If I knew more Turkish than a few dozen words and how to form the infinitive and the inessive, I might be able to say something sensible about how people in Turkey see the negotiations about EU accession negotiations.

If I were one of those newspaper columnists who compare increases in National Insurance to Stalin's liquidization of the kulaks, I could compare the national--Catholic flavour of the Austrian administration to the national--Catholic aspirations of the war crime suspects who are holding up Croatia's accession negotiations.

As things stand, I'll have to make do with wondering about the BBC asserting that memories of the Ottoman siege of Vienna are an important factor in this. Does this mean that I have memories of the Jacobite rebellions, or do I have to be Ursula Plassnik's age?

posted at: 21:02 | path: /OE | permanent link to this entry