Luxembourg's Asselborn: "Closing the AKP wouldn't halt Turkey's EU talks"

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs and immigration, yesterday met with Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Ankara. Afterwards, asked how Turkey's EU negotiation process would be affected if the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were closed by court order, Asselborn said that the ruling on the closure case won't influence Turkey's negotiating process. "As a foreign minister of an EU country, I cannot get involved in Turkey's domestic affairs," he said. "I don't have that authority. Turkey's Constitution developed on the basis of the country's history. I think that today we should have respect for the spirit of the Venice Commission (the Council of Europe's European Commission for Democracy through Law). I heard that the Constitutional Court could make a decision soon. I hope Turkey can face this problem in the context of the spirit I mentioned."