BRUSSELS has warned Turkey that it will suspend EU membership talks unless it stops backsliding on reforms needed to meet European standards.

There is concern in European capitals that Turkey has been giving up on human rights and democracy reforms as growing nationalism and disillusion with Europe sweep the country. Advocates of Turkey’s membership are alarmed that the euphoria surrounding the historic start of entry talks in October has given way to a mood of mutual suspicion.

Olli Rehn, the Enlargement Commissioner, said: “It is necessary that the Turkish Government takes immediate action to restart the momentum of the reforms in the country,” otherwise there could be a “train crash” in membership talks. “That is the best and only way to avoid a recess later on this year in the negotiations between the EU and Turkey,” he said.

The EU’s most immediate priority is that Turkey opens its ports and airports to planes and boats from Cyprus. Turkey, which has 35,000 troops on the island, was allowed to start membership talks only after promising to lift the blockade. But it has since said that it will only do so in return for concessions from the Cypriot Government.

The talks have already stumbled over French demands that human rights must be considered throughout the talks, rather than separately at the end. Despite earlier reforms promoting freedom of speech, the Government has started clamping down again, and moves to improve the lot of minorities have given way to an upsurge in violence between police and Kurdish separatists in which more than a dozen have died.

SECULAR LAW

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