TURKEY: Bid for EU membership may be withdrawn

02 January 1998
NEWS

The government has threatened to withdraw its bid to join the EU if it is not included in a list of countries eligible to join in the near future. The EU announced on 13 December that it was inviting six countries from Central and Eastern Europe, including Cyprus, to start membership talks early in 1998, with another five countries asked to join the talks later. Turkey was not included in either group.

In response, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz froze relations with the EU, though not with individual member states, and said on

17 December that Turkey would give up its membership bid in June if there was no change in the EU's position. The EU says Turkey must mend fences with Greece, help to patch up the division of Cyprus and curb human rights abuses by the states before it can be allowed to join. Turkish politicians say they are being discriminated against by a 'Christian club' of countries. Turkey first applied to join in 1963.

Ministers also threatened to impose an informal blacklist of EU goods and contractors. If carried out, this would be unlikely to affect the private sector but could cut EU companies out of the bidding for government contracts, analysts say. The exclusion has had a mixed reaction in the Turkish press, with some attacking the EU and others treating it as a signal to the government to put its house in order. Analysts say the EU's move has played into the hands of the Islamist Refah party.

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