Category: EU Members

European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Turkey on 17 Dec. 2004

Türkiye determined to improve ties with Paris

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country was determined to improve bilateral relations with France.

“We have deep-rooted and historical ties between Türkiye and France, and our both countries are committed to move relations forward in a visionary and positive spirit,” Davutoglu told a press conference in Paris after a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius on Thursday.

Davutoglu said there would be more frequent high level talks between the two countries’ officials and their parliaments, adding that cooperation would be also be boosted in many regional issues.

Davutoglu said France had become “more positive” over Türkiye’s European Union accession bid, adding that he had called for the removal of France’s blocking on five policy areas in Turkey’s membership negotiations and that France was likely to assume a more positive stance in that respect.

The Turkish FM said Türkiye had lifted sanctions it started imposing on France after a row in January over a French legislation that made it illegal to deny Armenian allegations on the incidents of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.

The law was later annulled by France’s top constitutional authority.

Davutoglu said Türkiye was set to open two consulates in Bordeaux and Nantes as well as a culture center in Paris.

Turkish Press

July 8, 2012
WE THE PEOPLE……..

WE THE PEOPLE…

CHAPTER 15

IT CAN NOT HAPPEN TO ME. GUESS WHAT? IT WILL!!!

The following message is for every citizen of every country that has the right to choose their own elected officials.

Come July 1, 2012 the world is in financial agony. A tsunami of easy credit has flooded our shores. The blame game has erupted with all its fury as nations pockmark each other with vicious language to placate their voters.

The real culprit is us – the voter. We voted them into office. We are to blame. There have been and will be many important elections this year and WE THE PEOPLE must take control of our destinies. Elected officials fear us and have been buying us off with various entitlements for decades. If it did not work, then they just, made it larger. So today, as our bankers joyfully watch and estimate their future net worth, we are slowly falling into an abyss with a stench of sulfur.

Considering these elections, one’s party affiliations do not matter, because it is the candidate’s beliefs that are of the utmost importance now.

Which candidate favors reinstating the USURY LAW where the maximum interest rate should be limited to 8%. The Rule of 72 is what bankers live by. All one has to do is to take 72 and divide it by 8 the answer is how many years it will take the bank to double its investment in you. The Usury law was dropped in the mid 1970’s because interest rates were 14% and everyone was maxing out their credit cards (that is borrowing the most they could) and buying a US Government bond at 14%. Then they would pay of the credit card and net 6%. This is called disintermediation and not very healthy long term. So congress was forced to drop the law. But they also failed to reinstate it when the danger expired. It is my suspicion that some members on key committees received special favors.

If you have a 30 year mortgage on your home and you are paying 8% to the bank; the bank will make 3.33 times on helping you on your mortgage by providing the necessary funds. This is where they provide an important function in your community. The higher rate you pay the quicker they double their money. This is why past legislators legalized as max rate – to protect you from unscrupulous bankers. Remember bankers have the moral obligation to protect our deposits for our advantage not theirs. Dividends should come from earnings before bonuses are distributed. Public trust comes before employees looting.

Credit cards are a bastard. They are figured in months not years. This is legalized extortion. Pure and simple.

Enacting or reinstating the USURY LAW will benefit the individual and corporations while reducing the bankers’ bonuses.

A candidate must be willing to petition the Federal Reserve to raise margin rates across the board to 100% for 3 to 6 months worldwide. This will stop all the abuses going on in the market place and make it safe for honest investors. This will halt high frequency trades that are computer driven and benefit a few while harming millions. Hedge funds that use easy credit to skirt regulations will be halted. Best of all derivatives and collateralized debt instruments will go the way of the dinosaur.

Stop Quantitative Easing (QE) dead in its tracks. Go for Quantitative Giving (QG). QE goes to the largest corporation and unions where the money trickles down through the officers and union leaders before long term good is completed.

With QG the Fed must raise fed funds to the 1-2% range so banks restart increasing their savings account rates. This will encourage investors to increase their debt from short term to longer term because they have more confidence in the future.

QG is giving a large stipend to everyUScitizen over the age of 21($50,000 -$100,000) to use as he or she sees fit. Pay down debts etc. with the proviso that at least 10% should be used to purchase a new product. This will getAmericagoing again create jobs and new businesses. The public knows best- not bureaucrats inWashingtonD.C.

July 3, 2012
Turkey sees France’s Hollande lifting EU veto

Turkey sees France’s Hollande lifting EU veto

By Ayla Jean Yackley and Ceyda Caglayan

ISTANBUL | Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:20pm EDT

(Reuters) – Turkey expects France to unblock talks that are essential if it is ever to join the European Union, now that Socialist President Francois Hollande has replaced Nicolas Sarkozy who was outspoken in opposing the Muslim country’s bid to join the bloc.

