Danish parties back Turkish mediation in cartoons row

Feb 21, 2006, 16:22 GMT

Copenhagen - A broad majority of Danish politicians welcomed Tuesday a proposal aired by European Union president Austria to urge Turkey to mediate in the ongoing row over the controversial Mohammed cartoons.

Meanwhile, the Danish Foreign Ministry announced that Denmark's ambassador has returned to Indonesia where the embassy was closed over security concerns against Danish interests.

Danish nationals were urged to avoid non-essential travel to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Politicians from ruling liberal-conservative government as well as main opposition parties backed the idea of Turkish mediation provided it did not restrict freedom of speech.

The strongest dissent was heard from the populist Danish People's Party that backs Rasmussen's minority government.

The party's spokesman on EU affairs, Morten Messerschmidt, was critical of inviting Turkey to mediate saying it was a 'trick' and that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent mixed signals on the crisis.

Another group that questioned the suitability of naming Turkey was the Kurdish Council of Denmark.

'Turkey has no influence in Arab countries and Turkey is also part of the conflict,' council deputy leader Sevki Huseyin Kizilocak told Danish news agency Ritzau.

Kizilocak said EU members should consider a counter-boycott against the Arab world in response to the consumer boycott that has hit Danish companies, including food company Arla Foods.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday again ruled out calls for a review of the government's response to the crisis triggered by a Danish newspaper's publication of the cartoons last September.

Rasmussen said Copenhagen had to protect its relations with other countries and much of the information was classified.

The premier has been criticized for his initial response, refusing to meet with ambassadors from Muslim nations who wanted to protest against the publication.

Turkish-born opposition Social Democratic parliamentarian Huseyin Arac, who has earlier proposed Turkish mediation, said Ankara was able to view the issue from both sides.

Arac hails from Aarhus, the city where the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which last year printed the controversial caricatures is published.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was slated to meet with EU counterparts on March 11 at a meeting between candidate countries and would be invited to present a proposal on creating an alliance of civilizations, Danish media said.