More proof, if indeed more proof were needed, that Turkey DOES NOT BELONG IN THE EUROPEAN UNION!
HÜRRIYET: ANKARA – A long-lasting row between Turkey and the European Union over Cyprus’ participation in NATO-led operations is deepening, as Ankara refused Brussels’ fresh proposals to overcome the deadlock through informal methods.
“Turkey refused all proposed informal arrangements (to solve the problem). We are at a dead end,” Gérard Araud, the political director of the French Foreign Ministry presiding over the EU-term presidency, told a small group of journalists here yesterday.
The problem is stemming from efforts to develop cooperation between NATO and the EU, as the two organizations are composed of almost all the same countries.
Turkey, a NATO member who wants to join the EU, is not against cooperation in principle, but objects to the participation of its regional rival, Cyprus, in the process. As a matter of fact, Cyprus and Greece blocked Turkey’s participation in the European Defense Agency, or EDA, which makes the current situation more complex.
An agreement called Berlin Plus was reached in the early 2000s, but full membership of Cyprus to the EU before finalizing the comprehensive settlement left it futile. According to Araud, both the French presidency and the EU spent a good amount of energy to solve the problem. At the beginning, a step-by-step approach was proposed that did not produce a change to Turkey’s objections. >>> | November 7, 2008
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