ANKARA - Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Ognyan Gerdjikov, who is currently in Turkey, visited Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal on Monday.
Speaking in the meeting, Gerdjikov said that opposition was just as important as the government in countries which were governed by democracy. Gerdjikov stated that the election threshold in his country was 4 percent in Bulgaria, adding that if the ten percent threshold in Turkey also decreased to that level, more political parties would be able to join the parliament. Gerdjikov also thanked for the support which Turkey extended to Bulgaria's NATO membership.
CHP leader Baykal said in his part that the relations between the two countries were in a very positive level, adding that Turkey closely monitored the transformation process in Bulgaria. Noting that Bulgaria reconstructed itself economically and it came to the stage of taking responsibility in NATO, Baykal said that it moved in a steady way on the way to EU. Baykal noted that this process would open the way of radical transformation not only in Bulgaria, but in the whole region, adding that Turkey and Bulgaria would also be in cooperation in the new political, economical and security atmosphere in the future. Baykal stated that reciprocal visits of statesmen had great importance in respect of evaluating this big potential.
(Öª-AÖ) 23.02.2004