Greece welcomes EU report on Turkey's membership bid

ATHENS, Oct 6 (AFP) - Greece, Turkey's neighbour, NATO partner and regional rival, on Wednesday welcomed a European Commission report giving Ankara the go-ahead to begin talks to join the European Union.
"Greece supports Turkey's road to Europe... the European Commission's report confirms the correctness of our policy," Greek government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said in a statement.
But Roussopoulos did not say whether EU member Greece will support Ankara's bid in December, when the bloc's leaders decide whether Turkey thas made sufficient progress in improving its democracy and human rights records to sit down at the negotiating table.
Greece and Turkey have nearly gone to war on several occasions since the 1960s over disputes in the Greek- and Turkish-populated independent island republic of Cyprus, as well as over territorial and airspace rights in the Aegean Sea that separates them.