Iran nuclear talks resume in Vienna amid new complications

April 27, 2021

BERLIN (AP) — World powers resumed high-level talks in Vienna on Tuesday focused on bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal with Iran, in their first session since comments surfaced from the Iranian foreign minister alleging that Russia once tried to scupper the pact.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has not responded to requests for comment on the remarks from Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, made in a seven-hour interview with a think tank associated with the Iranian presidency that leaked over the weekend.

Ahead of the main talks, Russia's top representative Mikhail Ulyanov said he'd met on the side together with officials from Iran and China, but did not mention anything about Zarif's comments. “We compared notes and exchanged views on the way ahead towards full restoration of the nuclear deal,” he tweeted. “It was a very fruitful meeting.”

Following the main meeting with his counterparts from China, Germany, France, and Britain — the other parties to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA — Ulyanov tweeted that they were “guided by the unity of purpose.”

“Which is full restoration of the nuclear deal in its original form,” he wrote. “It was decided to expedite the process.” China’s delegate Wang Qun told reporters on his way out of the talks that discussions would continue on Wednesday.

Asked in Berlin about Zarif's remarks, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the talks in Vienna are “anything but easy" but have been constructive so far. “My impression from the talks is that irrespective of (how) things developed in the past, everyone seems to be working to keep the JCPOA alive,” he said.

The U.S. is not at the table because it unilaterally pulled out of the deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, who restored and augmented American sanctions in a campaign of “maximum pressure” to try and force Iran into renegotiating the pact with more concessions. President Joe Biden wants to rejoin the deal, however, and there is a U.S. delegation in Vienna taking part in indirect talks with Iran, with diplomats from the other world powers acting as go-betweens.

The deal promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. The reimposition of American sanctions has left the country's economy reeling, and Tehran has reacted by steadily increasing its violations of the restrictions of the deal, such as increasing the purity of uranium it enriches and its stockpiles, in a thus-far unsuccessful effort to pressure the other countries to provide relief.

The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something it insists it doesn’t want to do. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed.

The comments from Zarif, who himself helped negotiate the original 2015 nuclear deal, have the potential to complicate the Vienna talks, which are currently focused on how the U.S. would roll back its sanctions — and which ones — and how Iran would return to compliance.

In the interview, reviewed by The Associated Press, Zarif describes Russia as wanting to stop the nuclear deal before it was struck under the Obama administration in 2015, suggesting Moscow wanted to keep Iran at odds with the West.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has called the leak of the recording “illegal,” but hasn't disputed its authenticity. The Vienna talks began in early April, and there have been several rounds of high-level discussions, while expert groups have been working on proposals on how to resolve the issues around American sanctions and Iranian compliance, as well as the “possible sequencing” of the U.S. return.

The comments from Zarif are just the latest complication that the diplomats have to deal with. Among other things, an attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel recently struck Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, causing an unknown amount of damage.

Tehran retaliated by beginning to enrich a small amount of uranium up to 60% purity, its highest level ever.

Philipp Jenne in Vienna, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed to this story.

Austria to restrict movement from Tyrol over variant fears

February 09, 2021

VIENNA (AP) — Austria's leader said Tuesday that people will have to produce a negative coronavirus test to leave the country's Tyrol province as authorities try to prevent the spread of a coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa.

Some 293 cases of the more contagious variant have been confirmed in Tyrol. More than 120 of those cases are currently active, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said. Concentrated in the Schwaz district, east of Innsbruck, they represent the biggest known current outbreak of the variant in the European Union, authorities said.

Officials in Tyrol initially resisted restrictions, but on Monday drew up a list of measures that included more police checks on mask-wearing and social distancing, and a requirement for negative antigen tests before people can use cable cars and ski lifts.

The federal government in Vienna also warned Austrians on Monday against traveling to the province — even as schools, shops, hairdressing salons, museums and zoos reopened across the country after a roughly six-week lockdown.

Kurz said Tuesday that for 10 days starting Friday, people wanting to leave Tyrol -- a popular skiing region which borders Germany, Italy and Switzerland -- will have to show a negative coronavirus test produced within the previous 48 hours.

Police, with support from the military, will enforce the new rule on the roads, Kurz said. He also called for Tyrol to act to ensure the variant doesn’t spread further within the province. The measure won't apply to East Tyrol, a part of the province that is separated from Tyrol proper by a sliver of another Austrian province and Italian territory and is relatively unaffected, Kurz said. He said Friday was chosen as the start date to allow time for preparations and because a “mad rush and chaos” wouldn't be helpful.

People flouting the rules could face a fine of up to 1,450 euros ($1,745). The chancellor pointed to preliminary results from a small study that showed the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, one of the three vaccines cleared for use in the EU, was only minimally effective against mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 caused by the South African variant.

“That is a big problem because nearly 50% of the vaccine we will have delivered by the summer comes from AstraZeneca,” Kurz said. “So...we must do everything to prevent the spread of this variant, and if that doesn't succeed, at least to slow its spread.”

