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"Do they want a multi-cultural, multi-religious, a genuinely pluralist Europe or not?" said Gurel
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ANKARA,
October 25 (News Agencies) - Turkey will reconsider its ties with the
European Union if the 15-nation bloc fails to set a firm date for the
opening of accession talks next year, Turkey's Foreign Minister Sukru
Sina Gurel said Friday, October 25.
"If
the European Union does not decide to open accession talks with Turkey
in 2003, Turkish-E.U. ties will suffer and Turkey will have to
reconsider all aspects of its ties with the Union," Gurel told
the Anatolia news agency.
Gurel's
threat came as the draft declaration of a two-day summit of E.U.
leaders was released in Brussels. The declaration welcomed Ankara's
recent reform drive to catch up with European standards, but made no
mention of a date for accession talks, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
"Turkey
has taken important steps" towards meeting the political and
economic criteria for joining the E.U., according to the document
which was due to be adopted later Friday at the end of the meeting in
Brussels.
"This
has brought forward the opening of accession negotiations," the
draft said. But the declaration did not set a date for these accession
negotiations.
Turkey
– one of 13 E.U.-hopeful states – has said it is eligible for
accession negotiations as the Turkish parliament adopted in August a
package of key human rights reforms demanded by the E.U., including
the abolition of the death penalty and cultural rights for the Kurds.
It
has been pressing the pan-European bloc to set a firm date for
accession talks at its Copenhagen summit in December.
But
European Commission chief Romano Prodi said Thursday, October 24, that
Ankara was unlikely to get a starting date for membership talks this
year.
The
reforms adopted by the Turkish parliament were "decisions of
historic importance," Prodi told reporters before the start of
the Brussels summit.
But
he added: "At Copenhagen we would not be expecting to propose a
date for Turkey."
Gurel
said shutting the Union's doors to Turkey would turn the organization
into a closed society.
"The
political decision to be taken by the E.U. [at Copenhagen] will not
only affect Turkey, but also the future of Europe and what sort of an
identity Europe chooses for itself," the minister said, quoted
AFP.
"Do
they [E.U. leaders] want a multi-cultural, multi-religious, a
genuinely pluralist Europe or not?" he added.
Earlier
this month, the European Commission angered Turkey when it said in a
report that the country was not yet ready to start membership talks as
it did not meet the necessary political criteria, while recommending
that Cyprus, a NATO member and a country having a conflict with
Turkey, be formally invited to join the Union in 2004, along with a
number of former ex-communist eastern European countries.
The
same view was endorsed in the draft declaration of the Brussels
summit.
Turkey
has warned the Union that the division of the Mediterranean island
between the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities could become
permanent should Cyprus join the Union before its two communities
reach a compromise in their negotiations.
The
accession of Cyprus to the E.U. and leaving Turkey out would
"upset the balances in the eastern Mediterranean," Gurel
said Friday.
"The
E.U. should act responsibly," he added.
Meanwhile,
Germany's surprise support for Turkey to begin European Union
membership talks has created a potential conflict for the bloc, AFP
quoted analysts as saying.
This
new, emphatic backing for Turkey comes after three years of virtual
silence, says Heinz Krammer, an expert on Turkey at the SWP foreign
policy institute in Berlin.
"It's
the first important public declaration" of support for Ankara
since Germany called for it to be accepted as a candidate for E.U.
membership at the Helsinki summit in 1999, Krammer said.
"There
can only be one reason" for the silence being broken he said:
"U.S. pressure."
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