Turkey said Wednesday that any deviation from full EU membership would be unacceptable. Turkey is scheduled to open accession talks with the European Union on Monday, The Associated Press reported. "A deviation from the goal of full membership negotiations can not be accepted under any condition," Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said. "We've relayed our concerns and all elements which are unacceptable to us to our EU partners several times," he said, speaking before the European Parliament gathered to discuss Turkey's membership on Wednesday. After Tan spoke, the European Parliament postponed its vote on the ratification of Turkey's customs union with the EU over Ankara's refusal to recognize Cyprus. Tan criticized a recent EU declaration demanding that Turkey recognize new EU member Cyprus. "We're not in an exercise of recognizing the Greek Cypriot side, we're in an exercise of building a common future with Europe, we're in an exercise of starting negotiations," Tan said. He called on EU countries to fulfill their pledges to start membership negotiations on Oct. 3. "With the peace of fulfilling all our responsibilities, we're waiting for the EU members to keep their promise," Tan said.
