The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
September 28, 2006 Thursday
Turkey must face up to past, says EU
David Rennie in Strasbourg
THE European Parliament voted yesterday to tell Turkey it must "face
up to its past”, in the context of the alleged genocide of Armenians
during the First World War, if it wanted EU membership.
MEPs meeting in Strasbourg also agreed to warn Ankara that talks on
EU membership could be frozen unless it opens its ports to Cypriot
ships.
Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed in a campaign by Ottoman Turks. Turkey disputes the figure by
1.2 million, and says a combination of war, disease, famine and
ethnic conflict were responsible.
The report "stresses that although the recognition of the Armenian
genocide as such is formally not one of the Copenhagen criteria
[setting out conditions for EU membership] it is indispensable for a
country on the road to membership to come to terms with and recognise
its past”.
"Lack of progress” on Turkey opening its ports would have "serious
implications concerning the negotiation process and could even stop
it,” the report said.
The report’s author, Camiel Eurlings, a centre-Right Dutch MEP, said
the Turkish government was heading "toward a cliff”.
The report was immediately rejected by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
Turkish prime minister, who said it was "unacceptable” for any extra
conditions to be attached to Turkey’s EU entry.
"You cannot change the rules halfway through the match,” Mr Erdogan
said. "The game has started and the rules are there.”
Earlier this week there was an angry reaction in Turkey to comments
from José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, saying
that further enlargement of the EU should wait until member states
agreed to revive major changes to the internal power structures of
the EU, originally contained in the now defunct EU constitution.
From: Baghdasarian