EU-Armenia news roundup

ISLER BEGUIN VISIT TO THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN BORDER

MEP Marie Anne Isler Beguin, Chair of the Parliament’s delegation to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, has published footage of her recent visit to the Turkish-Armenian border.

According to the MEP, « the European Parliament never ceased to reiterate the need to open the border in its resolutions, as the current situation isolates and penalises not only Armenia and the Turcs in the border area, but the entire region too. For Isler Beguin, reopening the border must be a pre-condition to Turkey joining the EU.” Isler Beguin further comments that Turkey closed the border more than 10 years ago in reprisal for the conflict in Nagorno Karabagh.

>> Watch the video

>> More on relations between Armenia and Turkey

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REPORT ON TURKEY'S PROGRESS

The European Parliament has started work on a draft report on Turkey’s progress towards membership prepared by Dutch Christian Democrat Camiel Eurlings. Negociations towards Turkey’s membership of the EU Started in October 2005.

The draft resolution proposed by Eurlings strikes a note of concern, stressing the “slowing down of the reform process” and problems such as Turkey’s failure to establish trading relations with Cyprus.

With regards to questions of interest to the 60 000 Armenians of Turkey, the draft resolution lays some emphasis on religious and minority rights, deploring in particular that “no progress has been made since Parliament's last report in addressing the difficulties faced by religious minorities”, including the “seizure of assets belonging to religious foundations, their legal personality, the right to training of clergy and internal management”. Noting that Turkish law thus “falls short of EU standards”, the Parliament would urge Turkey to ensure that the ninth legislative reform package of the reform process help the country make genuine progress on this front.

The resolution refrains from calling upon Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide, as early reviews of Turkey’s progress by the European Parliament have repeatedly done. But it does call for greater freedom of expression in Turkey, and refers to prosecutions against Orhan Pamuk and Hrant Dink, both of whom had tried to raise the question of the destruction of the country’s Armenian population in 1915 and 1916.

Finally, with regards to relations with Armenia, Eurlings proposes to “urge Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations with Armenia and to open the land border at an early date, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by Parliament between in 1987 and 2005”. His text also “takes note” of a confusing exercise in public diplomacy, in 2005, in which Turkey offered to establish a panel to discuss history, while Armenia offered to establish a Commission to discuss all aspects of relations between the two countries. Neither proposal has yet been followed-up.

From the point of view of the small Armenian minority in Turkey, and of the Republic of Armenia, this proposal represents neither setback nor breakthrough. The European Parliament is commendably firm on minority and religious rights as well as on freedom of expression in Turkey. The text’s clarity in its calls for Turkey to end its blockade of Armenia and establish relations is equally noteworthy.

Its failure to mention the Armenian genocide will probably lead, in the run-up to the text’s adoption, to fierce lobbying battles. but, regardless of the final resolution’s wording, it will make little difference to the position of those institutions that are currently conducting the negotiations with Turkey: the European Commission and Council.

>> The draft report of the European Parliament

SEMNEBY: EU ACTION PLANS TO BE SIGNED " IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS' TIME"

EU Special Representative for the Southern Caucasus, Peter Semneby, continued his exploratory talks under his mandate to help shape the EU’s policy for the South Caucasus.

RFE/RL, June 2006 In an interview with RFE/RL, the EU’s special representatives confirmed that Action Plans negotiations are now “advanced” with Armenia and Georgia, while more difficulties remain with Azerbaijan. Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are currently negotiating 3-year ‘Action Plans’ with the EU, agreements about the steps both they and the EU intend to take to shape their future relationship.

The Action Plans had been held up by a dispute between Azerbaijan and Cyprus, and uncertainty remains as to whether or when this might be resolved. Semneby underlined however that, while the EU has a preference to have relationships with the three countries that are “as close as possible”, he also underlined that it is the Action Plans approach to work on “tailor-made action plans [specific] to the needs of every country”.

In a separate interview, Semneby also put forward his perspective on the Karabakh peace process. He confirmed, and explained, the EU’s renewed interest in the conflict. Following the EU’s enlargement, pending the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, and with negotiations now started with Turkey, he said, 'what happens in the Southern Caucasus is no longer something abstract and distant. It is becoming an area of direct concern to the EU.'

He also expressed his faith in Europe’s effectiveness: “I think the EU has proven in other cases that it does have a considerable transformational power, and I very strongly believe that through the carrots and sticks that the EU will have at its disposal as part of the Action Plans that there will be such a transformational power in the Southern Caucasus.”

>> RFE/RL

>> Interview with P. Semneby

EUROPEANS OF THE YEAR IN ARMENIA

European Movement “European of the Year” awards have been handed out to a number of individuals, associations and companies, on account of their efforts to bring Armenia and the EU closer together. They include Arthur Baghdassarian, former President of the National Assembly and outspoken advocate of Europe in Armenia; the AYAS club, who’s historic ship, Kilikia, has circumnavigated the continent to raise awareness about Armenia in Europe; as well as the Café de Paris coffee company and the Kanaka building company.

>> Sources: Noyan Tapan, Lragir.am.

>> The European Movement in Armenia