FULYA \u00d6ZERKAN<\/p>\n
ANKARA \u2013 H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n
As fears run high over Vienna\u2019s retaliation after Ankara\u2019s veto of candidacy of a former Austrian foreign minister to be the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, it has been learned that Austria is one of the countries blocking Turkey\u2019s visa agreement with the European Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat more can Austria do to complicate Turkey\u2019s EU accession? It is already one of the countries standing in the way of any agreement between Turkey and the EU for visa-free travel,\u201d a source told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Turkey vetoed Austria\u2019s Ursula Plassnik to be OSCE secretary-general citing concerns over her public statements about European identity. The Turkish Foreign Ministry, however, denied any link between its opposition to the Austrian candidate and this action\u2019s negative repercussions on Ankara\u2019s EU negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would demonstrate through which dimension Austria is looking at Turkish-EU relations. Interlinking the two issues is tantamount to comparing apples and oranges,\u201d Foreign Ministry spokesman Sel\u00e7uk \u00dcnal told the Daily News.<\/p>\n
\u00dcnal also dismissed speculation that Ankara and Vienna had reached an accord not to veto each other\u2019s candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have opposed the Austrian candidate since the very beginning because of her public statements not reflecting a pan-European vision. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu verbally made this clear both to his Austrian counterpart during telephone conversations and to the Lithuanian term presidency of the OSCE,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlus, we were not the only country opposing Austria\u2019s candidate,\u201d said \u00dcnal.<\/p>\n
It has been learned that the Russians were also against Plassnik and reluctant to see another European as secretary-general of OSCE. Previous secretary-generals of the organization have been from EU member states Germany, Italy, Slovakia and France.<\/p>\n
Turkey warned against pushing for Austrian candidate<\/p>\n
Turkey warned the Lithuanian presidency not to push for the Austrian candidate, otherwise it would use its right to veto, it has been revealed.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s veto of the Austrian candidate also came after the Lithuanian term presidency\u2019s move to send letters to the representatives of OSCE member states in Vienna saying Plassnik would become secretary-general, a development that angered Ankara.<\/p>\n
In return, Turkey, which previously made its position clear verbally in compliance with diplomatic courtesy, dispatched a written note objecting to Plassnik on the argument that two other countries, Greek Cyprus and Armenia, used the same route to oppose the Turkish candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never articulated the word veto. But the first written veto came from Armenia and Greek Cyprus against our candidate. And it appeared we could use the same method,\u201d said \u00dcnal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe first refrained from using this method out of diplomatic courtesy, but we clearly told Austria and Lithuania that we would not hesitate to do so if they insist on the Austrian candidate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Turkey nominated Ersin Er\u00e7in, the country\u2019s ambassador to Brazil and the president\u2019s adviser for European security, for the same position. Italy and Portugal also nominated candidates. Decisions at OSCE are made through consensus.<\/p>\n
President did not make any promise, says Ankara<\/p>\n
Some news reports, meanwhile, claimed President Abdullah G\u00fcl promised Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger not to oppose the Austrian candidate during a reception given on May 2, before a dinner hosted by Austrian President Heinz Fischer. \u00dcnal told the Daily News that the Turkish president has not made such a promise and instead emphasized the strong support for the Turkish candidate.<\/p>\n
via Austria blocking visa deal between Turkey, EU – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FULYA \u00d6ZERKAN ANKARA \u2013 H\u00fcrriyet Daily News As fears run high over Vienna\u2019s retaliation after Ankara\u2019s veto of candidacy of a former Austrian foreign minister to be the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, it has been learned that Austria is one of the countries blocking Turkey\u2019s visa agreement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":776961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1335],"tags":[79,2924],"class_list":["post-35294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-austria","tag-osce","tag-visa-free"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}