Turkey resumed accession talks with EU

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey has resumed its European Union accession talks. The agenda includes legislative issues referring to property and company rights. The whole process will take no less than 10 years, the RFE/RL reports.



Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan claims that some states pose artificial obstacles to the accession process. "We launched talks on agriculture, transport, foreign policy and 15 other directions. However, certain states hamper the process," he said.



Turkey opened accession talks with the EU in 2005 but progress has since been very slow. In 2006 the EU suspended accession talks with Ankara on eight chapters because of Ankara's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from Greek Cyprus. Ankara says it is ready to open the ports and airports in return for EU steps to ease trade restrictions on the Turkish Cypriots. The EU Commission proposed direct trade with the Turkish Cypriots in 2004 after they voted for a UN plan to reunite the island but the proposal, vetoed by the Greek Cypriots, have never been approved.