ISTANBUL, 19 June 2006 — The EU criticizes the Turkish military’s role in politics, a lack of reform and minority rights and relations with Cyprus in the draft of a progress report due later this year, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The European Union is due to publish a progress report on Ankara’s entry bid in October or November, a year after the start of negotiations, which turned frosty on Friday when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would sooner see talks suspended than make concessions over Cyprus.
Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper cited EU sources yesterday as saying the first draft criticized Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to Cyprus, as the EU demands, before the bloc lifts trade restrictions on Turkish Cypriots in breakaway northern Cyprus.
The paper said the draft also notes a slowdown in political reform, the military’s continuing influence over political institutions and calls for more work for judicial independence and rights for women and minorities.
It says conditions in the poor, mainly Kurdish southeast, where security forces are fighting separatist guerrillas, have deteriorated and criticizes relations with traditional enemies and neighbors Greece and Armenia.
The European Commission’s enlargement spokeswoman, Krisztina Nagy, said the report was still a long way off. “I don’t think a consolidated draft report exists at this stage. In any case it is much too early to speculate on its content,” she said.
Meanwhile, three rebels from the separatist Kurdish group PKK were killed yesterday in fighting with the Turkish Army and a freight train was bombed overnight by suspected members of the group.
The militants were shot dead in the countryside in Tunceli province, where an army operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was continuing.