“If a mutation like the South African one spreads quickly and strongly, that will cost a lot of people their lives and the road to normality will be delayed again by months,” the chancellor told reporters in Vienna.

Austria's initial response to the Tyrol outbreak drew criticism in neighboring Germany. Ahead of Tuesday's announcement, a senior official in Bavaria's main governing party said that “from our point of view, what Austria is doing is irresponsible.”

“To be honest, it's a farce — on one hand issuing a warning to their own population against travel to Tyrol province, and on the other hand easing (restrictions) in the whole country, including in Tyrol,” Markus Blume, the general secretary of the Christian Social Union party, told German news channel n-tv.

Tyrol is home to the ski resort of Ischgl, the location of what is considered one of Europe's earliest “super-spreader” events of the pandemic nearly a year ago. An independent commission later found that regional authorities acted too slowly to shut down ski resorts.

Geir Moulson reported from Berlin.

European Space Agency appoints Austrian scientist new chief

December 17, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency said Thursday that Josef Aschbacher, an Austrian scientist who leads its Earth observation program, has been appointed as the organization's next head. The agency's 22 member states elected Aschbacher to be ESA's director general succeeding Jan Woerner, whose term ends on June 30.

Aschbacher currently oversees the ESA’s center for Earth Observation, near Rome, and has been deeply involved in some of the agency's most high-profile missions including the Copernicus fleet of satellites collecting environmental data about the planet from space.

The European Space Agency has lately begun discussing involvement in crewed missions beyond Earth's orbit, such as a possible return-to-the-Moon mission with NASA.

Chinese official hands over new panda to Vienna zoo

May 20, 2019

VIENNA (AP) — A senior Chinese official has officially handed over a 19-year-old male giant panda to Vienna's Schoenbrunn zoo. Yuan Yuan arrived in Vienna last month and has spent the last few weeks in quarantine. He was chosen as a partner for Yang Yang, the zoo's 18-year-old female panda, who has been at the zoo since 2003 but without a companion since its previous male, Long Hui, died of cancer in 2016.

Li Zhanshu, the head of China's parliament, handed over Yuan Yuan at a ceremony Monday. China lends the rare bears to other countries as a sign of goodwill in what is known as "panda diplomacy." Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen described the animals as a "symbol of friendship" and said they have a "certain diplomatic mission."

Avalanche risk in Austria grows as snowfall continues

January 09, 2019

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian authorities are issuing the highest avalanche warning possible for several regions, while more than 350 residents in Bavaria were snowed in and a teacher was killed while skiing in the Alps.

At least 14 weather-related deaths have been reported in Europe over the last week. Schools remained closed in parts of Austria and southern Germany on Wednesday, several roads and highways were blocked leading to a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) traffic jam near Munich and trucks had to deliver food to the snowed-in Bavarian community Buchenhoehe near Berchtesgarden as snow continued falling across the northern Alps.

Austrian news agency APA reported that a 62-year-old teacher was killed while skiing in Mariazeller Buergeralpe in Austria when he fell and got buried in a snowbank. Many slopes have been closed as a precaution.

Refugee teens in Austrian schools straddle different worlds

December 09, 2018

VIENNA (AP) — Lilas Almalaki didn't know a word of German when she enrolled in an Austrian middle school two months after fleeing her war-torn homeland in 2015, so she relied on the proficient English she learned as a top student in Syria to keep the bullies in place.

Hassan Husseini didn't speak German either and had never spent a day in a classroom when he arrived as an Afghan refugee the same year. He had a tougher time when picked on. Despite their differences, the two teens share the same challenge. Like the nearly 10,000 other school-age children who arrived in Austria during Europe's largest modern influx of refugees, school is where they must learn to bridge different worlds: one that has shaped their families and identities, and the other where they hope to prosper in peace.

But they entered schools already straining to cope with large numbers of children born in Austria to migrant parents who are still struggling with basic German. That difficulty has deepened local anxieties over integration and helped propel the far right into Austria's new government.

Immigration and the integration of 2.5 million people who the European Union says sought asylum in 2015 and 2016 are issues across Europe. On the front lines are the schools, where teachers, administrators, psychologists and parents are clashing over the future of the next generation.

"The children are living in two worlds," says Andrea Walach, the principal at Hassan's middle school in Vienna, where only seven of more than 200 students speak German at home. "One world is school ... but when they are at home, all of this is forgotten."

In 2015, nearly 90,000 asylum-seekers — mostly from Afghanistan and Syria, and a third of them younger than 18 — arrived in Austria, a nation of less than 9 million people. Today, 51 percent of the quarter-million students in Vienna's schools speak languages other than German in their daily life, according a 2018 report. That includes 34,000 pupils who don't understand enough German to follow their teachers, the Education Ministry says.

