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EU unblocks Turkey talks with Cyprus breakthrough
12-17-2004, 19h31




- (AFP/HO-EU)
BRUSSELS (AFP) - After a day of frantic haggling, European Union leaders struck a hard-fought deal securing Turkish promises on the divided island of Cyprus in return for Ankara winning the historic prize of a start to EU entry talks.

"If I think back on today and the decisions that have been taken, we have been writing history," Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose nation holds the EU presidency, told reporters at the close of a two-day summit.

"Turkey has accepted the hand we offered them today," he said. "Turkey has taken its European destiny in its own hands."

The accession talks will begin on October 3 next year, and last at least a decade. But, if successful, they would see the EU's sphere of power extend from the Atlantic shores of Ireland to deep into the Middle East.

It would also see Turkey, already a NATO ally, become the first predominantly Muslim nation in the European family, and take the EU's frontiers to Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Nevertheless, the accession talks will come with a series of tough conditions, including one -- that Turkey finally recognize the Greek Cypriot government -- that had threatened to derail the Brussels summit.

EU leaders warned Ankara that it could hardly realize its 40-year dream of joining the European fold if it failed to recognize Cyprus, which joined the bloc in May but remains split 30 years after Turkey invaded its northern part.

After a frantic series of closed-door talks involving Balkenende, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other key EU leaders, the accord was finally struck.

"We did not obtain all that we wanted 100 percent", Erdogan told a news conference, "but we can say that it was a success."

"We have reached a point where Turkey is rewarded for 41 years of efforts," he said, referring to the first association agreement signed between Turkey and the EU's predecessor, the European Economic Community, in 1963.

Erdogan said he was pleased that one of his favored projects -- a "reconciliation of civilizations between Christianity and Islam" -- now rested on a "concrete base".

For their part, all 25 EU leaders, including the president of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, broke out in applause after endorsing the deal.

"It shows that those who believe that there is some fundamental clash of civilisations between Christians and Muslims are actually wrong, that we can work together," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch backer of Turkey's EU aspirations.

While Turkey was the dominant topic at the EU's quarterly summit, there was good news for a trio of Balkan EU hopefuls as well.

Bulgaria and Romania, whose foot-dragging on post-communist reforms made them miss the last round of EU enlargement in May this year, were told they'd be invited to sign accession treaties in April next year.

That would finalise their membership from January 2007.

Croatia won the chance to start accession talks, in March next year, but on the strict condition that it fully cooperates with the UN war crimes tribunal that wants to try a fugitive Croat general for crimes against Serbs during the 1991-95 breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Friday's breakthrough followed intense haggling centred on the Ankara Agreement, the accord which Turkey signed back in 1963 with what was then the European common market.

The EU wanted Ankara to immediately sign a protocol to update the agreement to cover the 10 newest EU member states, but for many that would imply de facto resignation of Cyprus -- something Turkey does not want to do yet.

The precondition met with a frosty response from the Turkish camp, until the draft agreement was reworded to allow Ankara to pledge that it will extend the protocol some time before the accession talks begin.

Erdogan, anticipating criticism back home, was adament at the end of the day that extending the protocol "is absolutely not a recognition" of the predominantly Greek Cypriot state.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkish troops invaded its northern part in 1974 to stave off a bid to unite the island with Greece. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised by no one except Ankara.