Turkey rejects EU report, says lacks objectivity

ANKARA, Sep 5 (Reuters) EU-applicant Turkey today dismissed a European parliament report accusing Ankara of dragging its heels on reforms, saying it lacked common sense and smacked of political bias.

The EU assembly's foreign affairs committee approved a report late yesterday which slammed Turkey for not living up to the commitments the country gave when it received the green light last October to start talks on joining the bloc.

The report censured insufficient progress on freedom of expression and raised concerns over the lot of religious minorities, corruption and violence against women.

''We think that some elements in the report are written with political motives and without realism and are not in accordance with the European Parliament's credibility and seriousness,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said in a statement.

The statement made no mention of how Turkey would respond to the reform criticism. Parliament is due to return for a special session in mid- this month to pass some laws.

The EU report also demanded that, as a precondition of membership, Ankara acknowledge that Ottoman Turkey committed genocide against Armenians in World War One.

Armenia and its supporters around the world say some 1.5 million Armenians perished in a systematic genocide committed by Ottoman Turkish forces between 1915 and 1923.

Ankara accepts many Armenians were killed on Turkish soil, but says they were victims of a partisan conflict that claimed even more Turkish Muslim lives as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. It denies any genocide.

''We are upset by the attempt to set far from objective conditions on issues such as the so-called Armenian genocide which require serious academic discipline by 'creating a fait accompli' as stated by the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,'' Tan said.

Despite a flurry of EU-inspired liberal reforms in recent years, promoting certain interpretations of Turkish history can still be deemed a criminal offence under the revised penal code.

Earlier this year Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink received a suspended six-month jail term over remarks he made about genocide claims. Two well-known authors face trial next month on charged of insulting ''Turkishness.'' Any country wishing to join the 25-member bloc requires the approval of both the European parliament and the agreement of all member states.

The EU report will go before a full parliament sitting at the end of the month. The European parliament has never sought to veto any past accession but it has been effective in pressuring EU hopefuls to speed up reforms in previous enlargement rounds.

''We expect European Parliament deputies to show the necessary common sense and far-sightedness to correct this situation in the meeting and voting in the general assembly,'' Tan said.

The report urged Ankara to recognise Cyprus. Experts fear the dispute over Cyprus and mutual public disenchantment could lead at worst to a breakdown in accession talks with the strategic, Muslim candidate country.

REUTERS MS PC1758