That number goes up to more than 70 percent in vocational middle schools like Hassan's, pathways to apprenticeships in trades that must accept anyone who applies. The other option is an academic school like the one Lilas attends, which restricts admissions.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's center-right People's Party and junior coalition nationalist Freedom Party campaigned on tougher immigration controls. His government has also rejected a global migration pact that is being approved this week at a U.N. conference in Morocco.

The government has also changed the way it handles children who struggle with German. In the past, students not proficient in German had been exempt from grading for up to two years in all subjects. Now, any new students struggling with German are taken out of regular classes, except physical education and the arts, and put into their own language-intensive programs.

Critics say separating students fuels discrimination and prevents them from learning from their peers. Proponents counter that socialization can't happen if kids can't talk to one another, so this speeds up eventual integration.

Integration in schools is a crucial matter, child development experts say, because that's where migrant children learn what their new society expects of them — which greatly affects how well they will do as adults. That means the debate over how to best teach migrant children is not just about language, it is also about bridging sometimes widely diverging cultures.

Austrian education ministry official Martin Netzer says the priority, along with German proficiency, is "to make sure that our basic values are accepted and that there is understanding on both sides."

Research by Greek professor Frosso Motti-Stefanidi suggests that children do best when schools and parents together help them adapt to a new culture while integrating familiar values. But Walach and other educators say they often struggle to explain to parents — many of them illiterate — the basic importance of schooling as a pathway to a better life.

"Nobody asks if (their kids) have been to school, did do your homework, when is your next test?" Walach said. Psychologists on 25 "mobile intercultural teams" deployed across Austria in the wake of the refugee influx were trying to close gaps between schools and parents, but they expect to be disbanded when the school year ends due to budget cuts.

For both the new arrivals and the many teens born in Austria to migrant families, integration remains a daily challenge. In Simmering, a diverse neighborhood on Vienna's outskirts, 16-year-old Seray Aytar and Melek Karakoc are thriving in their academically-oriented school, despite belonging to the 65 percent of students there who speak languages other than German at home, according to principal Claudia Valsky.

The two best friends, born in Austria, were raised by women who, despite coming from Turkey as teens, still can't manage basic German. Whether in class in Austria or on vacation in Turkey, Seray and Melek feel caught between two uncomprehending worlds.

"We don't know where our home is anymore," Seray says in flawless English, and Melek nods. Lilas and her mother decided to flee Damascus when a car bomb went off in front of her school. After that, Syria no longer feels like home, the 16-year-old says. But it remains a "second mother," she adds — so she insists on speaking Arabic at home, while her mom would like Lilas to speak more German so her own fluency can improve.

Lilas' ease with languages and her academic talent have been her ticket to the demanding school she attends, along with only 8 percent of Vienna's refugee school kids. She recalls how in her first Austrian school, when she tried to answer a teacher's question in halting German, a boy laughed at her.

"I can't talk German, but I can talk English and you can't, so what are you laughing at?" she retorted in English. She was so talented in English at that her classmates started asking for help. "I helped them, and then they were nice to me," she says.

Even though he had had no formal education, Hassan knows that going to school is the key to his dream of working with robots and buying a car and a house in the Austrian countryside. He arrived with his mother and the younger sister he carried piggyback through Iran, Turkey and into Europe, and he is leveraging that dangerous ordeal to produce success at school.

"Our teacher has assigned me (to compete) in the fast running contest. I always win first place. My teacher encourages me," he says proudly in his native Dari language. "Because we were walking all the way, our bodies got hardened."

Hassan's physique makes him stand out in a classroom. Now he figures improving his German will get him more friends, so he always comes to school, even when he doesn't want to. "Sometimes I have a lot of fun with the boys and I play with them very much. Sometimes I'm really very serious," he says, before excusing himself to get back to class.

Austria says it won't sign UN global migration pact

October 31, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — The Austrian government said Wednesday that it won't sign a global compact to promote safe and orderly migration, citing concerns about national sovereignty as it joined neighboring Hungary in shunning the agreement.

Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz took office last December in a coalition with the nationalist, anti-migration Freedom Party. Austria currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, and Kurz has made curbing unregulated migration a priority.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which won't be legally binding, was finalized under U.N. auspices in July. It is due to be formally approved at a Dec. 11-12 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.

Kurz and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said Austria won't sign the document or send an official representative to Marrakech. They cited, among other things, fears about a possible watering-down of the distinction between legal and illegal migration.

"There are some points that we view critically and where we fear a danger to our national sovereignty," Kurz said, the Austria Press Agency reported. "Migration is not and cannot become a human right," added Strache, the Freedom Party's leader. "It cannot be that someone receives a right to migration because of the climate or poverty."

In September 2016, all 193 U.N. member states, including the United States under President Barack Obama, adopted a declaration saying no country can manage international migration on its own, and agreed to launch a process leading to the adoption of a global compact in 2018.

But last December, the United States said it was ending its participation in negotiations on the compact, stating that numerous provisions were "inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugee policies" under President Donald Trump.

