Turkey appeals for EU support

PM urges EU leaders not to be swayed by Cyprus; FM asks envoys not to block Ankara’s efforts

By Selcan Hacaoglu and Zerin Elci - Reuters

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed to European Union leaders yesterday not to let EU-member Cyprus decide on the fate of Ankara's accession bid and called a European Commission proposal «unacceptable.»

«I believe that EU leaders... will not allow the process to be held hostage by one member (Cyprus),» Erdogan told a news conference with his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen after both held discussions on the troubled membership talks.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday freezing talks on eight out of 35 negotiating areas, or chapters, until Turkey opens its ports to shipping and airplanes from Cyprus. EU foreign ministers are due to decide on the recommendation on December 11. «This existing recommendation is unacceptable from our point of view but this does not mean... our negotiations with the EU are coming to a halt,» Erdogan said.

Meanwhile, Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul urged EU member states not to block Turkey's path and repeated Ankara's annoyance over the European Commission's call for a partial suspension of its EU entry talks. «We are not happy with this recommendation,» Gul was quoted by Foreign Ministry officials as telling European Union ambassadors at a lunch in Ankara.

«Turkey wants to reach EU standards and transform itself. Do not stop a Turkey which is trying to make this change by its own efforts,» Gul was quoted as saying.

The officials said the envoys reassured Gul they wanted Turkey's EU accession process to continue. «The EU has many problems to deal with, so failing to reach agreement in the council on Turkey would send a bad signal to the outside world, and we do not want this,» one Turkish official quoted the ambassadors as telling Gul.

Turkey began its EU membership talks last year but they have ground to a virtual halt in recent months due to Ankara's refusal to extend its customs union to Cyprus.

The prime minister of Finland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, was due to hold talks later yesterday with Erdogan in a fresh effort to close the gap between Ankara and the EU over Cyprus.

Cyprus, backed by some other skeptics on Turkey's EU bid, said on Thursday the Commission proposal to freeze eight chapters was too weak and threatened to block the whole process. All 25 EU member states must approve the opening and closing of each chapter in the lengthy process.

BRUSSELS/ PARIS (AP) - In another sign of the disagreements over Turkey's drive to join the EU, Belgium said yesterday that the predominantly Muslim country should be given an «honest chance» to continue membership negotiations.

«To refuse Turkey an honest chance would be a historical error,» Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht wrote in an op-ed piece in De Morgen newspaper. Yet he criticized recent developments in Turkey. «Trials against intellectuals for insulting the Turkish identity, discussions about the Armenian genocide, quarrels about relations with Cyprus,» he said. «Old symbols are coming to the fore.»

De Gucht said, however, that the EU had to look beyond the current differences.

«Enlargement is a good thing and Turkey deserves the benefit of the doubt,» he said.

«It is of major importance that Turkey remains a stable, secular democracy,» De Gucht said. «Joining the EU would send a very strong signal to the world that the 'clash of civilizations' is not inevitable.»

Meanwhile, France's interior minister, and a leading presidential hopeful, Nicolas Sarkozy said late on Thursday that he wants EU talks with Turkey suspended on the grounds that it is not geographically part of Europe. He proposed that the EU have a «common economic market» with Turkey. «The place of Turkey is not within the European Union» because it is part of Asia Minor, Sarkozy said.