Turkey long way from EU membership: Kretschmer

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
May 7 2005

Kretschmer said that if the Greek Cypriot administration was not
recognised by Ankara that the Greek Cypriots would have the right to
veto direct trade with the TRNC.

May 6- Turkey has a long way to go before it will meet the standards
required for membership of the European Union, a senior EU official
said Friday.

In an exclusive interview on NTV on Friday, Hansjorg Kretschmer, said
that Turkey still had many reforms to implement in order to achieve
membership of the EU. “There are great gaps in respect to human rights
and freedoms,” Kretschmer said. “Freedom of expression, religion and
the place of women in the society have serious deficiencies.”

Not much had been achieved as yet on reforming civilian-military
relations, legal reforms and their implementation, he said.

Furthermore Kretschmer stressed that the underdeveloped economic and
social nature of the southeast of Turkey as a drawback.

“There a long path ahead of Turkey,” he said.

The reform process in Turkey had lost momentum and had slowed down,
and that there were two conditions to be met by Turkey in order for
accession negotiations to start as scheduled on October 3, one the
signing of the Ankara protocol and passing the new penal code, he said

In reference to the issue of direct trade with the Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus, a question raised during the recent visit of
the German Chancellor to Turkey, Kretschmer stressed that the Greek
Cypriot side, as a member of the EU, did not recognise the northern
side and this generated problems.

Kretschmer also called on Turkey to open up its border with Armenian
as soon as possible. Although he stressed that the recognition of the
so-called Armenian genocide was not a criteria for membership of the
EU, Kretschmer stressed that it would have an indirect impact.

“Turkey should urgently face up to this important issue,” he said.
“Since this would affect the views on Turkey by the public of the
EU states.”