TURKEY STILL UNDER CONTROL

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[01:47 pm] 16 October, 2006

European Union foreign ministers will meet Monday with Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul in an effort to diffuse tensions amid moves by
Cyprus and Greece to block Ankara’s EU membership talks.

Ties between Turkey and Europe were also strained by the French
parliament’s decision to approve legislation that would make it
a crime to deny that the World War I-era killings of Armenians in
Turkey were genocide.

Cyprus and Greece have warned they will block entry talks if Turkey
does not extend its EU customs agreement to shipments from EU-member
Cyprus. Last week, Greece and Cyprus forced the EU to postpone
the opening of a new chapter of Turkey’s EU membership talks – on
industrial policy – until a solution to the customs dispute was found.

Turkey has refused to open its ports to Greek Cypriots until an
international embargo against Turkish-Cypriots in the north of the
island is lifted.

Turkey’s "open-ended" membership negotiations, launched Oct. 3, 2005,
already had been progressing slowly. Rehn, who was leading Monday’s
talks, appealed to all parties to help resolve the standoff.