AZG Armenian Daily #124, 07/07/2005

Turkey-EU

EU COMMISSIONER: TURKEY HAS TO OPEN BORDER WITH ARMENIA

Erdogan: No one can make Turkey open its border with Armenia

Oli Ren, European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, stated that Turkey has
to improve relations with Armenia and open the border. According to
Mediamax, he said that the border-gate opening will be beneficial for
Turkey’s eastern regions as well.

Last week in Baku, Turkish prime minister assured that no one can compel
Turkey to open its border with Armenia. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the
recognition of the “so-called Armenian genocide” is the inner business of
Turkey, “It is Turkey that takes decisions concerning this issue not the EU.
We know it well what decision to take”.

Oli Ren said at the session of the Commission on International Relations of
the European Parliament that recognition of “the events of 1915-16” is no
precondition for starting Turkey-EU talks. The EU commissioner expressed
regret that the Turkish authorities postponed the workshop to discuss those
issues at the Bosphorus University.

Ren said that the talks format on Turkey’s EU accession adopted last week is
the harshest ever adopted in the history of the European Union. “We will pay
more attention to real steps and deeds rather than obligations and words”,
considering the experience of the previous stage, he said.