BRUSSELS: Turkey said Tuesday that it would not respond to a European Union deadline demanding that it open its ports to Cyprus, raising the stakes in a showdown that could derail Ankara's EU membership talks.
"Issues like Cyprus cannot be solved by blackmail or setting deadlines," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in Ankara after meeting with the chief EU negotiator for Turkey, Ali Babacan, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The warning came just a day after the Finnish prime minister, Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, called on Turkey to open its ports to EU member Cyprus by early December. He said that time was running out for Turkey and that its membership bid faced "an uncertain future" if the Cyprus issue remained unsolved.
But Turkish officials say they will not compromise on Cyprus unless the EU lifts an international embargo against the northern Turkish-speaking part of the divided island, which Turkey alone recognizes.
The EU enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, on Tuesday told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee in Brussels, according to Bloomberg News: "We need less talk about blackmail and red lines. It is, I find, rather outdated talk."
In an effort to overcome the impasse, Finland has proposed that the northern Cypriot port of Famagusta be placed under EU management and be opened to trade with the EU. The United Nations would take over control of the neighboring town of Varosha, which the Greek Cypriots claim as their own. But so far, Turkey has rejected the proposal.
EU officials said that Turkish intransigence made it increasingly likely that the EU would be forced to partly suspend the negotiations with Turkey, when leaders hold a two-day summit meeting Dec. 14. That would be unprecedented in the history of the 25- member bloc. "We seem to have reached a dead end," said a senior Finnish official, requesting anonymity because the talks are continuing.
The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, will issue a recommendation in the matter Dec. 6. In the absence of a diplomatic breakthrough, EU officials say the Commission is quite likely to recommend suspending talks on up to six of the more than 30 remaining chapters Turkey must negotiate before it can join the Union.
Gul, who will go to Helsinki on Sunday for talks on the Cyprus impasse, said he was still hopeful that diplomacy could work. "The Finnish are spending great efforts to resolve the issue and we are supporting them," Gul said. "If a solution can be find, we would gladly say 'yes.'"
Attitudes toward Turkey are hardening in the EU, where public opinion remains deeply skeptical of admitting a large, Muslim country of 71 million that many do not consider to be a part of Europe.
At a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels last week, the French minister for European affairs, Catherine Colonna, said the EU would be forced to consider partly suspending its talks with Turkey if Ankara refused to compromise. Austria and Cyprus were blunter, calling for a halt in the negotiations if Turkey refused.
But France and Britain are reluctant to stop the talks altogether because of concerns that such a move would prompt a backlash in Turkey that could make it difficult to revive the negotiations.
Even a partial derailing of the talks could have far-reaching consequences in Turkey, where skepticism of the EU is increasing. Analysts warn that a rebuff would strengthen the hand of Islamists and nationalists, a growing number of whom are arguing against Turkish economic and political reforms that would be required for membership in the Union.
Turkish officials say the EU is applying a double standard and that it is not well placed to mediate over Cyprus since the Greek-speaking part of the divided island is already a member of the Union. They note with frustration that a United Nations plan to reunify the island failed in 2004 after it was rejected by the Greek Cypriot population and government, but was backed by the Turkish Cypriots.
"There are issues which the EU can no longer be objective or fair about," Babacan, the Turkish EU negotiator, said during a recent debate in Brussels over Turkey's EU ambitions.
A recent European Commission report assessing Turkey's membership progress rebuked the country for its failure to meet minimum standards on human rights and cited concerns over the rights of women.
It also highlighted "serious economic and social problems" facing the minority Kurdish population in the southeast of the country and chastised Turkey for its resistance to amending Article 301 of its penal code, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime and has been used to press charges against writers, including the 2006 Nobel literature laureate, Orhan Pamuk.
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