TURKEY RISKS EU NEGOTIATIONS IF CYPRUS NOT RECOGNISED: FRANCE

Agence France Presse — English
November 8, 2006 Wednesday 3:25 PM GMT

France called Wednesday for the timetable governing Turkey’s talks
to join the European Union to be revised if Ankara does not change
its defiant stance on the divided island state of Cyprus by the end
of the year.

"If by the end of the year Turkey still does not recognise the 25
(EU) member states, including obviously Cyprus, then it seems to
me necessary to review the membership timetable for Turkey into
the European Union," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told
parliament.

Earlier, the European Commission issued a report warning Turkey
to meet its obligations, in particular toward Cyprus, or else its
"overall progress" in EU membership talks would be affected.

The report said there was no resolution in sight over Cyprus, which
is divided between an internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot
administration in the south and a northern self-declared statelet
under Turkish patronage.

Although Turkey is keen to join the European Union, it has not modified
its stance on Cyprus, which it invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek
Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

"Today, it has to be noted that Turkey still does not accept opening
its ports and airports to ships and planes, not only (southern)
Cypriot ones, but also those that come from (southern) Cyprus. It
is therefore evident today that Turkey is not responding to its
obligations," Douste-Blazy said.

The minister said current EU president Finland was doing everything
to resolve that and other outstanding issues with Turkey by the end
of the year.

But he stressed that the European Commission report said that Turkey’s
EU negotiations were "accumulating delays" because of Ankara’s lagging
reform in the areas of freedom of expression, religious freedom and
minority rights.

Although French President Jacques Chirac has said he was in favour
of Turkey one day joining the European Union, relations with France
and Turkey have frequently been strained over the issue.

In the latest row, Turkey last month expressed fury at a French
parliamentary bill which would make it a crime in France to deny that
the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constituted
genocide.