(Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused Germany in a newspaper interview of letting Turkey down by not doing more to support its European Union membership bid and failing to recognise Turks’ efforts to integrate in German society.
The interview appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the mass-circulation paper Bild, hours before Erdogan meets Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin for a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the labour pact which brought large numbers of Turkish workers to Germany.
Ties between the two leaders are strained because of Merkel’s deep reservations about Turkey joining the EU, and Erdogan’s speeches to the Turkish community on previous trips to Germany, in which he urged Turks not to forget their roots.
Asked what he considered German politicians’ biggest failing over integration, Erdogan said: “German politicians do not acknowledge enough the integration of the three million Turks in Germany.”
“Germany should do much more for Turkey’s EU membership bid as this would massively support integration. Because we Turks regard Germany very positively, we feel very let down on this issue,” he added.
Instead of full membership Merkel favours a “privileged partnership” for Turkey, whose 74 million people are predominantly Muslim.
Describing Turks as open and loyal, Erdogan said Germany should show much more solidarity with Turkey. He also criticised Germany’s opposition to dual citizenship and laws which oblige any Turks moving to Germany to speak good German before arrival, saying this infringed their human rights.
“If a young Turkish man loves a woman in Turkey and wants to marry her, this is seen as a mistake, as Germany demands that she first learn German. But what is the language of love?” he said.
“It cannot be that the love of young people is only allowed to exist in German by decree.”
(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Tim Pearce)
via Turkey PM slams Merkel stance on EU bid, migrants: paper | Reuters.
The new Turkish-German university (TAU) in İstanbul will accept its first students in autumn 2012, Ziya Şanal, university rector, said on Monday evening.
The lectures will take place in provisional buildings, since the university’s premises will not be completed by that time. The foundation of the university, which as many as 5000 students will attend, was laid in Beykoz, a suburb on the Asian side of İstanbul, in October 2010.
The buildings might not be ready to host the students yet, but the institution already has an emblem. The organizers presented it in İstanbul on Monday evening. The logo was created at the end of a contest among mixed teams of design students at Anadolu University in Eskişehir and RheinMain University in Wiesbaden, Germany. The winning logo features the three initial letters of the university’s name, TAU, in the shape of flower petals. According to its designers, the logo symbolizes the connection between technology and nature at TAU. The institution – the biggest German university abroad — will focus on engineering, but at the same time will be committed to having a green campus.
The agreement to establish TAU was signed two-and-a-half years ago between the two countries. At that occasion, the German minister of education and research, Annette Schavan, said that the project could start in autumn 2009. Although this estimate has proven to be overly optimistic, there was a reason for the delay, namely disputes over the prospective curriculum.
Rita Süssmuth, president of the consortium representing the German universities involved in the bilateral project, said, “But now it looks realistic that we can start next autumn.” Rector Şanal added that the biggest challenges now are finishing the construction work on campus and acquiring “very good” faculty members.
Şanal is confident student demand for the university will be high. Both high school graduates from Germany and Turkey can apply. In addition to engineering, economics and law departments, the university will also offer degrees in natural and cultural sciences. The university degrees will be accepted in Germany and Turkey, and the language of education will be mainly German.
TAU is the first Turkish-German university. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would like to see a second bilateral university open its doors. “If a Turkish-German university is established in İstanbul, why shouldn’t a similar institution start in Germany’s capital Berlin?” he asked in March 2010 when Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Ankara. However, this idea has yet to find followers in Germany.
via First students of German university in İstanbul to start classes next year.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Abdullah Gul met in Berlin on Tuesday for talks aimed at airing issues touching on integration, EU accession and ties with Israel.
A raft of complex issues was on the table Tuesday when German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Berlin. Up for discussion was the sharp deterioration in relations between Turkey and Israel, as well as the long-standing conservative unease in Germany over Turkish integration.
According to a message from government spokesman Steffen Seibert sent following the talks over the networking site Twitter, the Turkish president agreed with Merkel that good German language skills were necessary for successful integration in Germany.
