Turkish spokesman: Recalling envoy from France "out of question"

Anatolia news agency, Ankara,
19 Oct 06

Ankara, 19 October: "The Cyprus issue should not poison Turkey’s
negotiation process with the EU," said Namik Tan, spokesman for the
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Thursday [19 October].

Speaking at the weekly press briefing, Tan said: "The negotiation
process has its own frame and parameters. It is quite wrong to
associate this issue with Turkey’s EU negotiation process. Turkey
accepts only the Copenhagen political criteria in this process."

Upon a question about recent proposal of Finland which holds the
rotating EU presidency, Tan told reporters: "According to our point of
view, the Cyprus issue can be resolved under the auspices of the United
Nations. Finland’s proposal can be considered as a quite important
step in efforts to find a way-out to the Cyprus issue. But neither
Finland’s proposal nor any other similar initiative can replace a
comprehensive solution."

Tan also highlighted importance of a compromise to be reached by the
two parties on the island.

Referring to adoption of the bill about so-called Armenian genocide
by the French National Assembly last week, Tan said: "It is comforting
to know that the French government is against the bill.

However, this does not solve the problem."

"France has lost its privileged position in the sight of Turkish
people. It is not possible to correct it by making administrative
decisions. Turkey has already warned France about likely consequences
of such a decision," he commented.

When asked whether Turkey would recall its ambassador as a reaction,
Tan said that such a move was completely out of the question. "We
are in favour of acting rationally," he added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress