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The two articles on this page refer to the Turkish and Greek earthquakes which followed the the August, 1999 solar eclipse/grand square, and their ensuing international consequences. The quakes not only give evidence of the physical effect that a planetary alignment can cause, but they also show us that the underlying promises of Love, Peace, Hope and Joy are already present in every moment. It only takes our willingness and resolve to embrace them and bring them into the light. Quake Moves Europe and Turkey Closer By STEPHEN KINZER
When seismologists reviewed data from last week's devastating earthquake in Turkey, they made a remarkable discovery. The force of the quake appears to have pushed Turkey about four feet closer to Europe. Due to steady pressures beneath Turkish soil, the country had already been moving westward at a rate of about one-tenth of an inch a year. The shock of the earthquake produced a sudden acceleration in that movement. More significant, though, has been the fact that since the quake, Turkey and Europe have moved closer not just geologically, but also politically and psychologically. Almost every European country has rushed to send relief aid to Turkey. The most recent was Sweden, which announced on Friday that it would contribute $4.8 million. The European Union sent $3.8 million in emergency aid last week, and has announced that it will allocate another $41.8 million to build housing for survivors. Private fund-raising in Europe has also been remarkably successful. A two-hour television appeal in Germany raised $7 million, and a similar campaign in the Netherlands produced $13 million. Efforts are under way to convert this wave of sympathy into a permanent policy change that could help heal the breach between Turkey and Europe. President Jacques Chirac of France has sent a letter to leaders of the other 14 member states of the European Union urging that the union take this opportunity to develop a ''new strategy'' for dealing with Turkey. Responses in many capitals were favorable, suggesting that the two-year-old freeze in dialogue between Turkey and Europe may soon end. The freeze began after the European Union decided in December 1997 to exclude Turkey from the group of nations negotiating for European Union membership. Although full membership for Turkey is still a distant prospect, the tone of statements from both sides has become much warmer since the quake. Perhaps most significant has been the change in the attitude of Greece, which for years has blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in European Union funds earmarked for Turkey. Greece offered quick and generous aid to earthquake victims, and many ordinary Greeks joined Government leaders in suggesting that this might be an ideal moment for the two historic rivals to move toward friendship. ''I hope this disaster will mark the start of peaceful coexistence between our two nations,'' Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos of Athens said during a visit to Istanbul this week. ''Chasms opened by the earthquake can also lead to new roads.'' A visit by the Mayor of Greece's biggest city to Turkey's biggest city would have been all but unthinkable before the earthquake. It symbolized the sudden warming in ties between the two countries. There are reports that Greece will make a more substantial gesture toward Turkey next month, when European Union foreign ministers meet in Helsinki. Greek leaders are reportedly discussing either lifting their veto of European Union funds that have been earmarked for Turkey, or proposing a generous aid package for reconstruction in the earthquake zone. ''We hope this tragedy can increase understanding between Turkey and the E.U., and that some of the funds that have been held could be released,'' Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen of Finland, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said on Friday. Among Turkish leaders who welcomed recent gestures from Greece was Mesut Yilmaz, who as Prime Minister in 1997 ordered the freeze on political dialogue with Europe. He said he hoped the new warmth between the two countries would quickly be translated into ''general Government policy.'' ''Turkey and Greece will be neighbors forever,'' Mr. Yilmaz said in a televised interview. ''There are no problems that cannot be solved, no fields than cannot be shared.'' ''I believe solutions can be found to the Cyprus problem and the Aegean problem as long as the two sides don't always try to get the upper hand,'' he said. ''I see this as an improvement that is not temporary, but permanent.'' Perhaps even more surprising than the welcome given to Greek relief workers here was the welcome given to three doctors from Cyprus. The three had hesitated to leave Istanbul, fearing that as representatives of the pro-Greek Government on Cyprus, they would be reviled and perhaps attacked. But they put aside their fears, traveled to the quake zone, and later said they were overwhelmed by the kisses and embraces with which Turks greeted them. Even Armenia, whose relations with Turkey have been even frostier than Greece's, extended a hand of friendship after the earthquake. After some hesitation in both countries, including a statement by Turkey's right-wing Minister of Health that Turks should not accept aid from such a historic enemy, Armenia on Friday sent a plane load of aid. Although neither Cyprus nor Armenia are members of the European Union, they have lobbied hard against Turkish efforts to win acceptance in Europe. With the euphoria with which many Turks and Europeans are greeting news of their reconciliation, there have been some words of caution. Issues that have divided the two sides for years, including European complaints about human-rights abuses in Turkey, have faded from the limelight but still not been resolved. Tunca Toskay, a Minister Without Portfolio in the Turkish Government, warned that Turkey would not accept aid from Europe if it is conditioned on changes in Turkish domestic policy. ''We will break the half-loaves of bread that we have into fourths, and refuse that kind of aid,'' he asserted. The next sign of Turkey's new-found friendship with Europe may come on Thursday, when the Greek soccer team PAOK Salonika will face the Istanbul team Galatasaray in a hastily arranged match. All profits are to be donated to an earthquake relief fund.
