Brussels, 20/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the meeting of the EU/Turkey Joint Parliament Committee, on 17 and 18 June in Brussels, Turkish Minister of State Sükrü Sina Gürel affirmed that the position to be adopted by the EU at Seville towards Turkey's EU membership could "accelerate or slow down our accession process". He stressed that the positive environment created by Helsinki and the conclusions of the Laeken Summit "were helpful to our efforts", although "adverse and sometimes discriminatory attitudes proved to be impediments to change" (that is, reforms in Turkey). The minister spoke of reforms undertaken during the last few months in his country (amendment of "almost one fifth of the Constitution", entry into force of a new Civil Code in January, and legislative packages on freedom of expression in particular). He also recalled that the government "is currently working on the possibility of extending further individual cultural rights", is examining the possibility of abolishing the death penalty completely (we recall that it has not been enforced for the past few years), and may lift the emergency rule in Hakkai and in Tunceli in August.
Furthermore, the minister stressed that "Turkey has gone the extra mile to avoid a potential rift between NATO and the EU (over an agreement allowing the Union to use NATO assets and capabilities for EU-led operations) by giving its consent to the Ankara text almost six months ago". "Unfortunately", he states, "the EU has not been able to make any progress on this issue until now".
Finally, on the question of Cyprus, the minister affirms that any plan for settlement of the problem in the island that does not take into account the "existing realities in the island" is doomed to failure, and that "President Denktash has adopted a sincere and constructive effort to find a way out". He goes on to "underline once again that the unilateral accession process of the Greek Cypriots provided by the EU is in defiance of the international treaties and therefore illegitimate". The minister reproaches the EU for having "since the beginning of the 1990s", begun to "create a very false tie between Turkey's bilateral problems with an EU member and the developments of Turkish-EU relations", and that, if it "goes ahead in the same wrong way" and takes in "the so-called Cyprus Republic", the Union will note that this would make the division of the island permanent by "putting a European Union stamp on it". He concludes saying: "the issue of solution funding in Cyprus cannot be considered as a precondition for the Turkish accession process", and the EU must give Turkey "a clear perspective" for accession which can only be obtained by deciding "a definite timetable for the full membership negotiations".