Turkish bizarre

Poisoned no more

OK everyone, you can breathe easy again: US-German relations are once more ‘unpoisoned’. And that’s official.

A near two months since his dramatic electoral victory, comeback kid Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has spoken to President Bush. The ten-minute phone call signals a thawing of the frosted relations between the two countries.

However, there seems to be some confusion about when it took place, and who called who. The Washington Post insists Schröder called Bush on Friday. But the BBC says that Bush called Schröder on Saturday.

Could this be the basis of another falling out?

In case you’d forgotten, everything started to go bitter during Germany’s close-run election campaign, when Schröder noticed that anti-US/anti-war-on-Iraq rhetoric was his most successful vote-grabber. It all came to a head when Schröder’s Justice Minister Herta Daubler-Gmelin compared Bush’s foreign policy to that of Hitler (Yawn!). Hard-nosed Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld was taking no such crap, and declared that the Schröder campaign was ‘poisoning the relationship’ between the two nations.

Bush never congratulated Schröder on his election victory, as protocol demands (even Lula got a “Well done, buddy!” from Washington). And it doesn’t look like he took the opportunity to do so this time either. The war on terrorism was discussed, although, according to a ‘senior administration official’ quoted in the Post, “Iraq did not come up.”

The call, whenever it came, and whoever from, coincided with a visit to the Pentagon by German Defence Minister Peter Struck - six weeks on from Rumsfeld’s snubbing of ‘this man’, Struck, at a Nato meeting in Warsaw.

This time, Rumsfeld was in a better mood. He declared US-German relations to be ‘unpoisoned’. Struck responded by calling this resumption of mutual back-rubbing “very good”.

Rumsfeld was almost conciliatory. The normally pugnacious Hawk said that each country can respond to Iraq “in their own way, in a way that’s consistent with their constitutions, that’s consistent with their political circumstance and as far as I’m concerned, that’s just fine.”

Now that’s got to disappoint the European press.

Taxman’s dirge

So how are things in post-election Germany, anyhow?

Well, according to the Financial Times, not very good. On Wednesday, the FT painted a picture of chaos in the Stoiber-less Red-Green Deutschland.

“People have been tricked as never before and people are disappointed as never before,” says Christian Democrat Chairman Angela Merkel. “This has been the biggest electoral fraud in history,” repeats Michael Glos, parliamentary leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union.

So what’s all the fuss about?

It’s the economy, dumm. Protests abound. This week, Berlin alone saw separate marches of builders, dental technicians and health workers, all opposing cuts. Germany is facing a slap on the knuckles from the European Commission for breaching single-currency budgetary rules. But, as the FT puts it, worst of all, “Since narrowly retaining power on September 22 Mr Schröder has stunned electors with tax rises and subsidy cuts to plug huge budget shortfalls.” Furthermore, pension and health insurance contributions have been hiked.

The public are not happy, and this week saw a new tune enter the singles charts, selling 160,000 copies, with a further 100,000 on order. Der Steuersong (The Tax Song) is heading straight for Number 1, and involves Schröder-mimic Elmar Brandt bragging about having hoodwinked voters, and sold them down the river on tax. The video sees a cigar-smoking Schröder puppet pilfering euro notes out of the handbags, pockets and wallets of German citizens, a big grin stretched on his face.

And you thought German pop was nothing but David Hasselhoff…

No Turkey for Christ-mass

Meanwhile, Europe’s very-own wannabe George Washington, Giscard d’Estaing, caused a rumpus this week when he declared that it would be “the end of the European Union” if Turkey was allowed to join.

Giscard, architect of the European Constitution, was labelled a “Christian fundamentalist” by Ankara after alluding to Turkey’s Muslim population with its high birthrate and observing that the country has “a different culture, a different approach, a different way of life … Its capital is not in Europe, ninety-five percent of its population live outside Europe, it is not a European country.”

The interview in Le Monde has caused quite a stir in Europe, as Giscard’s view breaks with the official line of the fifteen member states of the EU. The Commission insisted that the EU policy had not changed, as did Danish foreign minister Per Stig Moeller, whose country currently holds the EU presidency. Turkey was accepted as an official candidate for membership in 1989,and continues to pin its hopes on joining Europe’s elite club.

But now, as the International Herald Tribune points out, Giscard has “effectively said that the constitutional convention would not take into account the prospect of Turkey’s joining the Union.” And Turkey has three delegates at the convention. “They have invited us to the European convention on equal footing,” said Turkish delegate Mesut Yilmaz in the IHT. “It’s a pity that such a person is chairman of the convention.”

