Among these steps, avoiding terrorist assaults has a top priority.

In our meetings (with French officials), we stress that adoption of the bill could lead to irreparable damage in long-standing Turkish-French ties and that this should not be allowed.

Assembling and correspondence procedures of the radar were completed but the radar has not been handed over to us yet. Thus, it is not active yet.

Turkey believed that Iraqi people will not allow such a possibility,

Turkey is the party of all international agreements and conventions for disarmament, control of weapons and prevention of proliferation of mass destruction weapons. Turkey is also party of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). IAEA is aware of Turkey's activities to benefit from nuclear energy for peaceful means.

The declaration is one-sided and has a political aspect which could weaken UN efforts to secure a settlement for Cyprus. It is not possible for us to share this approach.

Freedom of expression is the basis of democracy. But people should bear in mind their responsibilities while making use of it.

But this will not replace a comprehensive settlement to be reached on the basis of Annan plan. And, it is obvious that issues to be discussed as a part of a comprehensive settlement cannot be resolved by these technical committees.

If they want to have the ports and airfields opened they should actually study carefully our recent proposal and then act on it accordingly.

We regret the publication of this counter-declaration. It has a style which does not accord well with the traditional spirit of cooperation that has existed between Turkey and the EU over a period of more than 40 years,