KIZILCAHAMAM - Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said on Wednesday that no excuse in 2004 would be able to prevent the full membership negotiations between Turkey and the EU in 2004.
Addressing a seminar in ''EU, Social Policies and Trade Union Movement'' held by Moral Rights Trade Union (Hak-Is) and ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) in Kýzýlcahamam, Baykal said that he was hopeful about the future of Turkey-EU relations and that there was a determined programme in question. Baykal hoped EU to start full membership negotiations with Turkey at the end of 2004. Stressing that the decision to start negotiations with EU was a delayed decision which Turkey deserved, Baykal said that the two parties in the parliament wanted Turkey to take part in EU and they were determined to do the necessary things regarding this issue.
''This is an important incident, we must assess it. There is a programme. In fact, Turkey does not have serious shortcomings that will prevent it from starting membership negotiations with the EU. These negotiations can easily start now. Turkey has problem in implementation. This shortcoming will be met soon... I hope new criteria will not put forward in front of Turkey,'' Baykal said.
Noting that Cyprus issue was not a Copenhagen political criteria, Baykal said that there were attempts to present Cyprus issue as a political criteria.
''No body has the right to tell Turkey that EU won't admit Turkey as Turkey didn't reach an agreement with South Cyprus,'' Baykal said.
Baykal stated that the atmosphere of compromise between Turkey and Greece turned into a tense atmosphere all of a sudden, adding that there were claims that Turkish planes entered Greek airspace and that they harassed Greek planes. Pointing out that the airspace of Turkey and Greece was six miles, Baykal said that ''the airspace is the area over the territorial waters. It means Greece's airspace is six miles, but the latter says its airspace is 10 miles, yet this is a unilateral decision. Greece could not make NATO, U.S. and Turkey accept its unilateral decision. Our planes fly by thinking that the airspace of Greece is six miles, but Greece claims all flights made within 6 to 10 miles are harassment. There is no violation in fact, this is not a new application. It continues for years. It is not an important issue, there is nothing that can excuse the emergence of a new tension in the relations between the two countries. Here Turkey's EU perspective comes into play. Then, the question of needing to create a tension in the region comes to one's mind. We want to live in stability and peace in this region.''
(ÖÞ-AÖ) 18.06.2003