BABACAN: TURKEY SHOULD FOCUS ON REFORMS
By Cihan News Agency

Zaman Online, Turkey
Sept 6 2006

Turkey’s Chief E.U. Negotiator Ali Babacan said that it would be
wrong to deduce that Europeans do not want Turkey in the union just
by looking at the report adopted by European parliament foreign
affairs committee.

The strongly worded EP foreign affairs committee report, penned by a
Dutch legislator, harshly criticized Turkey, and called for recognition
of the alleged genocide against Armenians.

The Turkish foreign ministry dismissed the report, saying that it
lacked common sense and smelled of political bias.

Chief Negotiator Babacan has been carrying out talks in The Hague,
Netherlands. On Tuesday Babacan came together with Dutch Economy
Minister Joop Wijn.

"There may be faults in the report, they can be corrected. But
the important thing is that the reforms Turkey adopts are in our
interests," Babacan told reporters.

Babacan said that Turkey would take reform steps ahead of the release
of the U.N. progress report on Turkey in October.