04/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - German members of the EPP-ED group of the European Parliament have repeated their concern at developments in Turkey. Alexander Langen (CDU) has criticised the “interventionist vagueness” of Turkey in Iraq, adding that if the government “follows through on its verbal threats against the Northern Iraqi Kurds, this will be reason enough to call a halt to any talk of opening accession negotiations”. Further to a visit by a delegation of the committee on women's rights to Turkey, Angelika Niebler (CSU) repeated: gender equality cannot become reality “by decree”, and the gap between the reforms of the Erdogan government and the reality for Turkish women is still a large one.