DUTCH QUEEN TELLS TURKEY "FIRST STEPS TAKEN" ON EU MEMBERSHIP ROAD

NIS News Bulletin, Netherlands
Feb 28 2007

ANKARA, 01/03/07 – Queen Beatrix has said on her state visit to
Turkey that the first steps towards Turkish membership of the EU have
been taken. She did not mention other sensitive issues, such as the
Armenian genocide.

In her speech at the state dinner given by President Ahmet Sezer, the
queen said she expects much of the mutual relations between Turkey
and the Netherlands. "Today, Turkey is seen as a strong NATO ally,
which shares common values with the other countries such as respect for
fundamental freedoms, and which takes strong action against terrorism
and extremist violence."

The monarch said both Turkey and the Netherlands and Turkey and Europe
have become closer to one another in recent years. "I am of course
thinking in the first place here about the decision taken at the end
of 2004 under the Dutch presidency to start accession negotiations
between Turkey and the European Union."

The negotiations will "undoubtedly be time-consuming" and "many
obstacles" must be overcome, but "the first steps have been taken."

The queen added: "Certainly impressive are the many efforts in
innumerable areas that your country has in the last few years
undertaken to make the achievement of the goal established possible."

The queen praised the role that Turkish immigrants play in Dutch
society. "Successful young Turkish Dutch are to be found in innumerable
professions and many places in our society: entrepreneurs, students,
teachers and politicians. (…) The increasing interweaving of our
countries holds a clear promise for the future," Beatrix concluded.

Conservative (VVD) MP Hans Van Baalen, chairman of the Lower House
foreign affairs standing committee, had called on Beatrix to bring up
the Armenian question. In Turkey, its forbidden to say that hundreds
of thousands of Armenians were massacred by the Turkish regime around
1915. The queen kept silent on the question, as on other human rights
questions.

The Turkish president called the Netherlands a "friend and ally" and
praised its "straightforward and objective" position. Sezer did have
some provocative words. He said the Turks are "closely" following the
maintenance by the 400,000 Turkish people in the Netherlands of their
"social rights, their original language and their cultural identity".