In July, Hungary said it would withdraw from the process. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said then that the pact was contrary to his country's interests because while it had some positive aims, like fighting human trafficking, overall it considered migration an unstoppable and positive phenomenon worthy of support.

The compact has 23 objectives that seek to boost cooperation to manage migration and numerous actions ranging from technical issues like the portability of earnings by migrant workers to reducing the detention of migrants.

Austria's interior minister, Herbert Kickl, denounced what he called "an almost irresponsibly naive pro-migration tone." Kickl contended that "it is simply not clear whether this pact, if we were to join it, would not at some point or somehow influence our body of law, even by the back door."

Austria's opposition criticized the decision. In Brussels, Natasha Bertaud, a spokeswoman for the EU's executive Commission, said it regrets Austria's decision and is seeking more details from Vienna.

"We continue to believe that migration is a global challenge where only global solutions and global responsibility-sharing will bring results," she said at a regular briefing. EU heavyweight Germany reaffirmed its support for the pact, which foreign ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said is "necessary and important."

Lorne Cook in Brussels and Pablo Gorondi in Budapest contributed to this report.

Erdogan slams Austria for shutting mosques

09.06.2018

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday criticized Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz for its government's decision to shut down seven mosques and expel 40 imams.

"I am afraid that the steps taken by the Austrian prime minister would bring the world closer to a crusader-crescent war," said Erdogan during an iftar dinner organized in Istanbul.

Erdogan said Turkey would respond to the decision of expelling imams as well.

During a news conference with Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and EU Affairs Minister Gernot Blumel, Kurz said the move came as part of a crackdown on "political Islam".

Kurz said that the investigation on several mosques and associations conducted by the Ministry of Interior and Office of Religious Affairs had been concluded and that the activities of seven mosques were found to be forbidden -- one of them belonging to the Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations (ATIB).

The Austrian chancellor added that the imams would be deported on grounds of being foreign funded.

In 2015 when Kurz was Austria's minister for Europe, integration and foreign affairs he backed Austria’s “law on Islam” (Islamgesetz) -- legislation that, among other things, banned the foreign funding of mosques and imams in Austria. The controversial law, which eventually passed through parliament, was intended to develop an Islam of “European character”, according to Kurz.

“We act decisively and actively against undesirable developments and the formation of #parallelsocieties -- and will continue to do so if there are violations of the #law on Islam,” Kurz wrote on his Twitter account.

Crackdown on terrorism

Erdogan also promised to eliminate terrorism completely.

The president said being Kurd and being terrorist were "completely different things".

Erdogan said that while the government was trying to involve Kurdish people in society, terrorists continued to occupying neighborhoods.

"When guns are fired, words fail. That is why our fight against terrorism will continue until the last terrorist is neutralized," he said.

Erdogan then recalled the murder of Kurdish teen Yasin Boru.

"Was not Yasin Boru a Kurdish teen? 15-16 years old. What was he doing? Delivering aid to Kurdish people in need. They killed him viciously. Who were they? So-called Kurds. They were not. They were terrorists," he said.

On Oct. 5, 2014, 16-year-old Yasin Boru and his friends, Ahmet Dakak, Riyat Gunes and Hasan Gokguz, who were distributing food aid to Syrian refugees, were chased down and lynched by alleged pro-PKK supporters on the second day of Eid al-Adha.

Source: Anadolu Agency.
Link: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/erdogan-slams-austria-for-shutting-mosques/1170536.

Putin dances at Austria wedding before meeting Merkel

August 18, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin made a flying visit to Austria to attend the wedding of the country's foreign minister Saturday before heading to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Austrian authorities imposed tight security measures around the site of the ceremony near the southern border with Slovenia, where Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl married her partner Wolfgang Meilinger, a businessman. Kneissl, an independent, was nominated by the pro-Russia Austrian Freedom Party, whose leaders also attended the wedding.

Photos showed Putin dancing with the bride, who was dressed in traditional Austrian costume. According to Austrian public broadcaster ORF, Putin also brought a small Cossack men's choir along to entertain about 100 guests at the wedding.

Austrian lawmaker Joerg Leichtfried of the opposition Social Democratic Party criticized Kneissl's decision to invite Putin to the wedding, saying it called into question Austria's role as a neutral intermediary in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed rebels are battling government forces. Austria currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.

Putin's meeting with Merkel late Saturday takes place at the German government's guesthouse in Meseberg, north of Berlin. Topics during the bilateral talks include Ukraine, Syria and the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that the United States and some European countries object to.

The two leaders were scheduled to make statements before the talks, but there were no plans for a news conference afterward.

Austria takes over EU presidency with pledge for security

June 30, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — Austria has taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union with a pledge to better secure the 28-nation bloc's external borders. At a ceremony Saturday outside the Alpine town of Schladming, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the six-month presidency is "an honor for us, but also a great responsibility."

Kurz says "we know that the international environment is difficult right now." Kurz came to power last year as the head of a right-wing coalition government with a pledge to restrict migration to Austria.

