Turkey urges EU to 'play the game' in membership talks

(BRUSSELS) - Turkey on Tuesday opened another chapter in its long and torturous quest to join the European Union, urging its future partners to drop political considerations and "play the game by its rules".

At membership talks in Brussels, senior EU and Turkish officials opened talks on taxation, one of the 35 policy negotiating areas -- or chapters -- all would-be members have to complete prior to joining.

"We have opened chapter 16 on taxation, an important chapter and a significant one on Turkey's path towards the European Union," said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

But he warned: "There are several benchmarks that need to be met before chapter 16 can be provisionally closed," notably that Turkey ratify a customs accord with EU member Cyprus, as well as taxation reform issues.

The accord, on allowing Cypriot ships and aircraft access to its ports and airports, is at the heart of a major dispute that has held up Ankara's accession process, which began in October 2005.

Ankara has now formally opened 11 chapters. Eight other chapters have been frozen since 2006 due to the customs dispute with Cyprus, which has been divided between ethnic Turkish and Greek sides since 1974.

France is blocking another five chapters directly linked to EU membership.

Turkey's European affairs minister, Egemen Bagis, underlined that Ankara was aware of its responsibilities in the process and urged the EU to respect its obligations.

"Turkey is prepared to play the game by its rules, but when new rules are introduced to the game while the game is going on, this creates reaction," he told reporters.

"We expect the EU to abide by its commitments for a fair and sustainable negotiation process and reaffirm its political will to help further our objectives," he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with their Austrian colleagues, favour some kind of special relationship with Turkey which falls short of full membership.

"Turkey expects to join the EU as an equal member with all the rights and obligations this will imply," Bagis said.

Turkey, which is relatively poor and has some 70 million inhabitants, would not only be one of the EU's biggest member states but the first mainly Muslim country were it to join.

The EU has underlined that Turkey is not guaranteed membership at the end of the accession process, which will probably take until at least 2015 to complete.