EU retreats its support to the AKP, Turkey calls for more chapters

"I just want to underline that the EU cannot be indifferent since Turkey is a candidate country," the EU's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in Ankara when asked about the case to close down the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).    Â

"From the point of view of the EU, we want to see Turkey soon overcome this crisis and the best medicine to the current crisis is to indeed launch the reform process in full," Rehn told in the news conference after the Troika meeting.Â

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said the 27-member bloc was "concerned" by the case against the AKP and stressed that 2008 would be a crucial year for Turkey's troubled accession process. "This year is a decisive year for the reform process, which should not be lost," he said.

Turkey's top prosecutor filed in March a closure case against the AKP, claiming the ruling party became the focal point of anti-secular activities and demanded 71 officials to be banned from politics. The EU has criticized the move and threatened to suspend negotiations if the AKP is closed.

French Secretary for EU Affairs Jean Pierre Jouyet said his country would be impartial and objective towards Turkey when it assumed the EU presidency in July.

The EU is expected to start talks on two more chapters in the accession negotiations with Turkey, diplomatic sources told the Anatolian Agency. The chapters on intellectual property law and company law are expected to open at an EU accession conference scheduled for June 17, the sources said.

Sources also cited Jouyet as telling Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan during the meeting that the French term presidency would continue to open other policy areas in the Turkish membership talks.

Babacan said Turkey will continue to carry out reforms and it is important to open negotiations in the chapters that are technically ready. "In the first Troika ministers meeting of 2008 we gave comprehensive information on the reforms we made. I would like to say we are going to take the necessary steps to adopt the EU acquis," he said.

The AKP has set to give a new impetus to EU reforms, which had stalled in recent years, after the closure case was filed against it in the Constitutional Court. Last week, the Turkish parliament had amended the controversial Article 301 of the Penal Code, a move welcomed by Brussels.

 

MAY DAY EVENTS
The EU broke its silence on the inappropriate use of force by Turkish police during May Day celebrations. The EU, usually sensitive to Turkish politics, had remained silent on the security forces’ inappropriate use of force against the unions who wanted to celebrate May Day in Istanbul's Taksim Square last week.

Rehn accused Turkish police on Tuesday of using excessive force against protesters during an outlawed May Day rally and called on the authorities to investigate the events. "We in the Commission deplore the disproportionate use of force on the 1st of May," Rehn said, adding that the Commission expected the events to be investigated.

"We reiterate our call for the Turkish authorities to act within the European law and the practice to respect trade union rights in line with EU standards," he told in the news conference.

The Turkish government, who rejected the unions’ demands to celebrate May Day in Taksim, has been under fire for the events resulting from the extraordinary security measures taken. Observers say the Turkish government rejected calls to remove the ban fearing that the May Day celebrations would turn into a huge anti-government rally.