EU draft report on Turkey unacceptable: Ankara

By Yusuf Hatip and Nazli Yuzbasioglu</p> <p>ANKARA/BRUSSELS (AA) – The European Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs voted Wednesday to accept a draft advisory report on Turkey, with Ankara calling the document &quot;unacceptable&quot;.</p> <p>The report, which calls for suspending accession negotiations between Turkey and the European Union, is expected to be voted on by the entire European Parliament in mid-March.</p> <p>&quot;The call in the draft report — which is not legally binding and bears only the status of an advisory decision — to officially suspend our country’s accession negotiations with the EU is absolutely unacceptable,&quot; Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said.</p> <p>He said the draft report exemplified the EU’s biased and prejudiced attitude towards Turkey, adding Ankara would continue to push for its amendment.</p> <p>&quot;We expect the necessary changes to be made for a more realistic, unbiased and encouraging final report which will be accepted in March at the European Parliament’s general assembly,&quot; said Aksoy, stressing that Ankara would only take such a document into account.</p> <p>He stressed that Turkey would continue to adopt reforms for accession into the bloc and Ankara expected the European Parliament to honor its pledged obligations towards Turkey.</p> <p>Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession talks began in 2005.</p> <p>But negotiations stalled in 2007 due to the objections of the Greek Cypriot administration on the divided island of Cyprus as well as opposition from Germany and France.

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