GAZIANTEP - Turkish State Minister Mehmet Simsek said Thursday the European Union needed "dynamic countries" like Turkey in order to become a major economic and political power.
"Turkey has reached an economic volume worth of over 900 billion USD and it is the sixth biggest economy of the Union. Turkey is an asset for the Union not a liability, and our contributions to the EU will be of utmost importance in every field in the future," Simsek told a Gaziantep meeting co-hosted by Britain-based NGO, LINKS, and the EU Adjustment Committee of Turkish parliament.
Simsek said the EU meant for Turkey "an economic, social and political transformation process, and the Union is the main engine behind the changes and the transformation that Turkey made over the last six or seven years."
"Turkey is not only a democratic country with a rule a law but it is also an overwhelmingly Muslim nation which is secular. And in the period ahead, Turkey will be boosting secularism because the integration with the EU and with the West does not allow any other way of thinking. And our country will ease concerns on this issue," Simsek said.
"The EU is also very important for Turkey to remove its shortcomings in its democracy as a point of reference. We are a young democracy and it is a priority for us to strengthen our democratic character and legal structure," Simsek said.
Simsek also qualified Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code as "a major shortcoming and people in Turkey should not be tried in courts any more just because of expressing their thoughts."
(YMB-MS)