ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to Turkey on Sunday after wrapping up his contacts in Italy.
State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler, Istanbul Mayor Ali Mufit Gurtuna, Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah and other officials welcomed Erdogan at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
ERDOGAN SAYS HE TELLS EU THAT BOTH UNION AND TURKEY WILL GAIN FROM TURKEY'S EU ACCESSION
Erdogan said that he explained in Ambrosetti Forum in Italy that both the European Union (EU) and Turkey would gain from Turkey's accession to the union.
Erdogan made a statement at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport. He said that the forum was very beneficial and he held meetings during the forum.
Noting that relations of Turkey and Italy which entered a dynamic process in recent period gave positive results and signals, Erdogan said that he met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Erdogan said that ministers, high-level managers of well-known firms of the world and former politicians besides the prime ministers of four countries attended the forum.
Noting that he made two presentations in the sessions on ''Country Profile: Turkey'' and ''EU Convention and Institutionalization'' during the forum, Erdogan said that he talked with prime ministers of Spain, Austria and France in the first presentation.
Erdogan said that former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres was the moderator of the session in which he spoke and Paris archbishop addressed the closing session.
He tried to explain Turkey's EU membership process in his speech in the session on ''Country Profile: Turkey'', Erdogan noted.
Erdogan said, ''we told them that both the EU and Turkey will gain much from Turkey's EU accession. We emphasized that the EU should develop an understanding to include Turkey in its enlargement process.''
''One of the issues we stressed was that the EU is not a Christian union and a formation within geographical borders. We also emphasized that the EU is not an 'iron-steel' union and economic union. We also stated that everybody should accept that the EU is a union of political values. We even said that if they made such a mistake, this would mean confining the EU to small Europe,'' Erdogan added.
(GC-BRC) 07.09.2003