Seibert tweeted that both Merkel and Gul acknowledged “that the German language should be learned early and as well as possible,” according to the AP news agency.
Earlier this year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the some 3 million Turks living in Germany to integrate but not assimilate. He advised Turkish immigrants to teach their children the Turkish language before German.
Gul touched on the subject ahead of his three-day German tour, telling public broadcaster ZDF that German immigration law violated human rights. He said the legislation was unfair because it prohibited Turkish citizens from joining a spouse in Germany unless they could prove knowledge of the German language.
Contentious UN report
German President Christian Wulff, right, and Turkish President Abdullah GulBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Gul, left, met with Christian Wulff on MondayAlso on the table at the chancellery was the recent flare-up in tensions between Turkey and Israel over a raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year which ended in the deaths of eight Turkish activists and one Turkish American.
Turkey has expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara and suspended military ties with the country in the wake of a United Nations report certifying that the Jewish nation’s deadly raid was legal, despite it being heavy-handed.
The issue is of particular importance to Germany as both Turkey and Israel are key regional partners.
EU accession
The closed-door talks were also thought to have touched on relations between Turkey and the European Union. From the start of the visit, Gul has reiterated Turkey’s desire to join the 27-nation bloc. Merkel opposes Turkish accession and has only offered what she calls a “strategic partnership,” which Turkey rejects.
Complicating matters, Turkey over the weekend threatened to freeze relations with the EU if it went ahead with allowing the divided island of Cyprus to take over the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc next year.
Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 and was due to be handed the presidency in July 2012 after Denmark. But Turkey said it first wants to see a resolution to a standoff between Cyprus’ Turkish north and its Greek south, adding that a Cypriot EU presidency would “cause a major disruption” in relations. Turkey does not recognize Cyprus as a sovereign country.
Following the talks with Merkel, Gul was to travel to the western city of Osnabrück for a second meeting with German President Christian Wulff. There he was scheduled to visit the provincial city’s historic town hall, at which the 1648 Peace of Westphalia was signed, bringing to a close the Thirty Years’ War in Europe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe’s revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and a fresh eruption of the euro debt saga.
Seething discontent in Germany over Europe's debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions. Photo: AP
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country’s constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU’s bail-out machinery.
If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union.
The seething discontent in Germany over Europe’s debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions of the state. “Hysteria is sweeping Germany ” said Klaus Regling, the EFSF’s director.
German media reported that the latest tally of votes in the Bundestag shows that 23 members from Mrs Merkel’s own coalition plan to vote against the package, including twelve of the 44 members of Bavaria’s Social Christians (CSU). This may force the Chancellor to rely on opposition votes, risking a government collapse.
Christian Wulff, Germany’s president, stunned the country last week by accusing the European Central Bank of going “far beyond its mandate” with mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt, and warning that the Europe’s headlong rush towards fiscal union stikes at the “very core” of democracy. “Decisions have to be made in parliament in a liberal democracy. That is where legitimacy lies,” he said.
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A day earlier the Bundesbank had fired its own volley, condemning the ECB’s bond purchases and warning the EU is drifting towards debt union without “democratic legitimacy” or treaty backing.
Joahannes Singhammer, leader of the CSU’s Bundestag group, accused the ECB of acting “dangerously” by jumping the gun before parliaments had voted. The ECB is implicitly acting on behalf of the rescue fund until it is ratified.
A CSU document to be released on Monday flatly rebuts the latest accord between Chancellor Merkel and French president Nicholas Sarkozy, saying plans for an “economic government for eurozone states” are unacceptable. It demands treaty changes to let EMU states go bankrupt, and to eject them from the euro altogether for serial abuses.
“An unlimited transfer union and pooling of debts for any length of time would imply a shared financial government and decisively change the character of a European confederation of states,” said the draft, obtained by Der Spiegel.
Mrs Merkel faces mutiny even within her own Christian Democrat (CDU) family. Wolfgang Bossbach, the spokesman for internal affairs, said he would oppose the package. “I can’t vote against my own conviction,” he said.
