Insert Hitler Joke Here

You do remember that Hitler was Austrian, right? Well, the Austrians are crapping all over the latest talks to bring Turkey in to the EU:

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers failed to agree on Sunday on a mandate for opening entry talks with Turkey after Austria insisted on an alternative to full membership, but will try again on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who chaired five hours of tough wrangling, said the planned start time for Turkey's long-awaited negotiations on Monday afternoon could slip.

"It is a frustrating situation that I hope and pray that we may be able to reach agreement," Straw told a news conference. EU president Britain postponed a planned review of Croatia's progress toward starting membership talks -- close to Austria's heart -- until the mandate for Turkey was sorted out.

For the record, Turkey's ties to the European Community go back to the 1960s. Croatia didn't even exist until 1991. For Austria to tie Croatia's membership to Turkey's is incredibly unfair to the Turks. Especially given that, unlike Croatia, Turkey is not currently in defiance of a War Crimes Tribunal.

There's an additional wrinkle that makes it even more depressing - German and Austrian support for Croatian Catholics took a particularly nasty form during WWII, when Croats turned over Serbs to be killed as part of the Holocaust. When Austria backs Croatian membership, one wonders how it looks to Serbia.