Earthquakes
Help Warm Greek-Turkish Relations
The day after Athens was struck by its most serious earthquake in decades, millions of television viewers watched in awe as Turkish rescue workers pulled a Greek child from under a pile of rubble. Announcers struggled to control their emotion. ''It's the Turks!'' one of them shouted as his voice began to crack. ''They've got the little boy. They saved him. And now the Turkish guy is drinking from a bottle of water. It's the same bottle the Greek rescuers just drank from. This is love. It's so beautiful.'' Although Greece and Turkey are both members of NATO, there are perhaps no two allied neighboring nations whose dealings have been marked with so much conflict and mistrust. But in the last four weeks their relations have improved with a spectacular suddenness that no one had expected. Greece was under Turkish rule for centuries and fought a bitter conflict for independence against Ottoman rule in the 1820's. A century later, the republic of Turkey was formed after Turkish forces drove Greeks from Anatolia, and relations since then have been plagued by conflict. Although serious political differences remain, both sides are now displaying a willingness to resolve them that they have not shown for generations. Greek-Turkish relations had been improving slowly for several months, but it took earthquakes in both countries to push them toward a more heart-felt friendship. Each sent rescue teams to help the other, and their gestures were greeted by waves of ecstatic publicity and popular emotion. ''I think we're in the middle of a new phenomenon that you could call seismic diplomacy or earthquake diplomacy,'' said Nicholas Burns, the United States Ambassador to Greece. ''Images that people saw on TV had tremendous political symbolism, and there's an opportunity for both sides to build on that.'' Hardly a day now passes without a new sign of warmth between Greece and Turkey. At the end of August, the commander of the Greek Navy traveled to Turkey, toured towns devastated by its Aug. 17 earthquake, and made a moving call for peace at a ceremony marking the retirement of his Turkish counterpart. While he was there, a Greek naval vessel called at a Turkish port for the first time in more than a quarter-century. Soon afterward, Greek and Turkish business leaders agreed to revive a cooperation council whose activities were suspended this year in one of the periodic spats that have poisoned relations between the two countries. Then, leading Greek and Turkish news commentators agreed to begin publishing their columns in each other's newspapers. At a meeting of European foreign ministers in Finland this month, Greece took the significant step of announcing that it would no longer block Turkey's application for membership in the European Union. On Thursday, Greek and Turkish diplomats met in Athens to plan cultural exchanges and discuss cooperation in tourism, the environment, trade and other areas. While they were meeting, Turks observed the anniversary of their 1922 military triumph over Greece with a restraint they had never shown before. Normally, the anniversary of the Turkish triumph at Smyrna, now known as Izmir, is marked by Turkish troops dressed in period costume who symbolically bayonet actors playing Greek soldiers, throw others into the sea and lustily tear down and trample a Greek flag. This year, there was only a muted ceremony limited to a wreath-laying and playing of the national anthem. ''I have been writing a 'Greek-Turkish' piece almost every Sept. 9 for 25 years now,'' columnist Rauf Tamer wrote in the Istanbul newspaper Sabah. ''I pulled them all out of the archives. I tore them all up and threw them away. I am now starting a new Sept. 9 series. This is the real starting point, a fresh beginning, the first step toward the 21st century.'' On Friday, President Costis Stephanopoulos of Greece gave a reception for Turkish earthquake relief workers, telling them that Greeks ''will always remember you with profound feelings of friendship.'' The Greek Embassy in Ankara reported that a Turk had telephoned and offered to donate one of his kidneys to a Greek earthquake victim. A Greek had made a similar gesture after the Turkish quake. Tension between Greece and Turkey has not yet evaporated. Each has recently embarked on a new, hugely expensive military buying spree that unsettles the