ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to the EU summit of December 17th and stated that if excitement is managed successfully, it would be possible to achieve positive results.
''However, if you can not manage excitement, you would not be able to achieve anything,'' said Erdogan.
Participating in a talk show on CNN-Turk channel last night, Prime Minister Erdogan said Turkey should not be in a mode of claiming that ''we won and they lost. This would not be proper.''
Erdogan remarked that he had invited Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal to Brussels but was not able to convince him to go to Brussels with his delegation.
''If I was made such an offer, I would have gone to Brussels without hesitation. Baykal did not come. Instead, we went to Brussels with his party's members of parliament. It would have been very nice to have Baykal in Brussels,'' expressed Erdogan.
Erdogan stressed that his government would be working in early January on the issues of forming a delegation to help Turkey's entry talks and establishing a new ministry of European affairs.
When asked how long the entry talks would continue, Erdogan replied that the EU would not ask for anything else other than the fulfillment of the Copenhagen Criteria. ''How long the entry talks will go on depends on our mutual performance. We want to conclude these talks successfully as soon as possible,'' stated Erdogan.
In reference to the upcoming French and Austrian referenda on Turkey's membership, Erdogan said that he was not afraid of the referenda. ''Many things will change till the referenda. We hope to create an atmosphere of harmony with the EU. No, the referenda do not scare us.''
(ES-MS)
2004-12-21