Straw slams opposition to Turkey's EU membership

Jack Straw, Britain's former foreign secretary, said on Tuesday that certain European countries were opposed to Turkey's European membership on religious grounds. "We agreed to get the accession negotiations in 2005 but the process has been halted by an unholy alliance between France, Germany and Greek Cypriots in 2005,” Straw said, adding that it was not a geographical claim, but a religious claim. "There is a double standard when Turkey is compared with some eastern European countries. Bulgaria and Romania have come into the EU for strategic reasons even everybody round that table knew they did not meet the Copenhagen criteria," Straw noted.