PM pledges reforms

Turkish foreign minister chides France over EU membership stance

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walks to welcome his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa, not pictured, in Ankara, Turkey, yesterday.

ANKARA (Combined reports) – Turkey’s prime minister promised yesterday that his government will institute more reforms to move forward the country’s bid for membership in the European Union.

“We are determined to continue the reform process,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a joint news conference with visiting Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa. “There is no relaxation on this issue.”

Jansa, whose country will assume the six-month presidency of the 27-nation Union in January, promised to help Turkey in its efforts. But he warned that the path to membership was full of “hardships.” The European Union’s executive office said Tuesday it wants to move ahead with membership negotiations with Turkey next month despite reservations from France and other EU nations.

Olli Rehn, the EU official in charge of the bloc’s expansion, said the talks would progress into two new policy areas – health and consumer policies and transport – on December 18. Talks in several other areas remain frozen by the EU because of Ankara’s difficult relations with Cyprus, an EU member.

However, other EU nations – some of which oppose Turkish membership – will have to agree to move the talks forward.

“France’s attitude to Turkey’s EU process saddens us. It negatively affects our people’s wishes regarding the EU,” Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a gathering attended by visiting members of the European Parliament.

“We hope the European Union process will continue as promised... and that the EU will observe the principle that agreements are binding. There can be no doubt Turkey will carry out its reforms, not to win EU approval but for their own sake.”

Babacan reviewed Turkey’s reform progress during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday.

The top-selling Hurriyet daily quoted Babacan yesterday as saying Turkey planned “speedy and surprising reforms” once parliament has approved the 2008 budget. But he gave no further details. (AP, Reuters)

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul praised Iraqi Kurds yesterday for taking steps against Kurdish rebels based in their autonomous region but warned it retained the option of a military strike, the Anatolia news agency reported.

“We see that common sense has started to slowly prevail in northern Iraq,” Gul was quoted as telling reporters in Tbilisi ahead of a ceremony to lay the foundation of a railway linking Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“(Iraqi Kurds) are aware of the cost of failing to show the courage to stand against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party rebels).” Accusing Iraqi Kurds of aiding the PKK, Turkey has threatened to carry out a cross-border operation into northern Iraq to strike at PKK rebels using the region as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets.

The Baghdad government and the regional Kurdish government in the north of the country have subsequently agreed to step up measures to curb the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community.

Earlier this month, US President George W. Bush pledged to provide Turkey with real-time intelligence on the PKK, in a move largely seen as tacit US approval for limited cross-border Turkish strikes.

“We have to show our determination for an armed struggle against terrorism. The terrorist organization should know that if it insists on weapons, it will get a response with weapons,” Gul said.

His comments coincided with a warning by a top PKK commander that the group would create chaos in northern Iraq if the United States and the Iraqi Kurds help Turkey against the rebels.

“If we want we can create instability and place their interests in danger,” Cemil Bayik told the Firat news agency, considered a PKK mouthpiece.

“Our position... is clear: We will resist. We will never surrender,” he added.