He supports setting up landing points for migrants outside the EU and strengthening the bloc's Frontex border agency. EU Council President Donald Tusk praised the Austrian motto for its presidency, "a Europe that protects."

Italy, Austria signal new hard-line axis on migration

June 20, 2018

MILAN (AP) — A meeting of Italy's anti-migrant interior minister with like-minded Austrian populist leaders on Wednesday in Rome heralded a new hard-line axis forming in Europe on migration issues with pledges to more firmly protect Europe's southern border.

Italy's interior minister, Matteo Salvini, leveraged on his recent refusal to allow landfall in Sicily to a ship carrying some 630 migrants rescued at sea off the Libyan coast. The new Socialist government in Spain agreed to take them in, acknowledging Europe had abandoned Italy, after the tiny island nation of Malta also balked.

"It is a historic moment because Europe has never had the possibility to change like in these days. We think it can change for the better on the topics of immigration, security and the fight against terrorism. Finally there is a decision to protect the exterior border," Salvini said.

Salvini and his Austrian counterparts — vice chancellor Heinz Christian Strache and interior minister Herbert Kickl — signaled their common approach to reinforcing the exterior border while deferring specifics to Austria's EU presidency, and other forums, including an upcoming EU summit. Salvini said he was briefing Premier Conte and vice premier Luigi Di Maio on his proposals later in the day.

But Salvini made clear that he would continue to press neighbors to do more. While welcoming Spain's acceptance of the migrants, he noted that Spain has only taken 235 of an agreed-upon EU quota of 3,265. "They can take the next four boats that arrive," he said. He also slammed France, which has only taken 640 of the 9,800 migrants it has pledged to receive.

Salvini said he had trust in the Austrian EU presidency to make a difference in discussions about changing the Dublin accords, noting "the mood has changed," but also hinting that Italy would be willing to play hardball, and hold back payments to the EU, if significant changes were not made.

Salvini said he wanted to see EU funds better spent, and said he would travel to Libya, the main departure point for migrants heading to Italy, in the coming days to work on stemming the migrant tide as well as economic development issues.

While more than 640,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since 2014, the number of arrivals in Italy this year is down over 80 percent, to over 14,500. Austria's interior minister, Kickl, said the message had to go out "that those who rely on traffickers have given up all chances of asylum in Europe."

Kickl said they were examining the possibility of setting up centers in the Balkans for asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected, saying "if they stay in the country, there is no difference between a negative and a positive response."

Austria to close 7 mosques, expel imams in crackdown

June 08, 2018

BERLIN (AP) — Austria's government said Friday that it is closing seven mosques and plans to expel imams in a crackdown on "political Islam" and foreign financing of religious groups. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the government is shutting a hardline Turkish nationalist mosque in Vienna and dissolving a group called the Arab Religious Community that runs six mosques.

The actions by the government are based on a 2015 law that, among other things, prevents religious communities from getting funding from abroad. Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said the residence permits of around 40 imams employed by ATIB, a group that oversees Turkish mosques in Austria, are being reviewed because of concerns about such financing.

Kickl said that, in two cases, permits have already been revoked. Five more imams were denied first-time permits. The conservative Kurz became chancellor in December in a coalition with the anti-migration Freedom Party.

In campaigning for last year's election, both coalition parties called for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam. The government recently announced plans to ban girls in elementary schools and kindergartens from wearing headscarves, adding to existing restrictions on veils.

"Parallel societies, political Islam and tendencies toward radicalization have no place in our country," Kurz told reporters in Vienna. He added that the government's powers to intervene "were not sufficiently used" in the past.

Friday's measures are "a first significant and necessary step in the right direction," said Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, the Freedom Party's leader. "If these measures aren't enough, we will if necessary evaluate the legal situation here or there."

Croats gather in Austria for controversial commemoration

May 12, 2018

BLEIBURG, Austria (AP) — Thousands of Croatian far-right supporters gathered in a field in southern Austria on Saturday to commemorate the massacre of pro-Nazi Croats by victorious communists at the end of World War II.

The controversial annual event was held amid a surge of far-right sentiment in Croatia, the European Union's newest member. For Croatian nationalists, the Bleiburg site symbolizes their suffering under communism in Yugoslavia before they fought a war for independence in the 1990s.

Tens of thousands of Croatians, mostly pro-fascist soldiers known as Ustashas, fled to Bleiburg in May 1945 amid a Yugoslav army offensive, only to be turned back from Austria by the British military and into the hands of revengeful anti-fascists. Thousands were killed and buried in mass graves in and around Bleiburg.

The Croatian Ustasha regime sent tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Croatian anti-fascists to death camps during the war. Top Croatian officials attended Saturday's gathering Saturday on a vast field surrounded by mountains. Croatian Catholic Church clergy held a Mass for the killed Croats.

"Awful crimes have been committed in the Bleiburg field," Croatian parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said. "Today we are paying our respect to the victims, civilians as well as soldiers." Croatia's center-right government has been accused of turning a blind eye to the rising extremism and downplaying the crimes of the Ustasha regime. The policies have triggered protests from Croatia's minority Jewish and Serb communities.

