GREECE TOUGHENED STAND ON TURKEY
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.12.2006 17:29 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Greece said Thursday that Turkey must open all its
ports and harbors to the Greek Cypriots as part of the agreement it
made with the European Union to begin membership talks, and called
on the EU to sanction Ankara for failing to meet its obligations. As
reported by The New Anatolian, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Giorgos Koumoutsakos said the customs agreement Turkey signed in July
2005, known as the Ankara protocol, requires Turkey to open its entire
territory to trade from all member states, including Greek Cyprus, not
just some ports. In an apparent hardening of Greece’s stand on Turkish
membership talks, Koumoutsakos said the EU must send Ankara a "strong
message" by suspending talks on more than the eight of 35 policy areas
the European Commission has recommended freezing. He would not provide
a number, but it was the first time that Greece was asking for such
a tough action. He added that in this "strong message, we don’t think
eight chapters are enough." "If you are sanctioning someone, then you
have to see if they are working" to meet their obligations, he said.