BERLIN - Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said on Thursday that Turkey worked hard to get a good result from the European Union (EU) in the summit of heads of state and government due on December 17th.
Cicek, who met some parliamentarians and businessmen of Turkish origin in German capital of Berlin, said that Turkish officials were visiting European capitals with representatives of non-governmental organizations, and expressing expectations and hesitations of Turkey on the road to EU membership.
Germany was the country which extended the maximum support to Turkey's EU membership bid, Cicek stated.
Cicek said, ''we were told that our (membership) negotiations would start if we fulfilled (necessary) political criteria, and a road map was submitted to us. As the progress report obviously said, Turkey has fulfilled all the political criteria. This is an assessment of not only us, but also Guenter Verheugen, the European Commissioner for enlargement, had clearly said so in Brussels and during his visit to Turkey.''
-TURKEY'S EXPECTATION-
Cicek noted that Turkey expected the EU to say ''yes'' to opening negotiations (in December), and continued, ''we expect our German friends to help us eliminate hesitations of some other (EU member) countries if they have any. We expect the EU to apply the same conditions to Turkey as any other candidate country, and to pursue the same method during negotiations with Turkey.''
''Objections of some circles to Turkey's membership bid, suspension of our membership or being subject to a long negotiation process, and any other special status is not valid for us. Turkey's population, possibilities, capacities, its advantages to the EU, and its disadvantages were known during the summit held in 2002. So, imposing some conditions, which were not laid down before us those days, is not fair,'' Cicek said.
Asked if Turkey would become an EU member in 10 years, Cicek said, ''if we are good-willed and if you don't have any prejudices stemming from fanaticism about Turkey's membership or any other reason, whether this process will prolong or take a shorter time than expected depends on the two parties. The sooner we fulfil our obligations during this negotiation process and the sooner we make new reforms and regulations, the shorter this process will be. But, if we don't fulfil our responsibilities or if our interlocutors want to prolong this process although we fulfil our liabilities, this process may be longer. So, I think it is better to only continue negotiations at this moment. We have fulfilled our responsibilities, and expect pacta sund servanda from our interlocutors.''
(BRC-AÖ) 21.10.2004