A Kurdish official on Wednesday accused Turkey of using the Kurdish issue as a way of punishing the European Union for its refusal to admit Turkey, Italian radio reported.

Semsi Kilic, the representative in Europe of the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan, said that the influx of Kurdish refugees into Europe from Turkey was directly connected with Turkey's failure to become a member of the European Union.

"A connection exists between the recent exodus and Turkey' s failure to gain membership of Europe," Kilic said, speaking at a news conference in Rome on the eve of an Italian government debate on the Kurdish refugee question.

"Since the meeting in Luxembourg, in December 1997, the Turkish state has gone back to practising its most classic form of blackmail.

The Turkish government's decision now to force the exodus towards Europe is aimed at punishing the European Union over Turkey's failure to secure membership," Kilic added.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
 

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