ANKARA - Wilfried Martens, the President of the European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament (EP), signaled on Friday that a probable admittance of Turkish Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) in their group would mean that ''there was a strong support behind Turkey''.
Sources said that Martens, who was received today by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also leading the AK Party, invited AK Party to join their group at the EP.
The same sources quoted Martens as saying that EPP was the biggest group at the EP, and there were ten prime ministers with Christian democrat origin in the group.
Asking Erdogan to apply to their group for membership in the possible shortest time, Martens said that if Turkey applied immediately, they would feel themselves obliged to take a decision regarding the application before December 2004. Because, he noted, a date would probably be set for Turkey (to start full membership negotiations to the EU) in December.
''If you apply after this date, your application may be concluded later since there won't be any date to catch,'' Martens said.
-RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS-
When Martens touched on religious freedoms in Turkey, Erdogan stated that any religious group did not have any problem as regards the freedom of worship or fulfilling requirements of their religious beliefs.
As Martens recalled the seminary in Heybeliada, Istanbul, Erdogan noted that it was the Higher Education Board (YOK) who was authorized to decide on this matter.
Martens invited Erdogan to join the summit in which leaders of EPP member parties would participate at the end of October.
Recalling that some Turkish political parties had joined their group before, Martens said, ''but, these parties did not have the support of the nation as much as yours has. Therefore, we want your party to become a member of our group.''
-ERDOGAN TO JOIN FRENCH-GERMAN SUMMIT-
Meanwhile, Erdogan will join French-German Summit in German capital of Berlin on October 26th, it was learned.
(BRC-ULG) 30.07.2004