Top Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said he tried to persuade Austria's conservative government to ban the rally, but without success. "It's absolutely outrageous that Austrian authorities allow an event like this to happen," Zuroff told The Associated Press by phone from Jerusalem. "In Austria, you are not allowed to brandish Nazi symbols, but they allow Ustasha symbols."

For the first time since the first massive commemoration was held in the 1990s, Austrian authorities on Saturday banned the Ustasha insignia to be worn at the event. Despite the ban, some participants brandished T-shirts bearing the Ustasha wartime call: "For the Homeland, ready!"

"The main culprit of the tragedy of those people was the British Army because they tricked the Croatian soldiers to disarm before they were handed over to (Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz) Tito," said Branko Mandic, one of the mourners.

A small anti-Fascist rally was held in the town of Bleiburg, with protesters displaying banners reading "Nazis Out!" Croatian officials repeatedly have denied backing policies that run counter to European Union standards, saying they are focused on major economic and social reforms and not the revival of the far-right sentiments.

Thousands protest Austria's new right-wing government

January 13, 2018

VIENNA (AP) — Thousands of Austrians are protesting their country's new right-wing government with a march in Vienna. Police in the capital said about 20,000 people were attending the march on Saturday.

Some protesters carried placards reading "Never Again." Others chanted slogans such as "Refugees should stay, drive out the Nazis." The new governing coalition made up of the conservative Austrian People's Party and the nationalist Freedom Party has taken a hard line against migration.

New Austrian leader rejects talk of eastern EU alliance

January 05, 2018

SEGGAUBERG, Austria (AP) — Austria's new chancellor on Friday rejected suggestions that his government will align broadly with eastern nations that have clashed with the European Union over migrants and other issues.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz leads a coalition with the traditionally euroskeptic Freedom Party that took office just before Christmas. Both Kurz' conservative People's Party and the Freedom Party have taken a hard line against migration.

The position has generated speculation that Austria could move closer to the Visegrad group of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia than its western EU allies. Kurz, who at 31 is Europe's youngest leader, warned Friday against "over-interpreting things."

"There are measures and initiatives where we have goodwill in western European countries," he told reporters after a meeting of the new Cabinet. "There are others where we will perhaps get applause from the Visegrad countries, and still others where we agree with all other 27 EU member states."

Kurz plans to visit Paris and Berlin in coming weeks. He said he expects a "good exchange" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stressing that "Germany is our biggest neighbor, our most important economic partner."

Of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has championed efforts to reform the EU, Kurz said: "It is clearly positive for all of us in the European Union that there is a French president who aspires to change something in the European Union."

Kurz called for an EU that is strong on "big questions" such as border security but leaves many policy decisions to countries and regions. Austria will hold the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of this year, when the bloc should be finalizing terms of Britain's departure.

"I very much hope that we succeed in organizing an orderly departure by the British," Kurz said, arguing that a failure to do so would hurt both sides.

Turkey slams Austria 'discrimination'

2017-12-17

ANKARA - Turkey on Sunday slammed the incoming Austrian government, a coalition between conservatives and the far-right, for "discrimination" after its program contained a pledge that Vienna will not agree to Ankara joining the EU.

The landmark coalition deal, marking the return to power in Austria of the Freedom Party (FPOe), has sparked ripples of concern throughout Europe after a year of successes for far-right movements in Europe.

The chancellor-elect, Sebastian Kurz of the conservative People's Party (OeVP), already has a deeply-fractious relationship with Ankara due to his staunch opposition to Turkey's EU bid while serving as foreign minister.

"This baseless and short-sighted statement in the new Austrian government's program unfortunately confirms concerns about a political trend based on discrimination and marginalization," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Accusing the incoming government of "dishonesty", it warned that if realized, the program would bring Austria "to the brink of losing Turkey's friendship" and be met with "the reaction that it deserves".

Turkey's decades-long ambition to join the EU has hit the buffers in recent months as the bloc sounded the alarm over the crackdown that followed the 2016 coup bid aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

While Austria has called for the accession process to be formally halted, this has met with opposition from key EU members, notably Germany.

Meeting Erdogan on his trip to Greece earlier this month -- the first by a Turkish president in 65 years -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also backed Turkey's EU bid.

But last month, the EU cut funds destined to Turkey in the 2018 budget, citing doubts about Ankara's commitment to democracy and human rights in a move supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=86461.

New Austrian government pledges pro-EU approach, more police

December 16, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — The new Austrian government led by a conservative and a nationalist party is pledging to tighten the country's asylum and immigration regulations while maintaining a firm commitment to the European Union, according to their coalition agreement released Saturday.

Under the deal reached late Friday night, Sebastian Kurz, head of the Austrian People's Party, will become chancellor, which will make him Europe's youngest leader when he is sworn in on Monday at age 31. Right-wing Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache will be vice chancellor and minister for sports and public servants.

