Minister risks row with Turkey
13 April 2012
Europe minister Denis MacShane risked provoking a diplomatic storm today after he appeared to raise the bar for Turkish membership of the European Union.
In a strongly-worded message to Ankara, Mr MacShane called on the Turkish government to withdraw its troops from the divided island of Cyprus.
He said there was no justification for Turkey to retain thousands of troops on the soil of an EU member state.
He added: "The Cypriot government told me they spend ?100 million to pay for its national guard to be stationed opposite the Turkish soldiers. This huge sum of money for a small EU member state could be spent more usefully and help divert spending to economic growth."
