Turkey will ‘pay’ EU price

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Hürriyet photo

Turkey will pay a price for not participating in EU meetings in protest at Greek Cyprus’ term presidency of the bloc, the country’s foreign minister has said.

“Turkey’s seat was there, Turkey’s name was there but no one sat in that chair,” said Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, claiming that Turkey was “losing many things” by being absent from the meetings. Turkey has to be in the same room with Greek Cyprus in order to advance in its EU bid, Kozakou-Marcoullis said. “We will see that this tactic [of not attending meetings that are chaired by Greek Cyprus] will have a boomerang effect. Many EU members and European Parliament will change their attitude toward Turkey,” she said. Turkey has repeatedly said it will not participate in any meetings held by Greek Cyprus during its EU post.