EU ENLARGEMENT CHIEF URGES TURKEY TO MOVE ON CYPRUS, REFORMS

Agence France Presse
March 15, 2010 Monday 3:18 PM GMT

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule urged Turkey on Monday to open
its ports to Cyprus and push ahead with reforms at home to boost its
limping membership talks with the bloc.

"I had the opportunity to underline the importance the European Union
attaches to the need for Turkey to fully implement the additional
protocol… and normalise its relations with Cyprus," Fule told
reporters after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkey has refused to implement the protocol to open its air and
sea ports to Cyprus, an EU member state, until the EU moves on its
pledge to ease the international isolation of the island’s breakaway
Turkish-held north.

Ankara also refuses to acknowledge the internationally recognised
Greek Cypriot government until the island’s division is resolved.

Turkey’s stance prompted the EU in 2006 to freeze Ankara’s accession
talks in eight of the 35 policy areas, known as chapters, which
candidate countries must successfully negotiate prior to membership.

Fule underlined that the problem would ease if peace talks between
Greek and Turkish Cypriots since September 2008 led to a solution.

"We agree that a comprehensive settlement on Cyprus would be a historic
breakthrough to the benefit of both Turkey and the EU," he said.

Davutoglu said his country’s membership talks should not be
overshadowed by "political problems that have no direct link to the
EU process, such as Cyprus".

Underlining his commitment to see Turkey as an EU member, Fule also
called on Ankara to press on with reforms in order to ease its entry
into the bloc.

"We are in full agreement on what remains to be done and the challenges
ahead," he said.

Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis said Ankara would acelerate
the reform process, adding that the cabinet was would on Monday
discuss an action plan on the steps to be taken in 2010-2011.

Fule also voiced support to reconciliation efforts between Turkey
and Armenia to overcome a century of hostility over allegations of
an Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

The two neighbours signed a historic deal in October to establish
diplomatic ties and open their border, but the process has stalled
amid mutual accusations of trying to modify the deal.

Turkey has been further angered by votes first in a US congressional
panel and then in the Swedish parliament branding the killings as
"genocide" — a term Ankara categorically rejects.

"As someone who is coming from former Czechoslovakia, from the
Czech Republic, I know that politicising your history is making
reconciliation difficult," Fule said.

Turkey began EU membership talks in 2005, but has so far opened
negotiations in only 12 policy chapters.

Besides the row on Cyprus, Turkey’s bid has been slowed down by
Ankara’s sluggish pace of reform as well as opposition from some
EU-member states to allow such a large and largely Muslim nation into
the bloc.