Anti-Turkish Austria courts local Turkish vote

Most Austrians -- and most of the country's major political parties -- vehemently oppose Turkey's bid to join the EU. But it's election time in Vienna, and suddenly those same parties are courting the local Turkish vote.

So how do you meld the conflicting interests of appealing to the mainstream Turkophobe Austrian electorate while catering to voters of Turkish origin whose ballot will make a difference in yesterday's capital's election?

"It's tough occasionally," conceded Nurten Yilmaz, an Austrian of Turkish origin, as she took a break from handing out red balloons and folders urging voters -- Turkish and otherwise -- to vote for her Social Democratic Party.

Only of the five parties running for City Hall -- the xenophobic Freedom Party -- is not fielding a Turkish candidate. Instead, it appeals to the rabidly anti-Turkish fringe vote with posters declaring "Liberated Women instead of the Mandatory Headscarf," and "German instead of `Don't Understand.'"

But with most of Austria's 200,000-strong Turkish community living in Vienna, a city of about 1.5 million people, the other parties cannot ignore their vote.

Many Turks here are skeptical of their sudden popularity -- and with reason.

"I've been here for 20 years but I'm still not fully accepted," Mehmet Akar said in strongly accented German as he stopped at Yilmaz's stand in Vienna's 16th District, where kebab stores are next to shops offering more traditional Austrian goods.

Recent EU surveys show only one in 10 Austrians backs the idea of Turkey joining the bloc. Austria tends to have little political clout in the EU. Yet it took days of intense pressure from the bloc's 24 other member states for Vienna to abandon its attempt earlier this month to scuttle talks with Turkey on future full membership.

Critics that local politics played a part, with Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel hoping -- but failing -- to swing voter sentiment behind his conservative People's Party in the province of Styria by demonstrating his party's unbending opposition to Turkish EU membership.

In Germany, the other EU nation with a large Turkish-origin electorate, the governing Social Democratic party supported Turkey's bid to join the EU, while the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) objected. The resulting Social Democratic vote among Germany's 2.6 million-strong Turkish community is thought to have contributed to the unexpectedly good showing by the party that left the favored CDU with little choice but to form a coalition with its traditional rival.

In Austria, there is no such clear divide on the Turkish question. But the People's Party -- the governing party nationally -- seems to be fighting an uphill battle because of its vehement opposition to Turkish EU membership.

Turkish Sirvan Ekici repeatedly canceled appointments with a reporter wanting to accompany her during campaigning. Even the rightist BZOE has fielded a candidate of Turkish origin, despite past opposition to immigrants by its leading figures, including populist firebrand Joerg Haider.