ANKARA, 15 September 2005 — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the European Union of “rude” diplomatic conduct for placing new conditions on its bid to become a member of the EU, the Anatolia news agency said yesterday. Formal talks on Turkey’s entry were scheduled to start on Oct. 3, but this date has been put in doubt by a Turkish government refusal on July 29 to recognize EU member Cyprus.
Both Britain and France have agreed that Turkey must recognize Cyprus before joining the bloc and Cyprus itself warned that it might prevent accession talks beginning unless the problem is resolved before Oct. 3. Erdogan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, according to Anatolia, that his government was working “day and night” to fulfill the so-called Copenhagen political criteria for talks to begin.
“And now, after everything we have done, they are still asking whether accession talks should begin or not,” he said. “To raise certain questions that have no pertinence is not worthy of international diplomatic ethics. It is rude.” Erdogan’s outburst came as EU ambassadors were meeting in Brussels to seek a common response to Turkey’s statement of July 29, which stressed that although Ankara recognized Cyprus as part of a 25-nation customs union, this did not amount to formal diplomatic recognition.
Ankara argues that although it invaded the island in 1974 to protect the Turkish population following a pro-Greek coup, it is not responsible for the continuing division of Cyprus. It supported a UN plan to unite the southern Greek-speaking half of the island with the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. But this was rejected by the south in a referendum, while the Turkish speakers accepted it.
Erdogan said the EU had assumed a heavy responsibility for accepting Cyprus as a member last year despite the massive rejection of the UN reunification plan.
As for Turkey, he added, “we have done everything” toward obtaining a solution. He told the EU, “You can’t make us pay anything. That’s finished. Turkey will start negotiations on Oct. 3 and will start walking down the road to rejoin the European family.”
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday Turkey will sign a protocol to a United Nations treaty on the prevention of torture during the UN summit in New York this week. The Foreign Ministry said the signing of the Optional Protocol to the December 2002 UN Convention Against Torture would mark a further step in Ankara’s policy of “zero tolerance to torture and ill treatment.”
The document, which allows for surprise inspection visits to police stations and prisons and foresees inspectors recommending measures to prevent torture, will take effect once it is ratified by 20 countries. Only 11 countries have so far endorsed the protocol, strongly opposed by the United States, which is under criticism for its treatment of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
In another development, firefighters have brought under control a blaze that destroyed 200 hectares of forest in the southwestern Turkey province of Mugla, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
