EU progress report on Turkey 'unacceptable'

ANKARA

A senior Turkish minister on Monday reiterated the country’s stance towards the latest European Parliament report on EU accession, which it has returned “null and void” for the second year running.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said a reference in the report to the deaths of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as a “genocide” for a consecutive year was the reason it had been rejected.

“Turkey cannot accept the report and will return it to the European Parliament,” he said in remarks to journalists following a Cabinet meeting in Ankara.

The 2015 progress report was adopted by EU lawmakers last Thursday.

“We have three redlines,” Kurtulmus said. “If any EU report includes them in a way which we cannot accept, then we reject the report. One of them is the description of the 1915 events as 'genocide'.

"Secondly, excluding the PKK from the terror organizations’ list and thirdly halting the EU accession negotiations or suspending EU funds for Turkey."

Kurtulmus emphasized that returning the report would not mean breaking with the EU, noting the report was non-binding and was of a political nature.