TURKEY/EU: Turkey's hopes of acceding to the EU have suffered a fresh blow with a demand by the European Parliament that it first recognises as genocide the killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule almost a century ago.
Turkey, which vehemently denies there was genocide, claims Armenians who rebelled at the end of the Ottoman Empire sided with Russian invaders and were killed along with Turks in intercommunal fighting.
MEPs here also postponed a vote on approving Turkey's extended customs union with the EU because of Ankara's failure to recognise Cyprus, as well as expressing concerns about human rights issues in the country. While the EU Commission had called for ratification of the Ankara Protocol, members voted by 311 to 285 to postpone the ballot.
Although parliament endorsed the start of negotiations with Turkey on joining the EU next week, it called on the Commission to assess by the end of next year whether Turkey has fully implemented the protocol extending its customs union with the EU to the 10 new accession states.
During the negotiations, which are open-ended and will not automatically lead to Turkish membership, Turkey should be kept under "permanent pressure" to ensure it keeps up the pace of reform, MEPs resolved. The talks are expected to take at least a decade.
MEPs also expressed concern about the criminal proceedings against novelist Orhan Pamuk and an article of the Turkish penal code which criminalises "acts against the fundamental national interest". The vote followed an emotional debate in which many deputies, especially on the right, poured out their hostility to the prospect of the poor, populous, mainly Muslim nation joining the 25-nation EU. No Irish MEPs spoke.