ANKARA - Deputy Parliament Speaker Yilmaz Ates received German North Rhine Westphalia State Parliament Free Democrat Party Group Chairman Ingo Wolf and accompanying twenty-two parliamentarians in the parliament on Thursday.
Speaking at the meeting, Wolf said that they were visiting Turkey to assess problems of Turkish citizens living in Germany and developments about the European Union (EU), and they wanted to get information about those issues from Ates.
Meanwhile, Ates said that as the Deputy Parliament Speaker, he could not express opinion on behalf of his party under the Constitution, adding that as the parliament, they attributed great importance to problems of Turkish citizens living in Germany.
Noting that during the EU accession process, Turkey acted by attributing importance to both Germany's position and importance within the EU and its relations with Germany, Ates stressed that they expected the German Free Democrat Party to put forward more positive opinion about Turkey's EU membership.
Later, Ates answered questions of German parliamentarians.
Replying a question which said, ''I personally support Turkey's EU membership. However, I wonder what kind of an attitude would you deploy about handing over of some of your sovereignty rights to the EU after you join the bloc,'' Ates said, ''first of all, which of sovereignty rights will be handed over should be known. Besides, we at first want to pass the first stage; that is, we want to be a member of the EU. This is the first stage, if this stage is completed, requirements of next stages are fulfilled. We have fulfilled our duties so far and we continue to do so.''
When asked about the point of views of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) about the EU, Ates said, ''the philosophy the foundation of the Republic of Turkey is the basic ideas of the western democracies. Among Islamic countries, Turkey is the sole country which reflects these basic ideas to social life. Both the ruling and opposition parties have common approach towards the EU. I mean to say that both parties support EU membership one hundred percent.''
Replying another question, Ates said that the public rapidly reacted to the rare incidents which sometimes seemed to be violation of laws and human rights, and such problems stemming from implementation would be removed in course of time.
Answering a question about EU adjustment packages, Ates said, ''actually, we can't know what exactly the EU wants from us. We have difficulty in understanding new requests from us after approval of adjustment packages. What things are requested from Turkey should be put forward very clearly. Making such requests one after the other causes cold way of behaving in our society eighty percent of whom is in favor of the EU membership. Such new requests and uncertainties cause our people to think whether those problems are outcomes of different religion and culture.''
Ates stressed that increase in fundamentalist and racist terrorist acts against Turkey in Germany caused uneasiness among Turkish people, adding, ''we expect our friendly country Germany to behave sensitively.''
Meanwhile, Ingo Wolf said that also the German public opinion felt uneasy about release of Metin Kaplan, the leader of the Islamic Community-Denominational Vision.
Wolf added that federal group of his party thought that Turkey had not completely fulfilled EU criteria but many parliamentarians supported Turkey's accession to the EU.
(MS-AÖ) 19.06.2003