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EU officials assure Turkey over accession

13 July 2010, 22:37 CET
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(ISTANBUL) - EU officials assured Turkey Tuesday over its troubled bid to join the bloc and praised the country's growing regional role after claims the lagging progress was pushing Ankara away from the West.

The commitment came after a meeting in Istanbul between EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Turkey's chief negotiator in membership talks, Egemen Bagis.

"Trust and friendship are the marks of the relationship between Turkey and the EU. We both have the same goals" for peace and prosperity, Ashton told a joint press conference after the talks.

The EU opened accession talks with Turkey in 2005, but the process has moved slowly amid French and German opposition to the mainly Muslim country's membership and the sluggish pace of reform in Ankara.

Fule underlined that the 27-nation bloc had a "clear mandate" on Turkey's membership bid and called for ways to accelerate the negotiations.

"We have to find ways to gear up the admission process," he said.

Last month, talks began on a new policy area, food safety, bringing the total number of chapters Turkey has managed to open to 13 out of 35.

Eight chapters remain frozen as a sanction for Turkey's refusal to open its sea and air ports to Cyprus, an EU member that Ankara does not recognise owing to the island's 36-year division between its Greek and Turkish communities.

The reform drive of the Islamist-rooted government in Ankara has notably declined in recent years, and France and Germany have added to the gloom, arguing that Turkey does not belong to Europe and should settle for a special partnership rather than full membership.

The United States and some European officials have charged that the EU's failure to fully embrace Turkey is behind a perceived shift in the country's foreign policy towards the East.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Europe last month of "refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought", an argument that was later endorsed by Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

The accusations were raised last month after Turkey voted against fresh UN sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme and plunged into a deep crisis with one-time ally Israel after nine Turks were killed in an Israeli operation on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

Turkey insists on a diplomatic solution in the row with Iran, arguing that a nuclear fuel swap deal it brokered together with Brazil in May should be the basis of fresh talks with the Islamic republic.

It has proposed to host talks between Ashton, as a representative of the so-called P5+1 group of world powers, and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

Ashton said she welcomed "Turkey's role in the region... in the Middle East, in the Balkans, on Iran, Caucasus, Afghanistan and Pakistan" while Davutoglu stressed that Ankara would like to further cooperate with the bloc in regional policies.

"We share such a vast geography ranging from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean. Turkey is following an active policy and gives the utmost importance to conducting these policies in cooperation with the EU," he said.

Bagis, for his part, urged EU countries to step up their efforts against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after it dramatically stepped up its violent campaign for self-rule in Turkey's southeast in recent weeks.

"We expect PKK members in those countries to be captured and extradited. We expect (PKK) activities to be stopped within those countries," he said.

Ashton pledged that the EU was "determined to do all that is in its power to act against terrorist groups".

Turkey has long accused EU countries of tolerating PKK activities and organisations affiliated to the rebels on their soil, despite blacklisting it as a terrorist organisation.

EU relations with Turkey


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