"EU Demands Turkey Change Law Limiting Free Expression -2-
Thursday September 21st, 2006 / 13h25
E.U.-Turkey relations are strained and Ankara's membership talks with Brussels could come unraveled. These talks started last year after 40 years of waiting.
The immediate cause of the stalemate is Turkey's reluctance to meet a commitment to open its ports and airports to ships and planes from Cyprus - an E.U. member since 2004 - unless the E.U. also ends the isolation of ports in Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus, an entity the E.U. doesn't recognize.
Persecution of writers is another key issue separating the two sides. Turkish authorities have put a string of Turkish writers and journalists on trial for expressing opinions, despite calls from the E.U. to scrap the law that penalizes insulting the Turkish Republic, its officials, or 'Turkishness'. "
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