Cyprus Recognition

Although Cyprus joined the EU in May, Turkey still refuses to recognize its government, recognizing instead only the Turkish Cypriot northern third of the divided island.

A diplomat said that there was agreement that recognition of Cyprus was effectively a precondition of starting the talks.

“Turkey must accept the Ankara agreement before October 3,” said the diplomat.

Solana said he was confident Turkey would make a “gesture” by recognizing Cyprus before it starts accession talks.

Asked if Turkey would be required to show de facto recognition of Cyprus before launching membership talks, Solana said the issue was still on the table.

“This is a question which is not closed … but it seems logical that a gesture will be made in order to meet the requirement of accepting all the members of the EU before you begin to negotiate to be part of the EU,” he said.

10 Years

The talks are likely to come with a series of conditions attached to Turkey’s EU bid that would be unprecedented for a membership candidate.

The negotiations will last for at least 10 years, they could be suspended in case of serious problems, and membership is not ultimately guaranteed, draft summit conclusions say.

The deal is “achievable” but not guaranteed, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Blair huddled for 20 minutes with Erdogan just before leaders of all 25 EU member states sat down to dinner to chew over Turkey’s long-standing bid to join their bloc.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said they chose October 3 “to give Turkey the time required to recognize Cyprus, something that is necessary because one cannot join a family without recognizing one of its members”.

“Turkey demanded to have the time to enable its parliament to approve the recognition of Cyprus. We gave it the time,” he added.

A few days before the crunch EU summit, Erdogan said allowing Ankara into the euro bloc will help bridge the yawning gap between the West and Islam.

The European Commission Wednesday, October 6, gave Turkey a green light to start talks to join the European Union, but set a series of tough conditions warning there was no guarantee of success.

Turkey, an official candidate since 1999, has been waiting to join the euro bloc for decades but its efforts have stumbled over its civil rights record.

The Turkish parliament adopted last month a far-reaching overhaul of the country’s 78-year-old penal code, clearing a major obstacle to accession talks.