in Turkey in a 20 year-long master plan. His main presumption is that, as long as AKP does not resort to violence, it should be allowed to destroy secularism in Turkey, which will automatically render Turkey ineligible for EU membership. Thus, EU will -- in its own right-- resolve the issue of the sick man of Europe once and for all -- without having to issue an official rejection.

Rehn and other EU officials who side with AKP do not understand that, if Turkey is allowed to become like Iran, and gravitate out of EU membership path, it will turn into a geostrategic threat of unimaginable proportions to Europe, and the world.

What is AKP doing? In summary, it is trying to islamicize the Turkish society in a grassroots movement. Alcohol is being practically banned in many small towns throughout the Turkish countyside whereby local municipalities revoke or refuse to renew alcohol licenses of restaurants.  Government officials, whose wifes wear a headscarf, are being promoted; those whose wife don't are being pressured to leave office.  Businessmen who want to obtain government contracts have to appear to be going to the mosque, or talk islamic talk, or simply appear devout. Those whose wifes don't cover their head are excluded from doing business with the state.  Pepsi Cola subsidiary in Turkey received a $50,000 fine from "Ad Council", a branch of Industry and Trade Ministry, because it refused to accept pictures of women in headscarves for a competition it had organized. Ads of women in bikinis are being banned from billboards in big cities.   AKP decided to keep religion class mandatory in primary and secondary education in spite of a recommendation by the EU.  In short, this is a movement from bottom up to convert an entire society into a fundamentalist islamic way of life, which will not only facilitate but also foster a change of the state regime.

Olli Rehn, and EU, beware... The guys who you are rooting for are no different from Taliban, with one difference that they try to keep things quiet until they reach their ultimate goal.

Le dichiarazioni alla stampa del Commissario, infatti, sottolineano come l’articolo sia stato alla base del processo che è stato fatto in Turchia al grande scrittore premio Nobel Orhan Pamuk. In pratica, l’articolo 301 è tristemente servito per promuovere l’azione penale contro dissidenti ed intellettuali avversi ai Governi di Ankara. A fare da sfondo, però, sia alla vicenda di Pamuk che alle altre perplessità occidentali antiturche è sempre, più spesso, la triste e negata storia del genocidio armeno, non riconosciuto dal Governo turco. In realtà, il Presidente Abdullah Gul ha più volte sottolineato che il processo al Premio Nobel non si è basato su questa norma. Gul, comunque, ha dichiarato al Financial Times che, pur di entrare in Europa, è sicuramente favorevole che il Parlamento modifichi la norma contestata. Ma tace, per ora, sulla querelle armena o su quella – seppur differente – curda.

La sensazione è, tuttavia, che nel dialogo UE-Turchia il confronto non sia trasparente e sereno.

Ankara sicuramente non è un Paese virtuoso sul fronte dei diritti umani. Eppure quasi tutti gli Stati Occidentali sono dotati di una serie di norme quali “il vilipendio delle Istituzioni o della Bandiera”; leggi penali legate a quelle politiche di sacralizzazione del Potere Politico intraprese nell’Ottocento nell’ambito del processo di “nazionalizzazione delle masse”, durante il quale, “dopo aver fatto l’Italia”, fu necessario fare gli Italiani; ovvero connotare simbolicamente lo Stato, attraverso la costruzione dello Stato-Nazione. Eppure la norma è contestata solo alla Turchia. Ugualmente pretestuose sembrano le dichiarazioni di vari Parlamenti, come quello francese, riguardo il genocidio armeno. La verità è che la Francia è assolutamente contraria all’ingresso della Turchia in Europa. Sarkozy ha proposto che gli accession talk con Ankara siano sottoposti al parere di “un comitato di saggi” e non è un mistero che vuole istituire questo panel per frenare l’integrazione. Da questo punto di vista, posto che la Turchia è sempre stato un fedele alleato NATO e degli USA, ma che proprio Sarkozy ha cambiato radicalmente la politica estera francese nei riguardi del gigante americano, le mosse dell’Eliseo sono, ora, legate ad una sorta di politica dell’equilibrio con la Germania che ha attratto nella sua sfera di influenza molti Paesi dell’Est ed anche Ankara.

Le perplessità dell’Unione, quindi, rispondono più ad interessi geopolitici francesi che a solenni e fumosi valori. La UE, fino ad oggi, ogni volta che ha potuto colpire un nervo scoperto turco, lo ha fatto. Recentemente, infatti, ha posto nuovamente la questione del divieto di approdo, navigazione e sorvolo di navi ed aerei ciprioti nello spazio e nelle acque territoriali turche. Ma anche Ankara dovrebbe optare per una maggiore chiarezza: se è facile “pizzicare” la Turchia è perché il Paese non ha ancoro sciolto dei nodi legati al proprio passato. Perché non risolvere, ad esempio, definitivamente il problema del genocidio turco?

Alessio Postiglione

pubblicato su Notizie Verdi del 7-11-07

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Die Krise hat sich zu einem ernsthaften Problem auch bei den Beitrittsverhandlungen des Landes entwickelt. Die kroatische Regierung hat nach Meinung der EU wenig zur Entspannung der Situation beigetragen. Nach Meinung der kroatischen Presse, wurde die Regierung von Rehn regelrecht "abgewatscht".

