Voice of America News
September 28, 2005

EU Parliament Backs Turkey’s EU Membership Talks

The European Parliament has endorsed next week’s planned start of
European Union membership talks with Turkey.

However, lawmakers on Wednesday also postponed ratifying Turkey’s
customs accord with the European Union because of Turkey’s continued
refusal to recognize Cyprus, which gained EU membership last year.

Also, the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling
on Turkey to recognize the massacre of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks 90
years ago during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says
300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed during an
Armenian uprising.