ANKARA, Dec 13 (AFP) - Turkey was cautiously optimistic Monday that it would obtain a favorable result from this week's crunch summit of European Union leaders who will decide on Ankara's membership bid, but warned the 25-nation bloc not to cross Ankara's "red lines."
"Of course we have some red lines," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said after a cabinet meeting here. "If a negative situation arises in regard to these, that, of course, would be termed unacceptable by Turkey."
Sener, who is also the government spokesman, was speaking before French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said in Brussels that Paris wants Turkey to acknowledge the World War I massacre of Armenians as "genocide" in the course of membership negotiations -- a particularly delicate subject for Turkey.
Sener refused to be drawn into what Ankara's stance would be should the Brussels summit fail to meet its expectations.
EU leaders are largely expected to give the green light to open accession talks with Turkey at their summit Thursday and Friday in Brussels, but with a set of strict conditions and a warning that the process is likely to take at least a decade.
"The decision to be taken on December 17 must include the goal of full membership without leaving room for interpretation," Sener said. "A clear date for the (start of) negotiations is also among our expectations."
The minister added that Ankara had some non-negotiable demands from the EU, which he did not think EU leaders would ignore.
Turkey says it has fulfilled the necessary criteria to earn a firm date for accession talks and insists that it will agree to nothing less than full membership at the end of the talks.
Ankara also objects to what it calls attempts to impose new political conditions that it should meet in order to start membership talks.
12/13/2004 16:34 GMT - AFP