WASHINGTON (AP) – The Turkish foreign minister said yesterday that the European Union will eventually offer membership to Turkey. Despite the EU’s recent decision to partially freeze talks on membership, Abdullah Gul said his government expects a long process ending in Turkey’s accession. “I believe that the EU will realize the strategic importance of Turkey soon enough and reverse its negative approach,” he said in a speech at the German Marshall Fund. Gul said that Turkey’s importance to Europe as a Muslim-majority country on the cusp of the Middle East with rising importance to the West as a transit point for energy sources would make it irresistible. “The effect of EU membership will be felt across the world,” he said. “There is too much at stake to fail.” Gul also repeated warnings he has made throughout his visit to Washington against a proposed Congressional resolution that would recognize the World War I era killings of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire as genocide. He said a resolution would insult the Turkish people.

SKOPJE (AP) – The EU enlargement chief urged the governing conservatives of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) yesterday to speed up reforms and mend ties with opposition ethnic Albanians if the tiny Balkan country wants a starting date for EU entry talks. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the pace of economic and political reforms “has slowed down” since FYROM was granted candidate status in December 2005. “Substantial progress is needed before the Commission can seriously consider recommending a start of accession negotiations,” Rehn said. He was speaking after a meeting in Skopje with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Establishing the truth about the Yugoslav conflict and war crimes in the 1990s is a precondition to lasting peace in Southeastern Europe, Croatian President Stipe Mesic said yesterday. “We will never be able to build firm and lasting relations in the region unless we resolve what happened and determine responsibility and guilt,” Mesic said. Mesic was speaking at a conference organized by Documenta, a regional group promoting peace and reconciliation among nations in the former Yugoslavia. Other guests at the two-day forum were to include the presiding judge of the UN War Crimes Tribunal, Fausto Pocar, its chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, and several leading local political, legal and humanitarian officials. Mesic was scheduled to meet with both Pocar and Del Ponte behind closed doors later in the day. (AP)