LONDON/BERLIN/ATHENS/BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM (AA) - Foreign media gave on Saturday great place to the European Union's (EU) setting a date for start of entry talks with Turkey.
     British press welcomed EU's move to set a negotiation date for Turkey. In its leading article entitled ''Turkish delight, Talks on EU membership will be long, hard and necessary'', The Times said that the decision of the EU could lead to Turkey's return to a continent over which it held regional sway for 500 years.
     Turkey would rejoin Europe not as an Ottoman conqueror but as the largest member of the EU, extending Europe's borders deep into the Middle East to Iraq, Iran and Syria, the British daily wrote.
     The Times said that Turkey's membership would change not only the EU's strategic balance, but its culture, character and future.
     Negotiations will be long and difficult, and few people, including the Turks, expect the country to qualify for membership for ten years, it wrote.
     The article was concluded as, ''Turkey is an example of moderate Islam's ability to flourish in a secular state. Its admission would send a signal of the EU's commitment to diversity and universal values. For centuries the Ottoman empire shaped Europe and shared its heritage. Turkey's moderation, energy and creativity are needed in the Europe of tomorrow.''
    
     -EUROPE'S INTEREST-
     The British ''The Independent'' daily, using the headline ''It is in Europe's best interests that Turkey's hopes are not betrayed'', commented, ''Turkey is not yet guaranteed its place in the European Union. But yesterday's agreement in Brussels was a momentous step on the road there.''
     After more than 40 years of ducking and prevaricating, EU leaders finally did the right thing and invited Ankara to the negotiating table, it wrote.
     The Independent stated, ''to have stalled again would have blown a hole in the EU's credibility and sent an immeasurably damaging signal around the entire Muslim world.''
    
     -GERMAN PRESS-
     On the other hand, German press considered the negotiation date won by Turkey as the victory of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
     German ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' daily headlined the words of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who said, ''a historic step for negotiations with Turkey.''
     Meanwhile, ''Bild'' daily published a photograph in which Erdogan and Schroeder could be seen. Using the headline ''what will this embracing cost us?'', the Bild wrote that Turkey's membership was expected to cost 16.5 to 27.5 billion Euro to EU annually.
    
     -GREEK PRESS-
     Turkey's promise to extend the Ankara Agreement so that it would cover ten new members of the EU was commented by the Greek press as, ''Athens and Lefkosa (the Greek Cypriot side) have reached their targets.''
     Greek ''Katimerini'' daily published a headline entitled ''EU-Turkey compromise: Cyprus will be indirectly recognized in 2005'', and claimed that Erdogan had undertaken a liability regarding this matter which was written in the presidency conclusions.
     Katimerini also wrote that developments satisfied both the Greeks and the Greek Cypriots.
     On the other hand, To Vima used the headline ''Turkey is in EU via Lefkosa'' said that PM Erdogan achieved to get on the train to EU under severe bargaining and difficult conditions, but the Turkish train had to stop at Lefkosa station.''
     To Vima also said that ''both Ankara and Athens and Lefkosa had reached their targets''.
    
     -BELGIAN PRESS-
     The Belgian press considered the decision of the EU as a historic one. La Libre Belgique wrote, ''Heads of state and government of 25 member countries have sealed the decision to open full membership negotiations with Turkey. Ankara will take a step towards recognition of Cyprus before October 2005. It is a historic decision.''
     Meanwhile, using the headline ''Turkey's EU path will pass through Cyprus'', Le Soir said that conditional date given to Ankara was the beginning of a difficult and long path.
    
     -DUTCH PRESS-
     Dutch press wrote that Turkey would recognize ''Cyprus'' before October 3rd, 2005, and its negotiations would be open-ended. It recalled that negotiations could be suspended in case there were some problems.
     De Telegraaf daily wrote, ''EU agreed with Turkey. The agreement was achieved thanks to Balkenende.''
     The Dutch papers wrote that the EU would have more advantages than disadvantages from Turkey's membership when the fact that Turkey was a strong NATO member was taken into consideration.
     (BRC-AY)
2004-12-18