BERLIN (CÝHAN) - Alliance '90/Greens parliamentary group co-leader Krista Sager praised Turkey's successful implementation of EU-inspired reforms.
Sager received the Turkish parliament speaker Bülent Arinc and an accompanying delegation on Tuesday.
The German leader said that the broadcasting of programs in non-Turkish language and dialects is an important development.
Arinc has been paying a 5-day official visit to Germany at the invitation of his counterpart in the German Federal Assembly Wolfgang Thierse.
The Turkish State Radio Television Institution (TRT) has added non-Turkish language broadcasts beginning last week to please the EU. The current broadcasts are in Arabic, Bosnian and Circassian as well as the two Kurdish dialects, Zaza and Kurmanjý.
Sager said that Turkey with its secular and democratic state order could be a bridge between Europe and the Islamic world. Sager also said that the final decision to open accession talks with Turkey will be made following the preparation of the EU Commission regular report on Turkey. The German leader said that Turkey's EU membership bid was not used for internal political gain in Germany as had been feared.
Sager pledged to support Turkey's EU membership process.
EU membership hopeful Turkey is seeking to open accession talks with the EU commission in December now that it has legislated numerous EU-inspired reforms over recent years. These reforms have been praised by the EU leaders.
The EU Commission is due to issue a Progress Report this October on whether Turkey has met the EU political criteria.