"This can be the basis for real change in Austria," Kurz told reporters, introducing the government program that runs more than 180 pages. The document begins with a statement reinforcing Austria's commitment to the EU and other international organizations, saying that no Brexit-like referendums would be allowed.

"Only in a strong Europe can there also be a strong Austria, in which we are able to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century," the document reads. At the same time, the People's Party-Freedom Party partnership is expected to move the country to the right. Both campaigned on the need for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam.

The coalition agreement calls for bolstering the country's police forces with another 2,100 officers, as well as immigration policies that "can be sustained by the population." It also says asylum should only be offered to people "for the duration of their persecution, who really need Austria's help"

Other points include ending illegal migration, cutting government bureaucracy, reducing taxes and creating a new national climate and energy strategy. Kurz's party finished first in the country's Oct. 15 election and then embarked on coalition talks with the Freedom Party, which came in third after the center-left Social Democrats.

In the new government, the Freedom Party will have another five ministers in addition to Strache and a deputy minister, including leadership of the important Interior, Defense and Foreign Ministries, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Along with Kurz as chancellor, the People's Party will have seven ministers and one deputy, with responsibilities including the Finance, Economy and Justice Ministries. Kurz is the foreign minister in the outgoing government under Chancellor Christian Kern, a Social Democrat. He has stressed the importance of a pro-European direction and is expected to continue to take the lead on European issues even though the Freedom Party, which has traditionally been strongly euroskeptic, will have the Foreign Ministry.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said after he was presented with the coalition agreement and minister choices earlier Saturday that he saw no issues preventing the new government from being sworn in.

Following meetings with Kurz and Strache, Van der Bellen said he'd been assured a "pro-European" focus was central to that of the new government. "In these talks, among other things, we agreed it is in the national interest of Austria to remain at the center of a strong European Union and to actively participate in the future development of the European Union," he said.

Austria: 1 dead, 21 hurt in explosion at natural gas plant

December 12, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — An explosion Tuesday at a major natural gas facility near Austria's border with Slovakia left one person dead and 21 injured, and caused some gas flow disruptions to other countries, authorities said.

One person was seriously injured and 20 others slightly hurt in the morning blast at the plant in Baumgarten an der March, east of Vienna, police said. No one was in a life-threatening condition. The facility's operator said all the victims were Austrian.

The explosion set off a fire, which operator Gas Connect said was quickly contained and completely extinguished by mid-afternoon. The facility was "shut down in a controlled state and is offline," the company said.

Police wrote on Twitter that the explosion was triggered by a "technical cause," but didn't elaborate and said that local authorities are investigating. Gas Connect said it also suspects an unspecified technical fault.

Gas Connect describes the Baumgarten plant, where pipelines bringing gas from Russia, Norway and other countries connect and gas is compressed and cooled, as one of Europe's most important gas supply hubs.

"Austria's natural gas supply can be covered for the foreseeable future," the company said on its website. However, "transit through Austria to the south and southeast regions is currently negatively impacted," it added.

Neighboring Italy's Economic Development Ministry declared an emergency after the explosion interrupted the flow of natural gas to the country, but said Italy's supply of gas would be ensured by existing stockpiles.

Italy's SNAM natural gas transport network said flows could resume in the course of the day if it is confirmed that no transport infrastructure was damaged.

Populist parties gain more victories in European politics

October 16, 2017

The issue has been at the forefront of European politics since 2015, with the influx of more than two million migrants fuelling voters' fears of unrestricted immigration. Populist politicians across Europe have seized on the issue to warn that migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East could undermine Europe's way of life.

The strategy has paid off at the polls, boosting backers of Britain's move to leave the European Union and helping put a far-right candidate into the final round of France's presidential elections. On Sunday, the right-wing Freedom Party received more than a quarter of the vote in Austria's parliamentary elections, putting it in a strong position to join the next government. Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache has described people fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as "invaders," and claimed earlier this year that Muslim immigrants create "no-go areas" wherever they settle.

Ahead of the Austrian election, the leader of Austria's centrist People's Party, Sebastian Kurz, adopted the Freedom Party's stance on immigration in a bid to woo their voters. Whereas such tactics might previously have earned the Freedom Party and even Kurz a rebuke from other European countries, there was little outside criticism this time.

"The consensus in the European Union has become to throw refugees out and it's become difficult to say the Freedom Party is breaking taboos," said Carsten Koschmieder, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University.

Even German leader Angela Merkel, who was lauded for her humanitarian response in opening her country's borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees trapped in Hungary in the summer of 2015, has shifted markedly on the issue amid pressure from members of her own center-right Union bloc.

Merkel sought Monday to play down the threat from the right after the nationalist Alternative for Germany won seats in the state legislature in Lower Saxony, a month after becoming the third-strongest party in a national vote.

