Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
June 12 2008

TURKISH MPS, DUTCH MINISTER DISCUSS EU MEMBERSHIP, CYPRUS, ARMENIA

Ankara, 12 June: Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin met
members of Turkish parliament’s EU adjustment and justice committees
in Ankara on Thursday [12 June].

EU adjustment committee’s Chairman Yasar Yakis said during the meeting
that the support, which the Netherlands extended to Turkey’s EU
membership process, increased when compared to previous years.

Yakis also expressed Turkey’s views regarding Cyprus and Armenian
issues. He recalled European Council’s decision to lift pressures on
the [self-declared] Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in 2004
and said that this decision bound Greek Cypriot administration,
too. Yakis said that the Netherlands should put pressure on Greek
Cypriot administration to apply the decision.

Yakis said that Turkey was against qualifying 1915 incidents as
genocide. He asked the Netherlands to make Armenia accept Turkey’s
conciliatory proposal about the issue.

Justice committee Acting Chairman Hakki Koylu also said that although
PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and DHKP-C [Revolutionary People’s
Liberation Party – Front] were accepted as terrorist organizations in
the EU, Turkey’s judicial demands against those organizations were not
met by several EU countries and other countries.

Ballin expressed pleasure over contribution of Turkish citizens to the
Netherlands in economy and culture.

Ballin said that the Netherlands supported direct trade between the EU
and TRNC, adding that direct trade between Armenia and Turkey should
be made, too.