Turkey has broken off talks with the European Union on human rights and disputes with Greece and Cyprus, all cited by the Europeans for removing Turkey from prospective EU membership.
“We have suspended our political dialogue,” Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said Saturday in an interview on CNN International.
The EU excluded Turkey last weekend from a list of potential future members, including 10 East European countries and Cyprus. The 15-member alliance cited misgivings about the Turkish troop presence in the northern part of that Mediterranean island nation, human rights violations and tense relations with EU member Greece.
“The European Union made a distinction between Turkey and the other eleven countries, although many of these countries were behind Turkey in terms of democracy or in terms of economy. That was a clear discrimination against Turkey, and I will not accept it,” Yilmaz said.
The Turkish prime minister continued to back away from previous threats that Turkey would withdraw its application for European Union membership.
Despite the break in talks over political conditions to full membership, Yilmaz said, Turkey continues to honor current agreements with the EU.
Turkey is a member of the NATO and conducts most of its trade with EU countries.
“I think the future of Turkey lies in cooperation with the Western world,” Yilmaz said.
Yilmaz did not directly respond to questions about his prior assertions that the EU is a “Christian club,” biased against largely Muslim Turkey. He said only that “we share the same values and objectives with other democratic countries in the field of human rights and basic freedoms.”
The Clinton administration promotes EU membership for Turkey, a strategically located ally bridging Europe and Asia.
Yilmaz agreed Friday at a meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to allow John Shattuck, the assistant secretary of state who deals with human rights, to visit Turkey and consult with officials on human rights.
Yilmaz said Turkey’s 13-year-old struggle with Kurdish rebels, the source of many allegations of human rights abuses, would not be solved by negotiation.
“You cannot negotiate with terrorists,” he said. “You cannot deal with terrorists only by peaceful means.”
More than 27,000 people have died in the conflict between the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party and security forces.