Kroatien wird sich schwer tun beides unter einen Hut zu bringen, doch die Regierung wird sich auch schwer tun einen Rückzieher in dem Fall zu machen. Damit würde sie innenpolitisch ziemlich stark unter Druck geraten und auch negative Auswirkungen bei den nächsten Wahlen provozieren. Die Bevölkerung ist mehrheitlich für eine Umsetzung der eingeschlagenen Linie.

Ein Beitritt ist auf der anderen Seite aber auch sehr wichtig, was auch mittlerweile von der Mehrheit der Bevölkerung gewünscht bzw. unterstützt wird.

Diesbezüglich wird er sich mit führenden Politikern des Landes treffen und über die Fortschritte von Themenbereichen wie Finanzen und Justiz zu sprechen. Ein Treffen mit dem Premierminister Ivo Sanader und 2 seiner Stellvertreter ist ebenfalls geplant.

Anlässlich des Besuches des kroatischen Außenminister Gordan Jandroković mit seinem Kollegen Bernard Kouchner, erklärte der französische Kollege seine  Unterstützung Kroatiens zum Beitritt in die EU und NATO. Frankreich werde im Rahmen seiner Ratspräsidentschaft ab dem 01.07. diesen Jahres alle unternehmen um den Beitrittsprozess zu beschleunigen.

What started out as a seemingly innocuous disagreement has turned into a full-fledged battle between the country's highest government officials.  Government officials on both sides of the fence have dug in their heels behind either Kostunica or Tadic.  The official term for this is "institutional deadlock."  The question on everyone's mind is whether the deadlock will be allowed to continue or whether something will give, either in the form of a referendum or an early election.

Serbia's circumstances as of late suggest that something will have to give, as such dischord within the government cannot sustain itself.  In the last two months, the Dinar has lost five percent and the index of the most active stocks is down eight percent.  Serbia, just like Kosovo, needs some serious financial investment to invigorate its fragile markets.

Will the expediency of a sagging economy trump a hardline nationalistic stance?  Will Serbia's quest to avoid both cultural and economic isolation trump Serbia's claim to Kosovo at all costs?  Who is truly speaking for the Serbian people, Vojislav Kostunica or Boris Tadic?

We will soon find out.

Serbia's ruling coalition is so divided on the European Union that citizens might be asked to decide in a referendum whether the country should seek or reject EU membership, Serbia's parliament speaker said. The prime minister does not want an EU link up without breakaway Kosovo, while the president advocates pushing on with membership.

Oliver Dulic, Serbia's third most senior official, told daily Danas the government of nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and pro-Western president Boris Tadic would find it "impossible to survive" in such a climate of discord.  Analysts say the disharmony is deterring much-needed investment and rattling the country's fragile markets. The dinar has lost five percent in two months and the index of most active stocks was down eight percent in the same period.

Kostunica wants Serbia to reject ties with the EU until the bloc withdraws its backing for Kosovo, Serbia's former province which seceded last month. Tadic says these issues are not related, and nothing should jeopardise Serbia's development. Dulic, a member of Tadic's party, said that unless Kostunica backs down, a snap election or a referendum would be the only ways to break a possible "institutional deadlock".

"We should go for early elections as soon as possible and let citizens decide on the future," he said in an interview published on Wednesday. "Whether at elections or at referendum, we have to ask citizens what they think."

Kostunica recalled ambassadors from the United States and major EU nations that recognised Kosovo and wants to cool ties as long as the EU insists on sending a supervisory mission to guide the territory to full statehood. He backs a parliamentary resolution saying Serbia cannot join the bloc without Kosovo inside its borders. Dulic said the re-election of Tadic on Feb. 3 over a nationalist challenger showed Serbs see an EU future.

After months of sitting on the sidelines while Kostunica worked up nationalist fervour, top liberals such as Dulic have started going on the offensive, especially after violent attacks against foreign embassies and firms in Belgrade late last month. The potential for crisis has not been lost on the EU. Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called on Serbia to reaffirm it still sought closer EU ties. The bloc is due to set out plans on abolishing visas, increasing scholarships and offering more development help for all Balkan states in a bid to maintain public support.

Analysts say Kostunica is single-minded in his campaign to save territory seen by Serbs as the national heartland, and is unlikely to be swayed by Western cajoling. "Since all parties are in favour of EU membership, there is no point in organising a referendum on whether we want to join the EU," the spokesman of Kostunica's party, Andreja Mladenovic, told Beta news agency on Wednesday.

"We should rather have a vote on the issue of whether Serbia should go into the EU with Kosovo or without."

The quoted article was published by The Guardian and can be found here.

International Herald Tribune: Turkey's parliament approves return of confiscated property to minorities; Turkish Daily News:  Foundations law at heart of new debate

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The Greek Minority in Turkey; Wikipedia: Greeks in Turkey; Speros Vryonis, Jr.: “The Mechanism of Catastrophe: The Destruction of the Greek Community in Istanbul”