PARIS (Reuters)–Portugal–current holder of the European Union presidency–on Wednesday sent a thinly veiled warning to Turkey that executing Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan could throw its bid to join the EU on the rocks.
"We would not be starting on the right foot in the effort to bring Turkey and the EU closer together if Turkey takes decisions which are not compatible with European principles," Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs Francisco Seixas de Costa said. .
Seixas was speaking after a meeting with his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici in Paris and as Turkey’s coalition government partners were locked in a meeting to decide whether to postpone hanging Ocalan in line with an EU court request.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is seeking to persuade his coalition partners that Turkey would be best served by resisting any urge for a rapid decision to execute the separatist leader.