Ali Babacan, Turkey's chief negotiator for the EU accession talks, said on Thursday that he did not anticipate a serious crisis with the bloc regarding the Cyprus issue.
The European Commission has given Turkey a mid-December deadline to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus in its latest progress report on Turkey released on Wednesday.
Commenting on the progress report, Babacan stated that he did not expect a bad scenario at the European leaders' summit, which is set to take place on Dec. 14-15. He also added that he did not presume the 25-member bloc to suspend accession talks with Turkey.
"The Commission will make relevant recommendations ahead of the European Council meeting to be held in December if Turkey has not fulfilled its obligations," the report said, adding that the failure to implement its obligations in full will affect the overall progress in the accession talks.
In July 2005, Turkey signed the additional protocol of customs union, which extended the agreement to the 10 new EU members, including Greek Cyprus. However, the Turkish parliament has not ratified it yet. Currently, Turkey does not officially recognize EU-member Greek Cyprus and hence, does not allow Greek Cypriot traffic to enter Turkish ports.
Babacan also remarked that a settlement to the Cyprus problem should be set up under the auspices of the United Nations.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlined the right after the progress report was released that his country would not open its ports to Greek Cyprus until the sanctions imposed on Turkish Cypriots were lifted.
Source: Zaman
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