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ISTANBUL, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of
Turkish nationalists denounced the European Union at
a rally in Ankara on Sunday hours before a crucial
EU foreign ministers' meeting on plans for Turkey's
entry into the bloc.
Protesters shouted anti-EU slogans and carried
banners saying "We don't believe in the EU" and
"Neither EU nor U.S.A., fully independent
nationalist Turkey".
The rally, planned long ago and organised by the
far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), turned
into an anti-EU protest and ended peacefully.
The EU ministers were meeting in Luxembourg, inching
towards a last-ditch agreement to allow talks to
open on schedule with Turkey on Monday.
Agreement has been blocked by Austria, which has
been opposed to offering Turkey full membership, but
its position was reported to have eased.
MHP leader Devlet Bahceli told the rally at Ankara's
Tandogan square that the government's
four-decade-old EU ambition meant "Turkey and the
Turkish nation being taken hostage by foreign
forces."
"The government must abandon the EU talks," he said,
urging Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan not to start
entry talks.
"We cannot accept to become a privileged partner
after 25 years of talks at best," he said.
Austria, where public opinion is 80 percent opposed
to admitting the poor, populous, overwhelmingly
Muslim candidate to the EU, was alone in demanding
that the 25-nation bloc offer an explicit
alternative short of accession and named it as
"privileged partnership".
Reuters
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