ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to Turkey on Friday after completing his formal visit to Romania.
Speaking to reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Erdogan recalled that he had been accompanied by ministers, businessmen and reporters and it was a quite positive visit in general.
Noting that he believed the enthusiasm of making business and launching initiatives had emerged between Turkey and Romania as a result of meetings that Turkish ministers and businessmen had held with their Romanian counterparts and their meetings under the Turkish-Romanian Business Council Meeting, Erdogan said that they had also had the chance of discussing few problems of nine thousand Turkish investors in Romania with the Romanian Prime Minister. Stating that the bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Romania had been 1.8 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of 2003, which meant a 50 percent increase when compared to 2002, Erdogan said that their bilateral trade volume target in 2004 was at least 2.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Noting that he had also had positive meetings with the Romanian President, Parliament Speaker and Senate President during his visit, Erdogan said, ''they do have a very positive outlook on Turkey. I saw that they exert efforts to enhance bilateral relations.''
Stressing that Turkey and Romania, two Black Sea littoral states, had roots deeps in history, Erdogan said that it also let the two countries get closer to each other in their bilateral relations.
Noting that they had met the worshipping demands of Romanian citizens in Turkey, Erdogan said, ''I hope these steps that we took between Turkey and Romania would create a partnership where our performances in political, economic, commercial and cultural fields increase gradually.''
Stressing that Turkey had supported Romania's NATO membership since the beginning, Erdogan said Romania had the chance of joining the European Union most probably in 2007. Erdogan said that solidarity between Turkey and Romania would continue also in the EU.
Asked whether he was planning to visit Turkey's eastern neighbor Armenia to solve problems, Erdogan said, ''actually, we don't have any sine qua non about this issue. We said something when we started this journey, 'we exist to make friends in the world'. We make politics with this objective. We have to see the environment and climate while we are making it. When we don't see the atmosphere, it gets difficult to take steps on that direction. We wish that we would see and reach such an atmosphere. And if we see it, we take necessary steps.''
''However, it is very difficult for us to take such steps as long as intense Armenian genocide campaigns continue in the world. Our job becomes easier if they leave it to historians. However, our job gets difficult with a country that tries to build the future on a mentality of 'we can't leave it historians'. I wish we would also take such steps there as soon as possible,'' he said.
Replying to a question about early general elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Erdogan said that it was not a decision up to the Turkish government.
''At the moment, it seems that number of the TRNC government members decreased and the TRNC parliament would make such a decision. There is not anything to do under democracy when the TRNC parliament makes such a decision. Decision on early elections is totally up to the TRNC parliament,'' Erdogan added.
(MS) 21.05.2004