AKP closure case to test Turkey's EU commitment
Güncelleme Tarihi:
A senior official from the European Commission said Tuesday Turkey's EU process would be "tested" as an anchor for political stability by a closure case filed against country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
"Last year's presidential and general elections seriously tested the EU process as an anchor for political stability, which will be tested once again by the closure case against the AKP," Olli Rehn, EU commissioner for enlargement, said.
Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, filed a lawsuit against the ruling AKP on March 14 demanding its closure and the banning of 71 party officials, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, from politics.
Rehn said, "the most remarkable part of Turkey's EU process was the transformation of the country into an open and self-confident nation."
The commissioner also said Turkey would decide the pace of the negotiations by the reforms that it would make, and expressed the commission's expectation for "immediate reforms on fundamental rights and the freedom of expression."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn will visit Ankara on Friday.
Photo: AP