EU: The EU warned Turkey to open its ports to Cypriot ships and to safeguard freedom of expression to avoid the suspension of membership talks with the Union.
On the first anniversary of the start of Turkey's negotiations to join the EU, enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said the pace of reforms had slowed in the past year. He also cited the "chilling effect" of a slew of court rulings limiting free speech and called for new legal reforms.
"There have been altogether 70 cases against journalists, authors, publishers and citizen activists for supposedly 'insulting Turkishness', but in reality expressing non-violent opinions," said Mr Rehn. He said the EU had pointed out the loophole that allows the prosecutions when the new Turkish penal code was being prepared.
"Freedom of expression . . . is a cornerstone of our common democratic values. I cannot even imagine a member state in the EU that would not respect such a fundamental European principle as the freedom of expression."
Mr Rehn, who is in Ankara for a two-day visit, also urged Turkey to comply with the Ankara Protocol, a condition attached to its EU membership talks that forces it to remove the obstacles to the free movement of goods to the divided island of Cyprus.
Turkey refuses to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus. On a visit to Brussels yesterday, Turkey's deputy prime minister Abdullatif Sener said the issue could not be solved unless an EU economic embargo against Turkish Cyprus was lifted. He said the Greek side should be pushed to take steps to resolve this issue.
Brussels has so far refused to link the two issues, although a draft plan being drawn up by the Finnish presidency of the EU could see this occur for the first time. The plan would open a limited amount of ports to Cypriot traffic if one port run jointly by Greek and Turkish Cypriots were opened to end the embargo of Turkish Cyprus.
The plan, which has not been formally backed by either side, is being devised to try to avert the complete breakdown of Turkey's membership talks next month when the commission publishes its report on Turkey.
In his speech in Ankara, Mr Rehn reiterated the benefits that Turkey's membership of the EU would bring to the union, including bringing stability and security to one of the most unstable regions in the world.
- A Turkish hijacker seeking to communicate with Pope Benedict seized an airliner flying from Albania to Istanbul yesterday and diverted it to Italy before surrendering. All 107 passengers and six crew left the Turkish Airlines plane at Brindisi airport after brief negotiations. Italy's aviation authority ENAC said: "At the moment one person has given himself up. We are trying to verify whether there was a second hijacker on the aircraft."