Paris backs Nicosia (Bumps for Turky's EU bid, over Cyprus)

Greece jumped at the chance yesterday to echo criticism by the French prime minister regarding Turkey's persistent refusal to recognize Cyprus as a condition for its accession to the European Union.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis's office announced that a scheduled landmark visit to Ankara by the Greek premier later this month had been indefinitely postponed. The trip will now probably take place after Oct. 3, when Turkey's EU accession talks are due to begin, the prime minister's office said.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's comments, which were aired on Europe 1 radio, «bear exceptional weight,» Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos said.

«It seems to me inconceivable that such a negotiation process can begin with a country which does not recognize every one of the members of the European Union,» Villepin said during the broadcast.

Koumoutsakos grasped the opportunity to emphasize Greece's position, stressing that Turkey's behavior «constitutes a clear political and constitutional contradiction, a paradox that is foreign to Europe.» However, he added that Greece would continue to support Turkey's EU aspirations «as long as it develops according to the principles, rules and values of the EU.»

Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Valinakis later told state television, «The protraction (Turkey's non-recognition of Cyprus)... will cast a shadow over Turkey's accession talks and should therefore be eliminated.»

Athens will inform the EU's committee of permanent representatives of its stance regarding the launch of Turkey's EU accession talks «when the time is right,» Valinakis added.

Turkish officials reacted to Villepin's criticism by insisting that Ankara had fulfilled all requirements to begin talks and accusing the EU of reneging on commitments made to Ankara last year.

«We now expect the EU to launch accession negotiations in line with the pledge it made on December 17,» Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters in Riyadh where he was attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.

French hurdle to Turkey’s EU bid

Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat (l) and Turkey’s Chief of Staff Hilmi Ozkok in Ankara yesterday.

Villepin says Turks must recognize Cyprus before talks; Ankara retorts Paris violating its pledges

PARIS - France yesterday raised a potential new hurdle to Turkey starting European Union membership talks in October, saying Ankara must recognize Cyprus first.

The executive European Commission and EU President Britain said the 25 EU leaders had never made recognition a prerequisite for opening negotiations and that the Cyprus question should be dealt with separately in a UN framework.

A Turkish official said the call by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was an attempt to violate commitments the EU had made to Ankara last year, but he voiced confidence that President Jacques Chirac would keep his word to Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul responded cautiously to Villepin’s comments. “We expect France’s support for (Turkey’s) EU process. Turkey has fulfilled all its responsibilities,” the state Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as saying in Saudi Arabia, where he was attending the funeral of King Fahd.

Greece meanwhile upped pressure over the divided island by postponing a planned visit to Turkey by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis this month that would have been the first by a Greek premier to Ankara in more than 46 years.

Villepin called into question the agreed October 3 date for the start of Turkey’s accession talks, just days after Ankara met the final official EU condition by signing an agreement extending its customs union to new EU members, including Cyprus.

“It doesn’t seem conceivable to me that a negotiation process of whatever kind can start with a country that does not recognize every member state of the European Union, in other words, all 25 of them,” he told Europe 1 radio.

“Entering a negotiation process, whatever it is, first assumes recognition of each of the members.” Asked whether this meant that the start of talks could be delayed from Oct. 3, Villepin said, “Of course,” adding that it was “urgent to wait, to wait for Turkey to show a real willingness to enter into this negotiation process.”

Any member state can theoretically block the opening of talks, since all EU nations must approve a negotiating mandate unanimously before negotiations can begin.

However, Villepin did not go as far as to suggest Paris would veto the start of talks, saying France would determine its position after talks among EU foreign ministers in September.

Turkey signed the EU protocol last Friday but issued a declaration stipulating that the act did not signify recognition of the Greek-Cypriot government.

A spokesman for the European Commission said the EU should stick to the commitments it made last December, when all 25 EU leaders agreed to open talks with Turkey once it had brought key reforms into force and signed the protocol.

“We must now move forward and open negotiations on October 3,” the spokesman said. “The conditions set by the 25 member states, in our preliminary assessment, are fulfilled.” Signing the protocol was a step toward recognition in the Commission’s view, since it was an acknowledgement that Turkey would be negotiating with 25 states, he argued.

A British presidency official said EU leaders had never made recognition of Cyprus a condition for opening talks, recalling that Chirac had said last December that signing the protocol did not mean recognizing Cyprus. Villepin was then foreign minister.

“To set new conditions with two months to go would perhaps be seen as a breach of good faith,” the British official said.

Public opinion in France has swung strongly against Turkish accession and leading conservative presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister and leader of the ruling UMP party, insists Turkey should not be offered full membership.

Hostility to the poor, heavily populated and mostly Muslim state joining was one factor in the French referendum “no” to the EU Constitution in May.

Diplomats said the French stance, shared by Austria, could encourage Cyprus to be obdurate on the EU negotiating mandate.

Cypriot government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides welcomed Villepin’s comments as “particularly positive.”

Asked if Cyprus intended to use the French stance to achieve recognition before Turkey could begin accession talks, he told reporters in Nicosia that every effort would be made “to protect the interests of the Cyprus Republic.”

Cyprus joined the EU in May 2004 despite the failure of a UN-backed plan to reunite the island, which Turkish Cypriots backed but Greek Cypriots vetoed.

(Additional reporting by Zerin Elci in Ankara and Jean Christou in Nicosia.)

The Turkish Reply: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_500365_03/08/2005_59283

Ankara vows support for Turkish-occupied Cyprus after EU protocol signing

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey pledged yesterday to maintain political and economic support for the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot statelet after it signed a landmark accord with the European Union which granted trade privileges to the internationally recognized Greek Cypriots in the south of the island.

“Cyprus is a national cause for Turkey... Turkey will continue to support [Turkish Cyprus] in every field and stand by its Turkish-Cypriot brothers,” Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told reporters after talks here with visiting Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. “Turkey will do what it can for the economic and social development of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” he added.

Talat was visiting Ankara after Turkey’s signature on Friday of a protocol that extended an existing customs union with the EU to the 10 newest members of the bloc, including Cyprus, whose internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot government Ankara refuses to endorse.

The signing of the document was the last condition required by Turkey before it starts membership talks with the EU on October 3, as decided by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels last December.

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