The foreign policy Turkey has initiated in the region does not abate the need for reforms, a European official said.

"The heart of EU accession is not strategy, but democracy," said Joost Lagendijk, the head of the Turkish-European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Lagendijk said the European Parliament's forthcoming report on Turkey would praise positive developments in Turkish-Armenian relations and the Turkish President's landmark visit to Armenia in September.

French ambassador to Ankara Bernard Emie, whose country is currently holding the term presidency of the EU, gave a reception on the occasion of the visit of members of the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee and the foreign affairs committee.

Helen Flautre, head of the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee, expressed curiosity about the content of the report drafted by the Prime Ministry Inspection Board concerning the assassination of Agos Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink. "We would like to learn the truth about the assassination," she said, Hurriyet reports.