EU Membership Still Primary Foreign Policy Issue For Turkey, Chief EU Negotiator

ROME - The Turkish chief negotiator for EU talks said on Monday that EU membership was still a primary foreign policy issue for Turkey.

In an interview with the Italian daily "La Repubblica", Turkish State Minister & Chief Negotiator for EU Talks Egemen Bagis said Turkey was a great power and it desired to become an EU member.

"Full membership to EU continues to be an issue with priority in our foreign policy," Bagis said.

Upon a question on the latest tension between Turkey and Israel, Bagis said that Israel's waging an operation against a ship carrying humanitarian aid on international waters was unacceptable.

"This is a state terror," Bagis said, adding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should take responsibility regarding such act of terror and piracy.

Noting there were not only Turks but people from 32 countries on board the "Mavi Marmara" ship raided by Israeli forces, Bagis said, "Therefore, the international community should act together to provide the launching of an investigation that will enlighten the dark side of this horrible attack".

Bagis said the EU had also condemned the Israeli attack, however, it would have been better if the union itself had initiated an investigation on the incident.

Commenting on Vatican's stance on Turkey's EU bid as well, Bagis said a message to be given by the Vatican to the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world would be as important as Turkey's EU membership.

"Dialogue between religions should continue," the Turkish negotiator also said.