linked - Institut kurde de Paris

• 8 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 261 • December 2006
expected to take at least 10 to 15
years). They also decided not to
finalise any other chapter so long
as Turkey fails to accept to open its
sea and air ports to Greek Cypriot
traffic — its refusal on this point
being the source of the sanction by
the 25. They also found a
compromise “if necessary” for the
annual evaluations till 2009 of such
progress as Turkey may have
made. Finally, they agreed to “thaw
out” the suspended chapters “at
any moment” in the event of
Turkish progress.
On December 13, the President of
the European Commission, José
Manuel Barroso, described the
freezing of negotiations as “a
credible and equitable decision”. This
decision “taken unanimously by the
Foreign Ministers of the E.U.
countries, is a credible and equitable
decision because it (the E.U.) sends a
very strong signal to the Turks — that
obligations must be observed”, was
his analysis. “It is a strong signal,
but a signal that is not intended to
close the door on Turkey. It is not only
a matter of not opening the eight
chapters, but of not finalising any of
the 35 chapters until Turkey respects
its obligations”, he pointed out.
In reaction, the Turkish Prime
Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
denounced an “injustice”. “Despite
all our good will, the decision of the
E.U. Council of Ministers is,
unfortunately an unjust one”, he
declared to his Justice and
Development
Party’s
Parliamentary group. “Relations
between the E.U. and Turkey are
going through a harsh trial, despite all
our efforts to resolve the blockage”,
Mr. Erdogan added. The Turkish
Prime Minister nevertheless
declared that Turkey was
determined to continue putting
into practice the reforms needed
for its entry into the European
Union. “In the coming period, we
know full well that we have to carry
out our reforms with the same
determination” he pointed out. For
his part, the Turkish Foreign
Minister, Abdullah Gul, deplored
“the lack of vision” of his European
opposite numbers. As for the
Turkish press, the present situation
is not the worst scenario since the
25 are agreed to unfreeze the
chapters in the event of Turkish
progress. “The European train has
braked” headlined the daily Radikal,
while for Zaman (moderate
Islamic) “the E.U. train is continuing
on its way”. The Turkish authorities
refuse to allow ships or planes to
enter their sea or airports that
come from the Cyprus Republic,
which occupies the Greek part of
the island, divided since the
Turkish invasion in 1974. They
demand that the E.U. first end the
economic isolation of the “Turkish
Republic of North Cyprus” — that
is recognised by Ankara only.
TEHERAN: THE FIRST ELECTORAL SETBACK
FOR MAHMUD AHMEDINJAD
A
ccording to the final
results made public on 21
December by the Iranian
Ministry of the Interior,
the opponents of the
Iranian President have taken the
lead in the municipal elections and
in the Assembly of Experts, thus
making a first electoral setback for
Mahmud Ahmedinjad. The
electors had top elect over 113,000
local councillors out of 235,000
candidates. Overall, the
participation in these elections was
about 60%, that is, 26 million of
46.5 million Iranian electors,
according to the government. The
two previous local elections in
Iran’s history, following their being
set up in 1999 by the then
president Mohammed Khatami,
had drawn between 50% and 55%
to the polls. However, four years
ago less than 12% had taken part in
the Teheran municipal elections.
According to the final results, the
winners were essentially “moderate
conservatives” opposed to the
present very radical President,
followed by reformers. These
results may well embarrass
Mahmud Ahmedinjad, whose anti-
Israeli rhetoric and inflexible stand
on the nuclear issue have
provoked condemnation in the
West. The two polls on 15
December were a test for President
Ahmedinjad, who has already lost
the support of many conservatives,
who considered that he was
spending too much time in
confrontations with the West at the
expense of the economic question.
The Iranian President, for whom
these elections were considered to
be a first test of popularity, since
taking office in 2005, avoided any
fundamental analysis of these first
results. Mr. Ahmedinjad simply
declared: “The people have won”.
In Teheran, supporters of President
Mahmud Ahmedinjad, former
Mayor of the city, where he built
up his popularity, arrived last in
the municipal elections, behind
both the conservatives and the
reformers, according to the State
television. Four “reformist”
candidates are also due to join the
Council, whereas the reforming
camp, which had controlled the
municipality, was completely
eliminated at the 2003 elections.
Only two candidates of the ultraconservative
“The good odour of
service” list were amongst the first
fifteen. One of these was the