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![]() Sunday, December 14, 1997 Published at 19:13 GMT ![]() ![]() ![]() World ![]() Turkey rejects EU invitation ![]() Mesut Yilmaz dismissed the invitation as unimportant
Following a cabinet meeting, the Turkish prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, dismissed the invitation as unimportant and said Turkey would cut off political dialogue with the EU.
Mr Yilmaz also said Turkey would go ahead with plans to integrate Turkish-held northern Cyprus if the EU started membership talks with the Greek-Cypriot south of the island.
The EU wanted Turkey to improve its human rights record, protect the rights of its Kurdish minority and move to solve long-standing territorial disputes with Greece, including the future of the divided island of Cyprus.
Eleven countries were invited to join the organisation, six in the first wave - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.
Another five eastern European countries - Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania - will be invited to join future talks and will be monitored as they carry out reforms to improve their eligibility.
Ankara, which has been seeking EU membership since the early 1960s, had warned that it would turn away from Europe if it was not treated in the same way as other eastern European countries.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to Turkey on Saturday to accept the summit's invitation to join the conference and said there was strong support "all round the table" that Turkey would one day join the EU.
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