The third round of talks between Iran and the sextet started in Geneva today amid guarded optimism that there may be an interim deal at last. It is still too early to tell but all signs point to progress. The next two days will show what can be expected.
When Kosova declared its independence from Serbia on February 12 (becoming the seventh state to emerge from the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991), the US and nineteen members of the European Union (EU) backed the declaration.
The decision of the European Union summit at Luxembourg on October 4 to hold accession talks with Turkey (over Austria's objections) was hailed by both Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, and Jack Straw, Britain's foreign minister (Britain holds the current EU chairmanship), as “historic”.
Turkey has been a trusted and valued member of NATO for a long time, as it has been an associate member of European economic organisations. Turkey first applied to join what was then the EEC in 1959 and signed an association agreement with it in 1963, which strongly implied that it would later become a member.
The assumption that it is the European Union’s transparent unwillingness to admit a Muslim country, rather than the reluctance of a Muslim people to join a Christian union, that is mainly responsible for the failure of membership-negotiations to make any progress is being steadily revised.
The Turkish government has recently announced a programme for retraining schoolchildren, teachers and even imams to “promote modern and peaceful interpretations of Islam”, and to rebrand old European enemies such as Greece and Russia as friends.
The deal recently negotiated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, in Brussels on his country’s longstanding quest for membership of the European Union is, by general agreement, unfair and humiliating, and by no means indicates – let alone guaranteeing – that Turkey will eventually be allowed to become a member of the EU.
There was some sense of relief in the Muslim world in late November, when negotiators representing the Islamic Republic of Iran of succeeded in persuading the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not to report it to the UN Security Council for having a nuclear weapons programme.
It is not as unfair as it might sound to describe the management of Kosova’s affairs (mismanagement, according to many analysts) by the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as meddling...
When the European Commission recommended on October 9 that nine countries be admitted to the EU but not Turkey, most Turks were not surprised. While the popular view is that a Muslim country is not wanted in the Union in any circumstances...
If Turkey joins the European Union (EU) it will be its largest member by population, and Europe will share borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria. Both prospects are bound to make most Europeans uneasy (to put it mildly), and they may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to Turkey’s EU membership.
The Turkish parliament on October 3 passed 34 amendments to the constitution. Designed to ease Turkey’s entry into the EU, they are impressive only on paper.
Until a month ago it was a firm western policy to arm the Macedonian military and isolate Albanian fighters by branding them as ‘terrorists’ out to break up the country in their alleged pursuit of ‘Greater Albania’.
The five European Union (EU) States which first began to swoop on their Muslim populations at the end of May in a cowardly and cynical exploitation of the World Cup did not exactly use those words.
Buoyed by his success in securing the Northern Ireland peace agreement, British prime minister Tony Blair last month embarked on a five-day Middle Eastern tour in an attempt to revive the long-stalled “peace process.”
A Swiss police officer and a police informer have been found guilty by a court in Lausanne of spying for Algiers on Algerians living in Switzerland.
Just as the European Union (EU) announced that its members were sending their envoys back to Tehran after a 20-day hiatus, the Rahbar (Leader) of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatullah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, delivered a powerful slap on their collective face.