other. Turkey has made vague threats against Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Cyprus, divided since Turks invaded the north in 1974, remains partitioned into ethnic Greek and Turkish sections. Asked last week about those problems, Foreign Minister George Papandreou of Greece replied: ''I don't think that all of a sudden everything has been solved. But a climate exists that could allow for a breakthrough on these issues.'' Mr. Papandreou's appointment as Foreign Minister this year was a key factor leading to the change in climate between Greece and Turkey. His predecessor, Theodore Pangalos, was a flamboyant figure who denounced Turks as ''thieves and rapists.'' But he fell from power in the scandal that followed the capture in February of the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who had been hiding in Kenya under the protection of Greek diplomats. That episode stirred many Turks to emotional denunciations of Greece, and relations seemed to have reached a new low. In retrospect, it may be seen as a positive turning point because it led to the emergence of Mr. Papandreou, a conciliator who evidently believes that he has a chance to change the course of his country's history by ending its enmity with Turkey. Mr. Papandreou shares much with his Turkish counterpart, Ismail Cem. Both men are foreign-educated intellectuals who shun demagogic statements. They speak by telephone every few days. In the past, Greek and Turkish foreign ministers often went months without speaking. Despite their good personal relationship, both Mr. Papandreou and Mr. Cem must work within political constraints. Mr. Papandreou's party faces a national election next year, and if he is seen as surrendering too much to Turkey, political enemies may seek to portray him as weak and naive. Mr. Cem must deal with militant nationalists in the coalition Government he represents. He also faces the harsh reality that in Turkey, key changes in foreign policy can be made only with the permission of military commanders. Whether the commanders are ready to embrace Greece after generations of hostility is uncertain. ''The most important question is whether there can be change in Turkey, and the key to that is the military and its attitude toward civil society,'' said Thanos Veremis, a professor of political history at Athens University. ''The Turkish military is highly conservative, and it wants to preserve its political power. I frankly can't see how that logjam will break.'' Regional developments in the last few months have helped bring Greece and Turkey closer together. The two Foreign Ministers consulted regularly during the Kosovo crisis. Their relationship may also have been strengthened by the recent easing of tension between Israel, a traditional friend of Turkey, and the Palestinians, whom Greece has long supported. Another factor that has helped improve the political climate is the changing attitude of the Turkish and Greek press, both of which have for years sought to win readers and viewers by fanning the flames of chauvinistic nationalism. Since the quake in Turkey last month, they have made an abrupt about-face, and are now vocal cheerleaders for the cause of peace. Foreign governments are encouraging the countries' new-found friendship, among them the Clinton Administration. President Clinton is to receive Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit of Turkey at the White House this month, and he is expected to visit both Turkey and Greece in November. Soon after Mr. Clinton's trip, the European Union will hold a crucial summit meeting in Helsinki. Turkey is hoping that Greece will help persuade the 15-nation Union, many of whose members have been critical of Turkey's human rights record, to add Turkey to its list of prospective members. If that does not happen, momentum toward Greek-Turkish friendship may be slowed. ''The naysayers are lying in wait, and unless there's real progress, hard-liners on both sides will try to undermine this process,'' warned David Philips, a specialist in conflict resolution who has been hired by the State Department to suggest ways of bringing Greeks and Turks together. ''That's why it's so important that the leaders of both countries understand the importance of this moment and seize the opportunity that's staring them in the face."
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