EU envoys listen to Baykal’s views on Armenian, Kurdish initiatives

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal was a guest on Wednesday at a regular luncheon hosted by Swedish Ambassador to Turkey Christer Asp, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union
The luncheon was attended by EU ambassadors accredited in Ankara, who were eager to listen to Baykal's reasons for his harsh criticism of the bold steps taken recently to resolve both a decades-old internal policy issue and a chronic foreign policy issue, the roots of which go back almost a century.

Those issues are the government's recent initiative on the resolution of the Kurdish issue and Armenia and Turkey's declaration of their desire to normalize bilateral relations through the parliamentary approval of two protocols after internal political consultations. On both issues, the government and the main opposition parties, the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), have been engaged in a fierce battle as the government has sought to attain public consensus.

Numerous states and international organizations have already lent their support regarding the Armenian issue through written statements. While apparently taking into consideration the fact that the Kurdish issue is considered an internal matter for Ankara, they have lent their support to this process through individual remarks made by their politicians.

Ways of overcoming an apparent slowdown in progress in Turkey's EU membership process due to the Cyprus issue was another topic which EU ambassadors sought Baykal's views on.

While blocking eight chapters in Turkey's EU membership negotiations in 2006 due to the country's refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic, the EU pledged to review the situation by the end of 2009