Gul: In Case Decision In December About Turkey Is Subjective, This Will Lead To Reactions

TALLINN - ''In case the decision about Turkey is subjective in European Union (EU) summit in December, this will lead to reactions,'' Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Thursday.
Gul told a joint press conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland that Turkey passed the critical threshold, met political criteria, and fully sure that progress report would be positive and fair.
Gul said, ''if the political decision becomes subjective despite all these, this will of course lead to reactions.''
Gul said they had a list and reached to current point following this list with the EU Commission.
Giving information about the reform process in Turkey, Gul said, ''we do not think of asking anything from the EU before completing our homework.''
Asked about his estimations about when Turkey could be a member of the EU, Gul said, ''may be 10 years...Negotiations will take time. This depends on the performance.'' Gul said starting of negotiations and becoming a full member should be discriminated from each other.
Asked about statement of EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen that there were still things which Turkey should do about issue of Kurds, Gul said, ''he praised Turkey. We said he may visit wherever he wants in Turkey. He said the critical threshold was passed in Turkey. Turkey will certainly continue the reform process. Verheugen very clearly expressed that everything progressed well in Turkey.''
Reminding the journalists that Turkey supported NATO and EU membership of Estonia, Gul said, ''we expect Estonia to support Turkey on EU membership.''
Estonian Foreign Minister said Estonia was not intended to obstruct starting negotiations with Turkey, stating that they would be very pleased to hear about starting of negotiations.
Expressing pleasure over reform process in Turkey, Ojuland said they expected the progress report to be positive.
(AY) 09.09.2004