The Bundestag is expected to decide late next month on the package, which empowers the EFSF to buy bonds pre-emptively and recapitalize banks. While the bill is likely to pass, the furious debate leaves no doubt that Germany will resist moves to boost the EFSF’s firepower yet further. Most City banks say the fund needs €2 trillion to stop the crisis engulfing Spain and Italy.
Mrs Merkel’s aides say she is facing “war on every front”. The next month will decide her future, Germany’s destiny, and the fate of monetary union.
Netanyahu is ostensibly willing to talk with the Palestinians, but he offers them nothing beyond the future recognition – laden with preconditions – of a Palestinian state.
Haaretz Editorial
Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to the political turmoil in Arab states with renewed entrenchment in his right-wing views. In his address to the Knesset last week the prime minister warned that the regional instability could last for years, patted himself on the back for opposing the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and spoke in favor of a continued Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley as part of a future agreement with the Palestinians, to keep Iran from “walking into” the West Bank.
Netanyahu described himself as being disappointed by the refusal of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate. Netanyahu is ostensibly willing to talk with the Palestinians, but he offers them nothing beyond the future recognition – laden with preconditions – of a Palestinian state. He is not open to a change in the territorial status quo, and insists on going ahead with the expansion of the settlements, which undermines the chances for compromise.
Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Feb. 16, 2011. / Photo by: Emil Salman
In such circumstances it is understandable that the international community views Netanyahu’s talk of peace as empty words meant to buy time in order to perpetuate the right’s control of the government and to bolster the settlement enterprise. The U.S. veto prevented the harsh condemnation of the settlements by the UN Security Council, but the voting underlined Israel’s growing isolation.
Netanyahu’s position causes even friendly leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to turn her back to him. “You did nothing to advance peace,” Merkel told the prime minister when he called her to complain about Germany’s support for the Security Council resolution, according to a report by Barak Ravid in Friday’s Haaretz. Netanyahu promised Merkel that he will soon issue a new peace proposal, but the German chancellor was not inclined to believe him.
It is precisely during times of regional instability and uncertainty that Israel needs the support of the international community. But the Netanyahu government prefers to turn its back to the world and to barricade itself within Hebron and Beit El, Ofra and Yitzhar. Its policy is causing serious harm to Israel’s national interests and will only impede Israel’s integration into the new regional order that is taking shape. Netanyahu must heed the warnings of friendly leaders and put forth a practical peace plan – and not another attempt to use high-flown rhetoric to get the world off his back.
www.haaretz.com, 27.02.11
Merkel rebukes Israeli PM Netanyahu for failing to advance peace
Israeli paper reports that PM was told in fractious phone call: ‘You haven’t made a single step’
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Binyamin Netanyahu was rebuked after expressing disappointment that Germany voted for a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Photograph: Reuters
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has sternly rebuked the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in an unusually fractious telephone call, according to media reports.
Netanyahu had done nothing to advance the peace process, Merkel said in a conversation this week, reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz.
The Israeli prime minister telephoned Merkel on Monday to say he was disappointed that Germany had voted for a UN security council resolution condemning settlements that was vetoed by the US.
According to a German official quoted by Haaretz, Merkel was furious. “How dare you?” she said. “You are the one who has disappointed us. You haven’t made a single step to advance peace.”
A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister said he could not confirm the report.
The quoted comments reflect growing impatience in Europe with the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian talks and a belief that Israel is stalling or impeding progress. With the exception of the US last Friday’s resolution was backed by all the security council members including Britain, Germany and France.
Despite the resolution being carefully worded to reflect American policy on settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the US wielded its veto for the first time under Barack Obama’s presidency.
Reaction among Palestinians has been angry. Demonstrations have been held across the West Bank, in Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem.
Netanyahu told Merkel that he was planning a new initiative to be disclosed in the next few weeks. “I intend to make a new speech about the peace process in the next two to three weeks,” he was quoted as saying.
An Israeli government official confirmed that a fresh statement by Netanyahu on negotiations was in preparation but declined to say when it might be delivered.
