New EU commissioner presses Turkey on Cyprus

Mar 15, 2010, 16:20 GMT

Istanbul - The European Union's new enlargement commissioner Monday called on Ankara to normalize its relations with Greek Cyprus during his first official visit to EU-candidate Turkey.

Commissioner Stefan Fule also reaffirmed Brussels' commitment to seeing Turkey become a member of the bloc and praised Ankara's efforts at achieving 'zero problems' with its neighbors, especially Armenia.

'I've confirmed my commitment to the accession process and to seeing Turkey become a member of the EU,' Fule told reporters during a joint conference in Ankara with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Davutoglu also affirmed Turkey's continuing commitment to joining the EU. 'Turkey's membership is an opportunity for the EU and EU membership is an extremely important strategical and essential target for Turkey,' Davutoglu said

The Cyprus issue remains a significant stumbling block for Turkey's membership process. Under the terms of a treaty signed with Brussels, Ankara must open up its ports to Greek Cypriot trade.

But Turkey has refused to do that until it sees progress on ending the political and economic isolation of the breakaway Turkish republic on the divided island's northern part.

Several chapters in Turkey's EU negotiations process have been frozen because of the ports dispute.

'I had the opportunity to underline the importance the EU attaches to the need for Turkey to fully implement the additional protocol and normalize its relations with Cyprus,' Fule said.

'We agree that a comprehensive settlement on Cyprus would be a historic breakthrough to the benefit of both Turkey and the EU,' the commissioner said.

Fule also expressed his support for Turkey's effort to reconcile with neighbor Armenia.

The two countries signed a set of protocols last October that would lead to the opening of their borders and the renewal of diplomatic relations, but the agreement has yet to be ratified by either Turkey or Armenia.

Ankara has warned that the reconciliation effort could be further hurt by efforts to brand the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as a 'genocide,' something Turkey rejects.

The Swedish parliament and a US House of Representatives committee both recently passed such resolutions, leading Ankara to recall its ambassadors to those countries.

'I fully support the hard work of Turkey and Armenia turning a historic page and normalizing relations,' Fule said.

'As someone who is coming from former Czechoslovakia, from the Czech Republic, I know that politicising history makes reconciliation difficult,' he said.

Along with Davutoglu, the commissioner met on Monday with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egemen Bagis, Turkey's chief EU negotiator.

Fule is also scheduled to meet with business and civil society leaders in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Turkey has been an official EU candidate country since 1999. The sometimes troubled accession negotiations with Brussels started in 2005.