ANKARA - Germany's Christian Democrat Union (CDU) Party leader Angela Merkel will come to Turkey on Monday.
Releasing a statement on Thursday, German Embassy in Ankara said that Merkel would hold meetings in Ankara and Istanbul between February 16 and 17.
Merkel is expected to come together with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. Following this meeting, Erdogan and Merkel will hold a joint press conference.
CDU leader Merkel will also hold meetings with Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc and Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul.
Merkel will also give a conference entitled, ''Future of Europe'' at Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Merkel will proceed to Istanbul on February 17 and meet with representatives of churches in Turkey. She is also expected to deliver a speech on ''reform process in Germany'' in German-Turkish Chamber of Commerce.
CDU leader Merkel is known as a person who is not warm to Turkey's European Union (EU) membership within the scope of her party's policy.
Merkel held a press conference on February 4 at the 16th congress of European People's Party (EPP) in Brussels and said that she would pay a visit to Turkey.
Stating that she would explain that they wanted a special cooperation with Turkey, Merkel said that they wanted special relations with Turkey to be developed due to geostrategical and security reasons.
Merkel said that Germany and CDU accepted the importance of Turkey's contributions to NATO and noted that if Turkey was to join the EU, it was natural for Turkey to want to be treated equally with other candidates. Underlining that their difference of opinion started at this point, she said that they, as members of the EU, should not give fake promises to Turkey. She said that they had continuously given Turkey hope for forty years although they knew that they would not yield a result, adding that they should talk to Turkey honestly and they should tell Turkey what could be done and what could not.
(EÖ-AÖ) 12.02.2004