EU foreign ministers receive Turkey's decision to freeze relations with "sadness"

BRUSSELS (A.A) - December 6, 2011 - European Union (EU) foreign ministers received Turkey's decision to freeze relations with the Greek Cypriot term presidency in the second part of 2012 with "sadness" and expressed that the term presidency implementation took place based on the EU constitution. Although not present on the draft document presented by the EU Commission, the EU foreign ministers decided to respond to Turkey's decision to freeze relations with the EU during the Greek Cypriot term presidency and adopted Greek Cypriot arguments concerning drilling activities in the Mediterranean. The EU supported the Greek Cypriots in their unilateral drilling activities in the Mediterranean and made a call on Ankara to refrain from all activities that would cause tension with an EU member country. In their decision, the EU foreign ministers said that they felt sadness over Turkey's not fulfilling its obligations stemming from the Additional Protocol and not opening its ports to the Greek Cypriots. The foreign ministers noted that Turkey had not made any progress in normalizing relations with the Greek Cypriots and that they expected progress in the matter without more delays. The foreign ministers told the EU Commission to observe Turkey's approach to the Greek Cypriots and inform the member states on the developments. In their decision, the foreign ministers said that they expected Turkey's active contributions to a solution in Cyprus under the auspices of the United Nations. -France's insistence on word "Accession"- The word "accession" was used 11 times for Croatia preparing for membership in mid-2013, 5 times for Iceland who began entry negotiations only a year ago, 2 times for Montenegro waiting for a date from the EU and 1 time for Albania and Serbia who are not yet candidates in the enlargement decisions of the foreign ministers. The word "accession" was not used for Turkey. France is making special efforts so that the word "accession" is not used when Turkey gets mentioned in EU documents. The foreign ministers also called on Turkey to harmonize its foreign policy with that of Brussels.