Turkey's demands to fix terms for EU membership aroused perplexityApril 17, 2007 - 17:15 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Recep Erdogan's demand to fix concrete terms for accepting Turkey in the European Union has aroused perplexity in Brussels: on a number of issues the sides have not began negotiations up till now. During the last weekend during his visit to Germany Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded from EU more concrete perspectives for his country's membership to the Union. Particularly he offered German Chancellor Angela Merkel to work out a "road map" and fix a date for Turkey's accession to the EU. Angela Merkel did not react to this demand anyhow. Instead the European Commission and European Parliament expressed a rather simple reaction. "No candidates for EU membership will be given exact dates for accession to the Union," a representative of the European Commission stated. Still in December of 2006 heads of EU member-states adopted a decision, according to which henceforth the concrete date for membership will be discussed only during the final stage of talks. In the case with Turkey negotiations are only in the initial stage, and still not on all subjects. The main obstacle remains the same, the "Cyprus issue": the sides blame each other for blockading the negotiation process. Head of Liberal faction Graham Watson advised Ankara to "keep calm" and stop pressing on German government, which holds EU presidency till the end of June 2007. According to Watson, currently it is necessary to first of all concentrate on continuation of negotiations, Deutsche Welle reports. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Turkey condemns Uruguay’s recognition of Armenian Genocide Turkey has condemned a newly passed law in Uruguay that recognizes the Armenian Genocide, TRT reports. Moscow says ready to support Yerevan-Baku reconciliation Moscow has confirmed its readiness to support the reconciliation of Yerevan and Baku. Yerevan sends amended draft peace treaty back to Baku According to Ani Badalyan, the 9th edition of the amendment has been sent to Baku. IDBank, Dalma team up for Caucasian Deer Reintroduction Program IDBank has joined Dalma Garden Mall’s Green Challenge to support the Caucasian red deer reintroduction project. |