"Turkey smooths path to EU by extending treaty to new members
By Vincent Boland in Ankara
Published: March 31 2005 03:00 | Last updated: March 31 2005 03:00
Turkey has overcome the biggest obstacle to opening accession talks with the European Union by agreeing this week to extend its existing treaty with the EU to the 10 states - including Cyprus - that joined the union last year.
The Turkish government sent a letter to the European Commission on Tuesday indicating that it agreed to the text of a protocol to its association agreement with the EU to cover the 10 new members.
However, Turkey insisted that this did not grant formal recognition to the Greek Cypriot government in the Republic of Cyprus."
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