Erdogan: E.U. Does Not Give A Negotiation Date To Turkey, It Will Have Difficulty In Explaining It To World

ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday regarding the probability of EU's not giving a negotiation date to Turkey that ''EU can't justify such a decision, it will have difficulty in explaining it to the world and we will also have difficulty in explaining such a decision to our people.''
Erdogan said that in such a case, Turkey would be very disappointed, but it would not be the end of the world, adding that ''then, we can turn Copenhagen criteria into Ankara criteria and continue on our way.''
Prime Minister Erdogan received the high ranking media representatives of EU Communication Group and replied to their questions.
When one reporter said some reports still asserted that there was torture in Turkey, Erdogan said that the government had ''zero tolerance'' against torture during its one year in office and he didn't know if the reports were based on sound information. '''But we take initiative immediately about the information we receive and we won't ever make concession from that.''
When a journalist asked ''What will you do if no negotiation date is given to Turkey in EU Summit in December and what will happen if there is a postponement?'' Erdogan replied, ''EU can't justify such a decision and will have difficulty in explaining it to world. We will also have difficulty in explaining it to our people. There will be a big disappointment, but certainly this will not be the end of the world. We will turn Copenhagen criteria into Ankara criteria and continue on our way.''
When a journalist talked about ''a scenario in which Turkey was ready for EU, but EU was not ready for Turkey and that EU didn't have a constitution,'' Erdogan said that ''then what about the countries which were admitted to EU to date? Was the EU Constitution ready so that they were admitted?''
When asked what advantages would Turkey bring to EU in case of its membership, Erdogan said that ''admitting Turkey will end the question of 'is EU a Christian club?', will show that EU is an integrity of political values and it will bring together civilizations. Turkey's being a member of EU as a country which brought together Islam with democracy culture, will ensure such a change in remaining Turkish and Islamic world.''
Upon a question asking if Turkey would have an additional gesture regarding Cyprus issue, Erdogan said that Turkey did its best to date, but the Greek Cypriot side didn't respond to them in the same way.
Erdogan added that the fourth negotiation process resumed by the initiatives and intensive efforts of Turkey, giving examples from the gestures made for the Greek Cypriot side.
(Öª-AÖ) 03.03.2004