The European Union urged Turkey on Friday to break out of a cycle of political crisis by enacting reforms to prepare for EU membership, and praised its regional peacemaking role.
The 27-nation bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan to resume EU reforms at full speed after the government survived an attempt by hardline secular prosecutors to shut down the ruling AK party.
The Constitutional Court last month narrowly failed to reach the necessary majority to ban the party, which has its roots in political Islam, after months of uncertainty which shook Turkish markets and the lira currency.
"We have urged Turkey to reform the law on political parties as a matter of urgency to avoid this sort of severe political crisis in the future," Rehn told Reuters after the two men met on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in France.
They also discussed the conflict in Georgia and Turkey's proposals for a platform to stabilise the Caucasus region, and its efforts to mediate in Israeli-Syrian peace talks.
"Turkey's active diplomacy towards Syria, the Middle East, Armenia and the Caucasus show its paramount importance as our partner in advancing regional stability in one of the most unstable parts of the world," Rehn said.
The EU accession process would further facilitate joint work by the EU and Turkey to stabilise those regions, he said, according to Reuters.
