Dutch Queen Tells Turkey "First Steps Taken" On EU Membership Road

ANKARA, 01/03/07 - Queen Beatrix has said on her state visit to Turkey that the first steps towards Turkish membership of the EU have been taken. She did not mention other sensitive issues, such as the Armenian genocide.

In her speech at the state dinner given by President Ahmet Sezer, the queen said she expects much of the mutual relations between Turkey and the Netherlands. "Today, Turkey is seen as a strong NATO ally, which shares common values with the other countries such as respect for fundamental freedoms, and which takes strong action against terrorism and extremist violence."

The monarch said both Turkey and the Netherlands and Turkey and Europe have become closer to one another in recent years. "I am of course thinking in the first place here about the decision taken at the end of 2004 under the Dutch presidency to start accession negotiations between Turkey and the European Union."

The negotiations will "undoubtedly be time-consuming" and "many obstacles" must be overcome, but "the first steps have been taken." The queen added: "Certainly impressive are the many efforts in innumerable areas that your country has in the last few years undertaken to make the achievement of the goal established possible."

The queen praised the role that Turkish immigrants play in Dutch society. "Successful young Turkish Dutch are to be found in innumerable professions and many places in our society: entrepreneurs, students, teachers and politicians. (...) The increasing interweaving of our countries holds a clear promise for the future," Beatrix concluded.

Conservative (VVD) MP Hans Van Baalen, chairman of the Lower House foreign affairs standing committee, had called on Beatrix to bring up the Armenian question. In Turkey, its forbidden to say that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred by the Turkish regime around 1915. The queen kept silent on the question, as on other human rights questions.

The Turkish president called the Netherlands a "friend and ally" and praised its "straightforward and objective" position. Sezer did have some provocative words. He said the Turks are "closely" following the maintenance by the 400,000 Turkish people in the Netherlands of their "social rights, their original language and their cultural identity".