DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./TURKEY: WE MUST ACCEPT TURKEY INTO THE E.U. OR MOSLEMS ARE GOING TO WAGE JIHAD ON US DHIMMIS OF EURABIA

Rehn: Risk of Islamist backlash if EU shuns Turkey

The European Union should keep alive Turkey's prospects of joining the bloc or risk a nationalist or Islamist backlash in its neighborhood, a newspaper quoted the EU's enlargement commissioner as saying.

Olli Rehn told the European Voice weekly that while acknowledging French President Nicolas Sarkozy's opposition to Turkey's EU entry, the European Commission believed it necessary to "keep our word and respect our existing commitments."

"If you look at the current political situation in the Middle East ... we don't need another nationalist or Islamist problem in the neighborhood of Europe," he told the weekly in an interview. "The best way of avoiding this is to keep the EU accession progress alive, continue the negotiations and give Turkey a chance [to show] whether it will be able to meet all the democratic and legislative criteria of EU accession."

Rehn called Turkey an "anchor of stability in the most unstable region of the world" and a "benchmark of democracy for the Muslim world from Morocco to Malaysia."

The EU opened membership talks with Turkey in 2005, but they have been slowed by Ankara's refusal to open its port to its rival and EU member Greek Cyprus, fuelling a debate about whether the predominantly Muslim state belongs in Europe. France this week prevented the EU extending Turkey's accession negotiations into the politically sensitive area of economic and monetary policy, which French diplomats said could prejudge the eventual outcome of the negotiations.

However, Portugal, which takes over the presidency of the EU on July 1, affirmed on Thursday that membership, rather than any limited partnership option favored by France, remained the goal of negotiations with Turkey.

Responding to a Portuguese statement, however, France renewed its call for a major debate on the borders of the European Union. "France wants a debate on the borders of Europe to be opened before the end of the year," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said on Thursday. "We will discuss with our partners, in particular the Portuguese presidency, on the manner in which this debate can take place," he said.

A senior EU source said this week that Brussels hoped Sarkozy could be persuaded by his peers that it would be disastrous to break off talks with Turkey and would accept a long-term date for a strategic review of Ankara's candidacy.

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Who is Olli Rhen?!?

Born in Finland and is currently serving as the European Unions Commissioner for Enlargement...



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1) Rehn: Risk of Islamist backlash if EU shuns Turkey