Monday, October 03, 2005

Denmark: DF attempt to 'fez' down PM on Turkey question

DF attempt to 'fez' down PM on Turkey question

Both Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the national cathedral of Roskilde don new headwear in a full page ad posted by the Danish People's Party (DF) in national newspapers, calling for Turkey to be locked outside the European Union. In the ad, Rasmussen appears wearing a red fez, and the spires of the royal burial cathedral of Roskilde are topped with a crescent moon and an oriental star. 'Denmark does not want a forced marriage with Turkey,' is the headline of the advertisement, which was printed the same weekend as the EU's foreign ministers attempted to find a common ground to launch accession talks with Turkey. 'We have a feeling that the prime minister has growing reservations about letting Turkey into the EU, so we're urging him to say no right now,' said DF's EU spokesman Peter Skaarup. The EU-sceptical party's view is that there should be no talks with Turkey. In the ad's text, the party calls Turkey 'a backward, corrupt class society', consisting of '72 million citizens, who are waiting for free access to Europe. They should not get in.' 'We are just saying how things really are,' Skaarup told daily newspaper Politiken. 'Turkey is a backward class society. And corrupt too.'

Security tightened after Danish solder killed

After a roadside bomb claimed the life of a Danish soldier in Iraq and seriously injured three other soldiers, army leaders change procedures to avoid future casualties. 'There are a number of possibilities. We can use other roads than we normally take and use more heavily armoured vehicles,' said Lieutenant Colonel Tommy Kjær. Kjær noted that insurgents' methods were becoming more dangerous. 'There is a tendency that they use more and more advanced technology. For example, they use remote control to trigger bombs. We are aware of that, and we try to take steps to prepare for that, but it's difficult,' said Kjær. The fallen soldier was the first Dane killed by enemy fire in Iraq, and a sombre mood prevailed at the Danish base, Camp Danevang after the weekend's event. A memorial service was held, and soldiers had been offered counselling. According to Kjær, however, the most important support came from the soldiers themselves. 'It's primarily camaraderie that is going to make sure that we get moving again. The soldiers have to talk about what has happened and what might happen in the future, so they have a realistic attitude to the risks that exist. It's been shown that the biggest help comes from the help comrades can offer each other,' he said.

1 Comments:

At October 04, 2005 1:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Security tightened after Danish solder killed

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertion of better men than himself."
~~John Stuart Mill

My deepest condolences and gratitude to the family and friends of this brave soldier.

 

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