Ankara will not suspend its candidacy for European Union membership despite its fury over what it sees as EU attempts to impede Turkey's accession process, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Wednesday. "Turkey will not suspend its candidacy by itself or give up its goal for EU membership. If there are people who hope for this, they should not dream in vain," Ecevit told his deputies in parliament, according to Anatolia news agency.
Ecevit, however, said that Turkey's reaction "will not be only in words" if the EU ties its accession to the settlement of the long-standing division of Cyprus and territorial disputes with Greece. He did not elaborate on what specific steps Turkey could take.
Ecevit threatened Saturday to "revise" ties with the EU if Ankara's demands are not taken into account in the outline of a so-called accession partnership program, a calendar of reforms that Turkey should activate on its road to membership. The program, penned by the European Commission, was announced on November 8.
Ankara welcomed demands for far-reaching economic and political reforms in the program, but rejected an article urging Turkey to back UN efforts to settle the Cyprus conflict as a short-term objective. Ankara's ire grew following reports that the resolution of its territorial disputes with its archrival, EU member Greece, will be added to the document as a political criterion for Turkey's accession under pressure from Athens.
The EU foreign ministers, who met in Brussels on Monday, postponed the adoption of the accession partnership program to December. Ecevit welcomed the postponement as a sign that the EU had begun to understand Turkey's reactions.
"Both issues in question are of vital importance for Turkey and there are concessions that we will never make over them," Ecevit said. "The way to settlement does not go through bowing to Greece's caprices, but through encouraging Greece to engage in a civilized dialogue with Turkey," he added. Ecevit reiterated that the EU had "deceived" Turkey by including a reference to Cyprus in the program.
Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said Tuesday the Cyprus issue and disputes with Greece were outlined not as political criteria, but as a part of the political dialogue between Turkey and the EU called for in the final declaration of the December 1999 EU summit in Helsinki, when Turkey's candidacy was declared.
Ankara says the resolution of these problems is not up to Turkey unilaterally and argues that their formulation as conditions for Turkey's entry into the EU could encourage intransigence on the part of Greece and Greek Cyprus, a first-wave EU candidate. — (AFP, Ankara)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
