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To: fork@spamassassin.taint.org
Subject: There will be no Trojan War
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From: harley@argote.ch (Robert Harley)
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Date: Sat,  3 Aug 2002 16:04:56 +0200 (CEST)

(pace Giraudoux)

To be more precise, I believe that there will be no "war of civilizations"
between the Western and the Muslim, and not because of drum-beating or
war-mongering from some parts, but due to stuff like this:

  http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3210--286553-,00.html

>L'assemble nationale turque a ralis l'impossible : pour satisfaire
>aux demandes de l'Union europenne, le Parlement, lors d'une session
>qui a dur plus de seize heures, a, aboli la peine de mort (sauf en
>cas de guerre), limin les obstacles lgaux  l'ducation et  la
>diffusion en langue kurde, lev certaines restrictions rendant
>l'organisation de manifestations difficile et mis fin  l'imposition
>de peines pour critiques envers l'arme ou d'autres institutions tatiques.

i.e., 

>The Turkish National Assembly achieved the impossible: to satisfy
>European Union demands, the Parlement, during a session lasting more
>than sixteen hours, abolished the death penalty (except in war time),
>eliminated legal obstacles to teaching and spreading of the Kurdish
>language, lifted certain restrictions making it difficult to organise
>protest marches and ended penalties imposed for criticism of the army
>and other state institutions.


This is the way forward, IMO.  Just wait a couple of years until
66 million Muslim Turks are making great strides towards democracy
and prosperity in the E.U. and Syria, Lebanon etc start lining up and
making similar decisions.

Of course there are hard-liners who would be right at home on
Rumsfeld's staff, but they got out-voted:

>La peine de mort s'est rvle le sujet le plus pineux : les
>ultra-nationalistes taient dtermins  obtenir la pendaison du
>dirigeant du PKK (kurde), Abdullah calan, considr par les Turcs
>comme personnellement responsable de la mort de plus de 30 000
>personnes.  calan avait t condamn  mort en juin 1999, mais le
>gouvernement avait accept d'attendre le verdict de la Cour europenne
>des droits de l'homme avant de l'excuter.  De nombreux nationalistes
>estimaient galement que l'octroi de droits culturels aux Kurdes
>reprsenterait une concession aux revendications des "terroristes".

i.e.,

>The death penalty turned out to be the thorniest issue: the
>ultra-nationalists were determined to secure the hanging of the PKK
>leader, Abdullah calan, considered by the Turks to be personally
>responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people.  calan had
>been condemned to death in June 1999, but the government had accepted
>to wait for the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights before
>executing him.  Many nationalists also believed that handing cultural
>rights to the Kurds would constitute a concession to "terrorist"
>demands.


Over 'n out,
  Rob.
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