The party, which goes by the German acronym AfD, now has seats in almost all German states and at the national and European level, giving it a strong platform — and millions of euros (dollars) in public funding — to attack the German chancellor's policies on immigration.

While Merkel has refused to publicly admit any mistakes, she recently agreed to limit the number of migrants German takes in each year — a key demand from her CDU's Bavaria-only ally, the Christian Social Union. The party is fearful of losing its absolute majority when Bavaria elects a new state assembly next year.

"The CSU and CDU must become a home for conservative voters that have left us," the Bavarian party's former leader Edmund Stoiber said. "This is a matter of survival for both parties." Across the continent, populist, anti-immigration sentiment has driven the political agenda in many countries for months.

French far right leader Marine Le Pen set the tone for France's presidential campaign earlier this year by blaming immigration and the EU's open borders for economic troubles and extremist attacks, forcing other candidates to mimic or respond to her proposals.

Mainstream conservatives and even centrist President Emmanuel Macron adopted some of Le Pen's positions, notably on tougher border controls. Even former Socialist President Francois Hollande ratcheted up expulsions of immigrants in the later part of his term in part because of Le Pen's growing influence on public opinion.

In the Netherlands, the anti-immigration Party for Freedom led by anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders finished second in March elections. Mainstream parties ruled out a coalition with Wilders, but a policy blueprint published by the incoming four-party coalition includes a raft of measures clamping down on immigration, including pledges to cut the length of residency permits for refugees.

In Italy, Paolo Gentiloni's Democratic Party-led government has pressed a controversial new strategy by Libya's government to enlist militias as a de-facto police force to crack down on migrant smuggling. The move — intended to diffuse growing anti-migrant sentiment that could play into the hands of more populist and right-wing parties heading into Italian elections expected by spring — has succeeded in reducing the number of new arrivals.

Poland's right-wing government came to power in 2015 on a hard-line anti-migrant agenda and continues to refuse to accept any Muslim migrants. The position appears to be extremely popular, with the ruling Law and Justice party riding high in opinion polls.

Koschmieder, the German political scientist, warned that attempts to edge out right-wing rivals by co-opting their policies might work in first-past-the-post electoral systems such as Britain — but it could backfire in countries like Austria and Germany, where a campaign focused on immigration can shift the entire political system to the right.

"The Freedom Party wasn't weakened by this, it was made stronger," said Koschmieder. "If it gets into government then that doesn't exactly demonstrate the strategy was successful," he said, citing the fact that the Freedom Party and People's Party together took almost 60 percent of the vote in Austria.

Koschmieder said mainstream parties might fare better by addressing some of the reasons underlying voters' anxiety about immigration, by creating jobs, improving schools and strengthening police forces.

Angela Charlton in Paris, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

Austrian poised to become Europe's 1st millennial leader

October 16, 2017

VIENNA (AP) — At age 31, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz is poised to become the first millennial to lead a European country following his party's victory in a national election Sunday. While no party won a majority, the telegenic Kurz is most likely to be sworn in as Austria's next chancellor — and Europe's youngest leader — after the tough coalition government negotiations that lie ahead.

Near-final results from Sunday's balloting put his People's Party comfortably in first place, with 31.4 percent of the vote. The right-wing Freedom Party came in second with 27.4 percent. The center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria, which now governs in coalition with People's Party, got 26.7 percent.

Becoming head of government would be the next leap in a political career that started eight years ago when Kurz, then studying law, was elected chairman of his party's youth branch. Smart and articulate, he eventually caught the eye of People's Party elders. He was appointed state secretary for integration, overseeing government efforts to make immigrants into Austrians, in 2011.

After a Social Democratic-People's Party coalition was formed four years ago, Kurz, then 27, became Austria's foreign minister — the youngest top diplomat in Europe. He hosted several rounds of talks between Iran and six other countries on Tehran's nuclear program, meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other powerbrokers. Other international events further boosted his visibility and party influence.

When a new wave of migrants and refugees seeking to relocate to Europe became a continent-wide concern in 2015, Kurz recognized Austrian voters' anxiety over unchecked immigration involving large numbers of Muslim newcomers.

He called for tougher external border controls, better integration and stringent control of "political Islam" funded from abroad. He also organized the shutdown of the popular overland route through the West Balkans many newcomers were using to reach the EU's prosperous heartland.

By now, Kurz and his traditionally centrist party had drifted considerably to the right of their Social Democratic government partners, making governing difficult. Kurz's moment came when both agreed this spring to an early national election.

The People's Party, then lagging in third place and long seen as a stodgy old boys network, made him leader. Kurz set out to reinvent the party's image after securing guarantees for unprecedented authority.

The youthful, Vienna-born politician turned out to be the tonic the party needed, helping it shrug off criticism that it's been part of the political establishment for decades. He mostly goes without a tie, works standing behind a desk and flies economy class. He has a girlfriend, but is private about his life outside politics.

Noting that his center-right party had triumphed over the rival Social Democrats only twice since the end of World War II, Kurz called Sunday's election a "historic victory."