Blair to travel to Turkey for EU talks

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who strongly backs Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union, travels to Ankara tomorrow for talks on the EU, Cyprus, Iraq and the Middle East, officials said today.

Downing Street officials said he would meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the Turkish capital.

He is expected to hold a joint news conference with Erdogan before returning to London. The meeting is the first of an annual series of summits between Britain and Turkey, Blair’s office said.

Turkey is hoping to begin membership talks at the end of the year to join the EU. Turkish membership would stretch the bloc’s borders to Syria and Iraq.

The predominantly Muslim nation has carried out sweeping reforms in the last two years as it tries to meet the EU’s so-called Copenhagen criteria. It has, for example, abolished the death penalty and granted greater cultural rights to long-oppressed Kurds.