EU slams Turkey in draft progress report

Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:48 AM BST

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The EU criticises the Turkish military’s role
in politics, a lack of reform and minority rights and relations
with Cyprus in the draft of a progress report due later this year,
a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The European Union is due to publish a progress report on Ankara’s
entry bid in October or November, a year on from the start of
negotiations, which on Friday turned frosty as Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan said he would sooner see talks suspended than make concessions
over new member Cyprus.

Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper cited European Union sources on Sunday
as saying the first draft criticised Turkey’s refusal to open its
ports to Cyprus, as the EU demands, before the bloc lifts trade
restrictions on Turkish Cypriots
in breakaway Northern Cyprus.

The paper said the draft also notes a slowdown in political reform,
the military’s ongoing influence over political institutions and
calls for more work for judicial independence and rights for women
and minorities.

It also says conditions in the poor mainly Kurdish southeast, where
security forces are fighting separatist guerrillas, have deteriorated
and criticises relations with traditional enemies and neighbours
Greece and Armenia.

The paper said the draft would be amended but the sources did not
expect many changes to the essence of it.

EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday shot back at Erdogan’s
comments about Cyprus, with calls for Turkey to allow in traffic from
the tiny Mediterranean island by the end of the year.

Last week Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted
as saying membership talks should be frozen if Turkey does not open
its ports this year.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said Turkey, which is not
expected to join the wealthy bloc until 2015 at the earliest, could
be heading for a "train crash" in its accession process and has urged
Ankara to step up reforms.