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ANKARA, May 4 (AFP) - 11h27 - German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday urged Turkey to fully
implement the democracy reforms it adopted to
achieve European Union norms and called for more
freedoms for Christian communities in this
Muslim-majority country.
Schroeder, a staunch supporter of Turkey's EU
membership bid, assured Ankara that the bloc was
determined to open accession talks with Turkey on
schedule on October 3.
"The dynamics of reform should continue," Schroeder
told reporters after talks with Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "The constitutional
and other legal amendments should be put into
practice."
Referring to concerns that France will vote down the
European constitution at a May 29 referendum and
plunge the EU into crisis, the German leader said:
"No referendum anywhere in Europe will affect
Turkey's EU process."
Schroeder also renewed EU demands from Turkey to
expand the freedoms of its non-Muslim comminuties,
mostly Orthodox Christians and Jews.
"Religious freedom is a European principle,"
Schroder said. "It is indisputabe and is valid for
Turkey as well. People should freely practice their
religions."
Turkey is under pressure to remove legal obstacles
for non-Muslim religious foundations to fully
exercise their property rights and to open a Greek
Orthodox seminary in Istanbul closed down more than
30 years ago.
Schroeder also backed a Turkish proposal to Armenia
for the creation of a joint commission of historians
to study allegations that the Ottoman Turks
committed genocide against their Armenian subjects
during World War I.
"We want Turkish-Armenian relations to improve,"
Schroeder said. "Germany is ready to do its best to
help in this issue and open its archives."
Germany and the Ottoman Empire, from which the
present-day Turkish Republic was born, were allies
during World War I, when the Armenian massacres
occured.
Turkey has come under mounting international
pressure to recognize the 1915-1917 killings as
genocide; some EU politicians, including the German
opposition, argue that Ankara should address the
genocide claims if it wants to join the European
bloc.
Erdogan denounced an appeal issued by the German
parliament last month calling on Ankara to face up
to its history.
He said he "conveyed our serious concerns and
expectations" on the issue to Schroeder.
The two leaders said they also discussed the Cyprus
conflict, a major stumbling block to Turkey's EU
membership bid.
Schroeder pledged he would work for the release of a
259 million euromillion dollar) EU aid package
earmarked for the breakaway Turkish Cypriot
community and the activation of measures aimed at
easing trade restriction imposed on the island's
Turkish sector.
The EU promised the aid last year as a reward for
the strong support Turkish Cypriots gave to a UN
peace plan, which was killed off by an overwhelming
"no" by the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot
side.
The measures have been blocked, however, because of
opposition by the Greek Cypriots, who joined the EU
in May 2004.
Schroeder's Social Democrats-Greens coalition has
been a staunch supporter of Turkey's EU aspirations,
but Germany's main opposition Christian Democratic
Union advocates a special status for Turkey rather
than full membership.
Germany is Turkey's largest trading partner and home
to the largest Turkish immigrant community in
Europe, some 2.5 million people.
Schroeder is scheduled to meet President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer before heading to Istanbul later
Wednesday, where he will visit the spiritual leader
of the Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I, and attend a meeting of Turkish and
German business people.
AFP
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