“We are entering a new period in relations with France after Hollande’s election,” EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said in an interview late on Tuesday. “It now makes sense for the block that stemmed from Sarkozy’s own personal whim to be lifted.”

Hollande has backed away from Sarkozy’s stark opposition to Turkey entering the EU but any shift in position from Paris will have more symbolic resonance than practical effect.

Turkey began talks in 2005 but has only completed one of the 35 policy “chapters” that every candidate must conclude to join the EU. Bagis expects Paris to lift its veto on talks about five chapters, but even that would leave other areas stalled.

All but 13 chapters are blocked by France, Cyprus – the island state which Turkey does not recognize – and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm which says Turkey does not yet meet the required standards on human rights and freedom of speech and religion.

Ankara said last week it would restore all ties with France after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met Hollande, smoothing over a row about the World War One killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Last year Turkey cancelled economic, political and military meetings with Paris after the French parliament voted to make it illegal to deny that the massacres were genocide. The law was struck down by a top court.

While Hollande has stopped short of endorsing Turkey’s EU candidacy, he has said it should be judged on political and economic criteria – a contrast to Sarkozy’s position that Turkey did not form part of Europe.

But public opinion in France makes it difficult for politicians to explicitly back the candidacy. A survey by pollster IFOP in 2008 found 80 percent of the French were opposed to Turkey joining, the highest among the seven EU countries questioned.

France’s foreign ministry was not available for comment, but a French diplomatic source said that while the lifting of the Turkish sanctions “transforms our bilateral relations”, no decision had yet been made on the accession talks.

“I think Bagis is going a little bit far. What we will do is to study at European level what is on the table with the Turks, the chapters etcetera, but at this stage we haven’t defined a position,” the source said.

Despite the slow progress, Turkey still expects to join the EU before 2023, the centenary of its founding as a secular republic, Bagis said, adding that the euro zone’s economic crisis was no deterrent.

“This economic crisis will soon be over, and the EU will continue to be the grandest peace project in the history of mankind,” he said. “As a Muslim, secular democracy … what Turkey can do is turn this continental peace project into a global one.”

CYPRUS HEADS EU

Turkey’s position on Cyprus means that it will decline to open any new talks for the next six months during which Cyprus holds the rotating EU presidency.

Cyprus has been divided between ethnic Greeks and Turks since 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a short-lived coup by Greek Cypriots aimed at uniting the island with Greece. The Greek Cypriot-run state joined the EU in 2004.

Erdogan said last year Turkey would freeze ties with the EU when Cyprus assumes the presidency on July 1, something European Parliament President Martin Schulz called “impossible”.

Bagis said the presidency was largely symbolic and Turkey would continue working on membership criteria with the European Commission.

“We will not be forced into recognizing a country we have not recognized so far just because others call it the president,” Bagis said.

“No chapter will open during this time, because we have declared we will not engage with the president, but we expect several chapters to open in the subsequent period when Ireland takes over the presidency,” he said.

As for talks between Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, which sources says are deadlocked, Bagis said Turkey and its Turkish Cypriot partners would not allow Greek Cypriots to return to the deserted district of Varosha until a full settlement is reached.

That rebuffs an offer from Christofias to open policy chapters it has blocked in exchange for Varosha, Cyprus’ main tourism hub until Turkish forces seized it after the invasion.

“Varosha is part of a comprehensive settlement,” Bagis said. “We will not play our trump card to open a chapter. We’re not going to grow any taller with the opening of a new chapter.”

Turkey refuses to open its sea and air ports to Cyprus, required by the EU for its negotiations to progress, until the EU allows direct trade with Turkish Cypriots, diplomatically isolated and economically dependent on Turkey, despite voting in a 2004 referendum to join the EU and reunify with Greek Cypriots, who rejected the U.N. plan. (Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

via Turkey sees France’s Hollande lifting EU veto | Reuters.

June 28, 2012
Turkey proud of naming Cakir as Portugal v Spain referee

Euro semi-final referee gives Turks reason to smile

Missing out on Euro 2012 was painful for soccer-mad Turkey but having a Turkish referee at the finals has helped restore some pride to a country still smarting from match-fixing allegations and high-profile arrests.

Cuneyt Cakir, a 35-year-old Istanbul native who runs an insurance branch office, is the youngest referee at the tournament and will take charge of the semi-final between Spain and Portugal in Donetsk on Wednesday.

“Cuneyt Cakir… makes us Turks smile once again through his appointment to blow his whistle at the Euro semi-final,” newspaper Milliyet wrote this week.

Hurriyet newspaper said on Wednesday the Iberian clash would resemble Spain’s El Clasico and was a great honor for Cakir.

Cakir, whose father was a referee, regularly officiates at the notoriously volatile derbies between the three major Istanbul clubs.

Turkey, semi-finalists at Euro 2008, lost to Croatia in a playoff for the Euro 2012 finals after finishing second behind Germany in their qualifying group.

However, Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil, who was born in Gelsenkirchen but whose family hail from Turkey, is another favorite with the Turkish public.

[…]

Ahram online sports

June 28, 2012
Turks do not want to live in the EU any more

By Andrew Rettman

BRUSSELS – Turkey says future visa-free travel will work out well because Turks no longer want to live in the EU.

Istanbul mall – the city is relatively rich. But in rural areas, around 10 percent of people live in poverty (Photo: maistora)

Its European affairs minister Egemen Bagis told EUobserver on Friday (22 June) that Turks these days travel to EU capitals “to spend [money]” in shops and hotels.

“In the past, when Turks were asked do you want to live in Europe, 80 percent would say Yes. Now, 85 percent say No. Turkish citizens feel there is more hope in Turkey, better job opportunities,” he said.

He noted that in 2010, 27,000 Turks went to live in Germany, but 35,000 German citizens moved to Turkey.

He added that “many” of the 5.5 million Turks who live in the EU are considering going to Turkey to seek a better life for themselves and their children.

Bagis spoke after EU countries earlier in the week agreed plans for visa-free travel by 2014 or 2015.

His words are backed up by economic data, to an extent.

While the eurozone stumbles from crisis to deeper crisis, Turkey’s GDP per capita is galloping upward.

In the Ankara and Istanbul regions it is already on par with Greece, former Communist EU countries and parts of Spain and the UK.

Peering over the border, the crisis is eating away at Athens – three four-star hotels in the central museum district closed last year because visible street crime scared off guests.

Turkey is not just Istanbul and Ankara, however – in rural areas, around 10 percent of people live on the equivalent of less than $5 a day.

In return for the visa deal, Turkey is to implement a “readmission” pact – extra measures for stopping migrants from as far afield as China or Pakistan sneaking into the EU.

Bagis said Turkey will create a 50,000-man-strong civilian border police, “humane” detention centres and “new fences.”

Turkey currently intercepts 70,000 people a year trying to get into Greece or Bulgaria. The number “could easily double or triple” once the new measures are in place, he said.

Bagis noted that 30,000 Syrian refugees are being housed in eight camps in southeast Turkey. But Turkish soldiers and gendarmes are making sure they stay put and that no weapons get in.

The EU visa deal will also see Turkey sign an “operational agreement” with the EU’s joint police body, Europol.

A report by British MPs last year said Turkish-based organised crime groups are a growing threat to EU security on heroin and cocaine smuggling and human trafficking.

They said lack of intelligence-sharing, such as personal data on suspects, helps the gangs make hay.

via EUobserver.com / Enlargement / Turks do not want to live in the EU any more.

June 24, 2012
IT CAN NOT HAPPEN TO ME. CHAPTER 14

IT WILL NOT HAPPEN TO ME. GUESS WHAT? IT WILL!!

Chapter 14

Pity the Greek Citizens – Not the Politicians

What you see and hear about Greece will slowly come our way. Socialism is a great deal for the politicians as long as they can provide openhanded gifts to the populace. As long as they could borrow money and put off the consequences until they could leave office – fine.

Once when no one will submit bids for their debt the game is really over. They better have an escape route to Argentina ready.

Once they joined the European Union, they lost their freedom to default for they are now tied to everyone else. A simple solution would be debt holders to forgive interest and go for the principal only. This would cause severe pain among the bankers whose salary is paid. Right now they are still in control, but slowly losing it as citizens start to revolt.

Now dear reader, this is how it will happen to you. Hospitals that depend upon government assistance will start to run out of supplies because they can not pay. Try blood bags, plastic gloves used to stop the spread of diseases’ from staff and patients. Unable to pay staff and nurses, and to matters worse all medical plans must be p[aid in full first.

Utilities can not pay for gas from Russia’s Gazprom. Italians stop supplying for the same reason and also their need locally overrides the Greeks need.

Greeks import some 40% of their food supplies. All of its oil and gas is imported, and almost all of its drugs and elixirs.

Its main industries are tourism and shipping. With high unemployment and a rising crime rate their outlook is more than bleak.

There is not easy way out for the Greeks, and all the solutions would be long term. Necessity will force changes in life styles. It will not come easily either. What they need is a Pericles and or a Spartan Police force.

Meanwhile Portugal and Spain are not far behind. Then there are the Italians and then France. Eagan Jones has just reduced their rating of Germany to AA, they are a private rating agency that is a step above the rest in my humble opinion.

Another long term solutions is to have term limits for all politicians. This makes it harder for them to con the public. It is more interesting watching a newly elected official trying to win votes knowing that he has a short time to prove his worth to the electorate.

One thing is certain, the world wide economy will be slowing down as countries and their corporations prove their credit worthiness. This era is a “game changer” and we will need new rules and safeguards to protect us from the robber barons of yesteryear.

June 22, 2012