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BRASILIA Back to Fidel Brazil has re-established diplomatic and commercial relations with Fidel Castro after a break of 22 years, signifying to many observers here the end of Cuba’s isolation in Latin America. Now only two governments, Chile’s and Paraguay’s, maintain the Latin American diplomatic blockade that was begun in the early 1960s, following the lead of the United States. While there was no formal reaction from the State Department, one high official characterized the demarche as “lamentable.”

ANKARA Thirteenth A major issue taking form here, and soon to cast its shadow across Western Europe, is when and how—no longer really if—Turkey becomes the 13th member of the Common Market. Turkey has a long association with modern European structures. It has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1949, and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 1952. There is no dispute about its position as a strategic pillar of NATO. An agreement in 1963 (reconfirmed in 1977) created an economic association between the EEC and Turkey that is now considered a step toward EEC membership. And in 1976 a protocol was signed in Brussels authorizing free circulation of Turkish workers among member countries by the end of this year. This affects hundreds of thousands of Turkish workers in Western Europe, particularly in West Germany, which has insisted on applying national immigration controls to them. Moreover, in the last three years Prime Minister Turgut Ozal has freed exchange, abolished currency and price controls, and pursued a policy of righting trade and debt balances that has won approval of the OECD and the IMF. Today Turkey can handle its foreign debts and raise capital on the international market. But while Turkey may look toward Europe, it looks toward Asia too. Though the Turkish state is secular, its constitution makes important reference to Islam, to which 90 per cent of its population adheres. Until the collapse of oil prices, the government had been considering the idea of promoting an Islamic common market. Then there is the demographic problem. Turkey’s birth rate far outstrips those of West Germany and France, for example. There are 52 million Turks today, most of them young. By the end of the century there will be one hundred million. Such a bloc cannot be easily integrated into Europe, politically or culturally.

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BRASILIA Back to Fidel Brazil has re-established diplomatic and commercial relations with Fidel Castro after a break of 22 years, signifying to many observers here the end of Cuba’s isolation in Latin America. Now only two governments, Chile’s and Paraguay’s, maintain the Latin American diplomatic blockade that was begun in the early 1960s, following the lead of the United States. While there was no formal reaction from the State Department, one high official characterized the demarche as “lamentable.”

ANKARA Thirteenth A major issue taking form here, and soon to cast its shadow across Western Europe, is when and how—no longer really if—Turkey becomes the 13th member of the Common Market. Turkey has a long association with modern European structures. It has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1949, and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 1952. There is no dispute about its position as a strategic pillar of NATO. An agreement in 1963 (reconfirmed in 1977) created an economic association between the EEC and Turkey that is now considered a step toward EEC membership. And in 1976 a protocol was signed in Brussels authorizing free circulation of Turkish workers among member countries by the end of this year. This affects hundreds of thousands of Turkish workers in Western Europe, particularly in West Germany, which has insisted on applying national immigration controls to them. Moreover, in the last three years Prime Minister Turgut Ozal has freed exchange, abolished currency and price controls, and pursued a policy of righting trade and debt balances that has won approval of the OECD and the IMF. Today Turkey can handle its foreign debts and raise capital on the international market. But while Turkey may look toward Europe, it looks toward Asia too. Though the Turkish state is secular, its constitution makes important reference to Islam, to which 90 per cent of its population adheres. Until the collapse of oil prices, the government had been considering the idea of promoting an Islamic common market. Then there is the demographic problem. Turkey’s birth rate far outstrips those of West Germany and France, for example. There are 52 million Turks today, most of them young. By the end of the century there will be one hundred million. Such a bloc cannot be easily integrated into Europe, politically or culturally.