The comments come as the eyes of the world are on Turkey, following the victory of the Islamic AKP in Turkey’s parliamentary elections. Just how ‘Islamic’ the AKP is has become the subject of intense debate. Former Mayor of Istanbul and Chairman of the AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is on record as having said “Thank God, I am for Sharia”, “One cannot be a secularist and a Muslim at the same time”, and “For us, democracy is a means to an end.” However, in the words of the Economist, “since the election he has said explicitly that Turkey will remain a secular democracy.”

The outgoing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is unconvinced. “Turkey faces a serious state problem with the AKP’s victory,” he said. (Although, it must be said, a 1% showing at the polls by Ecevit’s party forces the Diary to take his words with a pinch of salt).

Paris made clear it didn’t share Giscard’s views – in full. “The position of Valery Giscard d’Estaing against Turkey’s entry into the European Union is an old conviction, with arguments, but personal,” said French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

(Also see Murat Belge Turkey- normal at last?)

Head in the clouds

The latest from Swaziland, where Diary favourite, King Mswati III, is up to his old tricks.

The much-wived absolute monarch has decided to go-ahead with the purchase and delivery of his $45 million royal jet, despite the decision of the Swazi parliament to cancel the order (see the Diary of 23 October).

The luxury transport is being unwrapped by the King at a sensitive moment. About a quarter of the one-million strong Swazi population are relying on food aid after a failed harvest.

In fact, as the BBC points out (through the AFP), Mswati’s nineteen-seater Bombardier Global Express is costing more than twice Swaziland’s annual health budget.

But Mswati’s pals are unconcerned and have quickly come to his defence. “People say the hunger will be worse by the purchase of the jet,” says Natural Resources and Energy Minister Magwagwa Mdluli. “This is untrue. In fact, the jet is essential for the king to travel to overseas countries to scout for food.”

Ah, so that’s what it’s for.

Quotes of the week

“You sleep with us! You vote against us! Six months in prison for a smile! Gigolo Sarkozy: you’re giving the fascists a hard-on!”
The chants of French prostitutes who marched on the Senate this week in opposition to interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to legislate against soliciting.

“The clear failure of the Sri Lankan state to protect its Tamil citizens in July 1983 … was a failure I deeply regret.”
President Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, in a speech to mark the eighth anniversary of her coming to power.

“Think twice about the consequences.”
North Korea’s warning to South Korea after warships allegedly moved into the North’s territorial waters.

“The Iraqi parliament is nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein. There’s no democracy. This guy’s a dictator.”
President George W. Bush dismissing the unanimous vote in the Iraqi parliament to defy the new UN Security Council resolution on weapon’s inspectors.

“The path of peace lies in rejecting aggression … justice will be met with justice. This Rumsfeld is responsible for killing more than two million people in Vietnam.”
A voice, thought to be that of Osama bin Laden, on a tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera.

“I hope that time would never come when the leadership feels it should get the force of the people to enter the scene to resolve a problem.”
The threatening words of Ayatollah Ali Khameini, supreme leader of Iran, in response to the continued power struggle between reformist and conservative political factions. Despite his warning, more than two thousand students rallied this week at Tehran University demanding the release history lecturer Hashem Aghajari who has been sentenced to death for questioning the clergy’s divine right to rule.

“Unfortunately … public awareness doesn’t create pressure for the governments to introduce good anti-corruption policies. All it does is make corruption a campaign theme and then governments do nothing about it.”
Quentin Reed, author of a report by the Open Society Institute into corruption in Central and East European countries.

“The retreat from a state of law to absolutism and toward a banana republic specialising in laws made to personal order.”
A description of Italy’s recent history by Curzio Maltese in La Repubblica. Berlusconi’s legislative majority passed a law last week that allows defendants in criminal cases to ask for a new judge if there is “legitimate suspicion” that the judge is biased against them. The first case under the new law has been filed by Berlusconi’s lawyer, who is being tried for allegedly bribing judges on behalf of Berlusconi.

“No matter how advanced the country in democracy, there are times that it has to be worked on and preserved and cherished.”
Former US Secretary of State and co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations Madeleine Albright, introducing the second ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies in Korea this week.

Contact the Diary editor: Dominic.Hilton@openDemocracy.net