§ 27. Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the current state of relations between the United Kingdom and Turkey.
§ Mr. HurdBritain and Turkey are and have been for many years linked in close friendship as members of the Atlantic alliance, whose summit meeting starts this evening. The present leaders of Turkey have stated that it is their intention to return the country to democratic forms of government by 1984 and we have no reason to doubt this. For the rest, we are guided by the statement issued by the Foreign Ministers of the then nine member States of the European Community on 15 September 1980.