Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 2 2007

Turkish minister says Turkey determined to pursue European objective

Brussels, 2 March: Turkey’s chief European Union negotiator, Ali
Babacan, renewed his country’s determination [on] Friday [2 March] to
pursue a long-desired goal to join the European club even [if] its
leaders decided last year to partially freeze Ankara’s accession
talks.

"Turkey has been willingly implementing reforms with an eye to its
people’s prosperity," he told a meeting of Brussels-based think-tank
organization, Centre for European Policy.

"There is still more to do and a long distance to travel," Turkish
State Minister Babacan said. "But we are relentlessly working and we
believe we will be ready for membership whenever the EU regains its
self-confidence."

EU leaders opted last December to partially freeze eight of 35 policy
areas or chapters in Turkey’s entry talks due to a ports dispute with
the Greek Cypriot administration.

The union further said that no chapters would be provisionally closed
unless Turkey opened up to trade with Greek Cypriots, a key European
demand, which Ankara said it would only comply if an economic embargo
on Turkish Cypriots is lifted.

Babacan said Turkey’s EU membership would have "very positive global
consequences".

"Turkish accession will mean more than the joining of an additional
member in the EU," he said.

Babacan also expressed his government’s discontent with Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code, saying that a cultural transformation and
a mentality change were needed to overcome the problem.

Article 301, which criminalizes "insult to state and Turkishness",
was used to press charges against many intellectuals in Turkey,
including country’s Nobel-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead last
January outside his newspaper offices in Istanbul, had also been
sentenced to a six-month suspended prison term under the same
article.