Turkey's far-right and army are concerned that the country's prospective membership in the European Union might break up the country, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz was quoted as saying on Thursday.
"Certain circles have reservations about joining the EU because they fear that it might divide the country," Yilmaz told a group of journalists during a dinner, the mass-circulation Hurriyet reported.
Yilmaz, who holds the EU portfolio, was widely interpreted by journalists present at the dinner to be referring to the powerful army and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), a member of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's three-member coalition.
The deputy prime minister added that he did not share this view and underlined the need to allay the concerns in order for Ankara to start accession negotiations by 2003, the mass-circulation Sabah said.
"We have to make them understand what will become of Turkey and its visions for the future if its stays out of the EU," Yilmaz said.
He added that Turkey was obliged to abide by EU criteria for membership as Ankara itself had applied to become a member and was not being pressed by the union to join the bloc.
"Turkey's acceptance of Europe's criteria will not lead to a division of the country. None of the EU-member states suffered a break-up after joining the Union," Yilmaz was quoted as saying.
Since the declaration of its candidacy for EU membership in December, Ankara is obliged to carry out far-reaching democratization reforms to fulfill EU criteria for accession.
Among them are abolishing the death penalty, improving the human rights situation and respect for freedom of expression, especially for Kurds in the southeast of the country. Reforms would also have to lessen the army's heavy influence on domestic politics.
However, Ankara has achieved very little progress in the nine months since being granted candidate status.
One of the thorniest issues for Turkey is giving the Kurdish population the right to educate and broadcast in their own language.
The army and the MHP fear such a move would be seen as taking a step closer to granting Kurdish demands for autonomy in southeast Anatolia, the scene of 15-year Kurdish insurgency.
A relative calm has been restored in the impoverished region since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced a year ago that it was ending its armed campaign against Ankara and would seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
But tight security measures remain in place and there have been occasional clashes between the army and bands of Kurdish guerrillas - ANKARA (AFP)
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