Brussels, 23/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has strongly criticised the attitude of the Turkish authorities that banned a university conference at the last minute on Thursday. The conference was to be held on Friday, in Turkey, on the massacre of the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire (see other article). “We greatly regret this new attempt to prevent the Turkish society from having a debate on its history. We also consider that the time of this decision, just one day before the scheduled conference time, looks like further provocation” just a few days before accession talks open with the EU, on 3 October, said the spokesperson for the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn. The spokesperson pointed out that this decision, taken by an administrative court in Istanbul, was to be taken into account in the regular report that the European Commission will be publishing on 9 November. “We think that (this decision) illustrates the difficulties experienced by Turkey and in particular by its judiciary system to ensure real and constant implementation of reforms”, she said. The Commission nonetheless notes the fact that the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also criticised the court's judgement. “In a democratic country, it is not possible for me to approve such a decision being taken against an organisation wishing to express its opinion”, he said, according to a report by the Anatolie agency. On 13 September this year, Commissioner Olli Rehn had already spoken of “provocation” on the part of the Turkish judiciary authorities that designated 16 December 2005 (the day of the anniversary of the European Council 's decision to open negotiations with Turkey) as the date for opening the trial against Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk who, in a Swiss newspaper, had asserted that one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds had lost their lives in the last years of the Ottoman Empire (EUROPE 9026, pages 4/5).