"EU pans Turkey in draft progress report, says paper
Published: Monday, 19 June, 2006, 12:01 PM Doha Time
ISTANBUL: The EU criticises 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 Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he would sooner see talks suspended than make concessions over Cyprus.
Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper cited EU sources yesterday as saying the first draft criticised 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."
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