Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Ecevit says EU "has tricked" Turkey
by A. Kourkoulas - ANA - 15/11/2000
Posted: Thursday, November 16, 2000 06:48 pm CST

ISTANBUL, 15/11/2000

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit views that the European Union "has tricked" Turkey, promising that it would not link Turkey's EU accession with the Cyprus issue.

In an interview with the newspaper Sabah on Tuesday, Ecevit said that "they have tricked us. They had given their word that the Cyprus issue would not be linked with our accession to the EU. They had sent us a letter."

The Turkish prime minister was apparently referring to Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's letter following the EU summit in Helsinki last December. Finland held the six-month EU rotating presidency in the second half of 1999.

Ecevit said that he would consider whether to attend the EU summit in Nice.

The European Commission last Wednesday ratified its proposal to the Council of Ministers regarding the EU-Turkey partnership relationship, which is based on the EU Helsinki summit's conclusions on Greek-Turkish differences and the issue of Cyprus.

According to the document containing the EU-Turkish partnership relationship's basic principles, "a pre-accession strategy will apply for Turkey on encouraging and supporting its reforms".

"This strategy includes a strengthened political dialogue with emphasis on progress on fulfilling accession political criteria, particularly with regard to the human rights issue and issues referring to paragraph 4 (a peaceful solution to border disputes) and paragraph 9a (solving the Cyprus problem) of the Helsinki European Council's conclusions."

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