European foreign ministers criticized Turkey Tuesday for failing to deal normally with Cyprus and opted to keep the brakes on Turkey's attempt to join the European Union.
While Turkey avoided any fresh sanctions and the EU nations welcomed progress on some minority issues, there was overall disappointment at Turkey's failure to treat EU nation Cyprus in a "good neighborly" way.
The statement came after Turkey missed an EU deadline to do something about the Cyprus problem.
The EU text, hammered out during two days of talks between the ministers, left little doubt that the 2006 decision to freeze parts of the accession talks with Turkey could be beefed up if progress isn't forthcoming.
That year, the 27 EU nations froze eight of the 35 policy chapters which each EU candidate nation must successfully negotiate prior to membership over Turkey's failure to open its ports and airports to Cyprus.
Turkey refuses to do so, arguing that the EU has failed to keep its promises to ease the international isolation of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied the north in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
Turkey is bitter that the Greek Cypriots, whose government is the island's internationally recognized administration, were admitted into the EU in 2004 despite voting down a United Nations peace plan, while the Turkish Cypriots--who gave the plan overwhelmingly support--were left out in the cold.