EU lawmakers gave only a grudging blessing on Wednesday to membership talks with Turkey starting next week and said Ankara must recognise a 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide before it joins the bloc.
They also criticised Turkey's human rights record and held up a vote to ratify an extended customs union with the 25-state European Union in a bid to pressure Ankara to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU member Cyprus.
The European Parliament's non-binding resolution on the Armenians was a political slap in the face for predominantly Muslim Turkey, which insists the killings were not genocide.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan played down the moves, telling reporters: "The European Parliament's decision will not affect the EU process. It has no power of sanction," according to NTV television.
The Turkish lira and stock market lost ground on the events, although traders said they did not believe the October 3 opening of accession talks was at risk.
The EU legislature has no say over the start or conduct of the talks but its assent is needed before Turkey can join, which is at least a decade away.
DEADLOCK ON MANDATE EU governments meanwhile remained deadlocked on the mandate for the talks, with Austria seeking a more explicit mention of an alternative to full membership.
EU foreign ministers will have to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday in Luxembourg, hours before negotiations are to start, unless their ambassadors clinch a deal earlier in Brussels.
The opening ceremony could slip to Monday evening because Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will not board a plane until the EU ministers have formally endorsed a framework for negotiations, diplomats said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the revolving EU presidency, said it would be "a huge betrayal of the hopes and expectations of the Turkish people and of Prime Minister Erdogan's programme of reform if, at the crucial time, we turned our back on Turkey".
The EU legislature demanded that Turkey recognise EU member Cyprus soon and said negotiations could be suspended unless it granted access to Cypriot aircraft and shipping by next year.
Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 in response to a short- lived Greek Cypriot coup, has some 35,000 troops in the north of the island and refuses to recognise the Greek Cypriot government in the south, which is recognised by the European Union.
The vote by the parliament followed an emotional debate in which many deputies attacked Turkey's record on human rights, religious freedom and minorities, reflecting widespread public hostility to the poor, populous nation ever joining the bloc.
Greens party leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit caused an uproar by accusing some right-wing critics of Turkey of "surfing on a wave of racism".
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn regretted the decision to delay ratification of the customs union, saying it would weaken Brussels' hand with the Turks, but stressed it would have no impact on the start of negotiations.
CIVIL RIGHTS:
Rehn warned Turkey it would have to amend a new penal code, adopted to meet EU criteria, if hard-line judges were still able to prosecute Turkey's leading novelist for expressing his views on the killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule.
An Istanbul judge is prosecuting writer Orhan Pamuk for "denigrating Turkish identity" by endorsing the term genocide. He faces up to three years in jail if convicted.
Other judges tried in vain to halt an academic conference in Istanbul on the Armenian issue last week.
Opinion polls show a majority of EU citizens, especially in France, Germany and Austria, oppose Turkish membership.
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