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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- European Union officials
met Turkish leaders Monday to assess the country's
efforts to join the bloc and expressed concern over
what they said was a disproportionate use of force
by police to break up a demonstration marking
International Women's Day.
Riot police kicked and beat protesters who had
gathered Sunday for an unauthorized demonstration in
Istanbul.
"We were shocked by images of the police beating
women and young people demonstrating in Istanbul,"
said a joint statement from Luxembourg Foreign
Minister Jean Asselborn, Britain's Europe Minister
Denis MacShane and Olli Rehn, the EU's commissioner
for enlargement. They said they were "concerned to
see such disproportionate force used against
demonstrators."
The meeting of EU and Turkish officials comes amid
concern about a slowdown in Turkey's progress on
improving democratic standards since December, when
the bloc agreed to open membership talks with the
mainly Muslim nation.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he
"regretted" the attacks against the demonstrators
and the incident would be investigated. Gul also
rejected charges of a slowdown.
Government spokesman Cemil Cicek said later that
"sometimes demonstrators force the limits and we
mustn't be unfair to the security forces."
AP
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