During a visit to Israel this month the German chancellor warned that “the stalemate in negotiation is dangerous. There is no room for excuses.“
She dismissed the notion that Europe was becoming more hostile to Israel. “Europe will not turn its back on Israel and neither will the United States. We feel uncomfortable because things are not progressing. In an honest and straightforward manner I will tell you that you are missing an opportunity. History will not give you many more.“
At a joint press conference on Thursday with the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, Netanyahu said he expected Poland to be robust in defending Israel when it took over the presidency of the European Union on 1 July.
“We have two expectations: upgrading Israel’s standing in the EU and upgrading the truth,” he said. “Israel is fighting for its right to exist, to live in security and exist at all, against ceaseless waves of attacks.”
Doug Mills/The New York Times – President Obama and former President George Bush at Tuesday’s White House ceremony.
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
The patriarch of the Bush family dynasty stood in the White House he once led, a bit unsteady but with a large smile on his face, and accepted the nation’s highest civilian honor from President Obama on Tuesday.
In an East Room ceremony, former President George Bush, 86, received the 2010 Medal of Freedom, part of a group of 15 Americans who Mr. Obama hailed for their contributions to the arts, politics, public service, sports and activism.
“His life is a testament that public service is a noble calling,” Mr. Obama said of the 41st president before tying the blue-and-white ribbon and medal around his neck. “Like the remarkable Barbara Bush, his humility and his decency reflects the very best of the American spirit. This is a gentleman.”
The two men — separated by political party and philosophy — shared a knowing glance as Mr. Obama paid homage to what he said was Mr. Bush’s nearly 70 years of service to his country. The president credited Mr. Bush with reducing nuclear weapons, ousting Iraq’s Saddam Hussein from Kuwait and helping to guide the end of the cold war.
“And then, just to cap it off, well into his 80s, he decides to jump out of airplanes,” Mr. Obama said, referring to Mr. Bush’s late-in-life parachute jumping.
Among the perks of the presidency, perhaps none is less controversial or more appealing to the occupant of the Oval Office than the annual role of conferring the Medal of Freedom.
“Now you know why I like this day so much,” Mr. Obama told the audience of invited guests at the end of the event. “I know people try to observe decorum when they are here in the White House. But I’d welcome everybody to stand and acknowledge these extraordinary men and women.”
Among those honored were people who played significant roles in shaping American or global history and culture. Only one is deceased — Tom Little, a humanitarian who was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan as he helped provide vision care to people there.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, was honored by Mr. Obama for being what he called “an inspiration” to people around the world. She did not attend the ceremony, but Mr. Obama said he would present the award to her on her next visit to Washington.
The rest received their awards in person Tuesday afternoon.
Mr. Obama lauded Stan Musial, the baseball legend, by recounting his becoming the first athlete to make $100,000 a year. “Even more shocking,” the president said, “he asked for a pay cut when he didn’t perform up to his own expectations. You can imagine that happening today.”
The president honored Bill Russell, the legendary Boston Celtics basketball player, as “someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men,” and the poet Maya Angelou as a “voice that has spoken to millions.”
Among those to receive the award Tuesday from Mr. Obama was one of the world’s richest men, Warren E. Buffett. But the president also lauded those who have worked on behalf of equality for the poor and struggling, including and John J. Sweeney, who for more than a decade led the A.F.L-C.I.O., and Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, who helped lead the civil rights movement in America.
“Time and again, he faced down death so that all of us could share equally,” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Lewis, whom he called “the conscience of the Congress.”
In addition, the medal went to Yo-Yo Ma, one of the world’s best cellists; Sylvia Mendez, a civil rights activist of Mexican descent; Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of the former president and the former ambassador to Ireland; Gerda Weissmann Klein, a Holocaust survivor; Jasper Johns, the American artist; and John H. Adams, who co-founded the environmental group National Resources Defense Council.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 15, 2011
An earlier version incorrectly described Jean Kennedy Smith; she is the sister, not the brother, of President Kennedy.
