ANKARA (AA) - Swedish Parliamentary Industry and Trade Commission Chairperson Marie Granlund and accompanying delegation met Turkish Industry & Trade Minister Ali Coskun in Ankara on Tuesday.
Coskun told reporters, ``Turkey has met the Copenhagen criteria and become an unproblematic country in terms of economic and political stability,`` he added.
``Turkey will also complete the Maastricht criteria until 2007. Europe proposes long timetables for Turkey. However, we want to join EU sooner as a full member. Turkey has been waiting for 42 years to join the EU. We do not want to wait any more. Unfortunately, as long as Turkey meets conditions, EU asks Turkey to meet different conditions which have not been imposed on any other candidate countries. So-called Armenian genocide can be shown as an example,`` said Coskun.
Coskun noted, ``a civil war period which happened in Ottoman Empire is now brought onto agenda of European parliaments. Turkey supports peace. We think that people in the world need peace. Turkey is a bridge between Balkans and Caucasia as well as Middle East and Central Asia and wants to have peaceful relations.``
``Trade volume between Turkey and Sweden is not at the desired level. Foreign capital flow to Turkey which was 2.5 billion USD in 2004 will reach 5 billion USD in 2005. Foreign trade volume is 170 billion USD,`` said Coskun.
Meanwhile, Swedish Commission Chairperson Granlund said that they visited Turkey for the first time.
Granlund noted that the Prince of Sweden will visit Turkey this year adding that also representatives of 30 Swedish companies had recently visited Istanbul. Granlund said that they hoped that the project between TeliaSonera and Turkcell would be implemented.
Granlund added that there are 100,000 Swedish citizens of Turkish origin in Sweden.
(GC-MS)
2005-05-03