Turkey not to attend council meetings to be chaired by Greek Cypriot administration

ANKARA (A.A) - December 7, 2011 - The co-chair of Turkey-European Union (EU) Joint Parliament Committee said on Wednesday that Turkey would not attend European Council meetings to be chaired by the Greek Cypriot administration. Afif Demirkiran said that the committee could go on its initiatives. "However, we will freeze our relations with the council," Demirkiran told reporters in a breakfast. Demirkiran said there was a bottleneck in our relations with the EU, and the union had not opened negotiations with Turkey on any chapter in the last one year and blocked talks on 18 chapters. "It is not possible to understand this (stance). Cyprus problem has seriously blocked Turkey-EU relations," Demirkiran said. Demirkiran said the EU had made a mistake by admitting the Greek Cypriot administration as a member, but hoped a compromise would come out of Cyprus negotiations held under the auspices of the United Nations. "We believe in the EU project, and we maintain our relations with the EU in technical and regulation level whether or not new chapters are opened," Demirkiran said. Demirkiran said Turkey's economic situation was very well, but EU's rating was continuously downgrading. Under these circumstances, the EU needed Turkey, Turkey did not need the EU, Demirkiran said. Demirkiran said if the EU wanted to become a global actor and spread democracy in the region, it needed Turkey. "We do not want to cut relations with the EU in such a circumstance, and leave the union alone, because we want to save the EU and we want the EU not to be a slave of a minor issue like Cyprus," Demirkiran said. Demirkiran said Europe's energy safety depended on Turkey, and Turkey would like to join the EU when the right time came. Turkey became an EU candidate country in December 1999. The union launched accession talks with Turkey on October 3, 2005. The EU has so far opened 13 of the 35 chapter headings to negotiations with Turkey.