ANKARA (AA) - ``Any referendum to be held in any European Union (EU) member state on the EU Constitution will not affect Turkey`s EU membership bid``, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Wednesday.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Schroeder held a joint press conference after their tete-a-tete meeting in Turkish capital of Ankara.
Schroeder said that they discussed mainly economic matters, and stated that Germany was number one trade partner of Turkey and Germany was attaching great importance to improvement of economic relations with Turkey.
Pointing out that there were liabilities undertaken by both Turkey and the EU on Turkey`s road to EU, Schroeder said that Turkey should continue its reforms and EU should open full membership negotiations with Turkey on time.
Answering a question, Schroeder said that they assessed Erdogan`s proposal to Armenian President Robert Kocharian to set up a joint commission (to examine archives regarding the so-called Armenian genocide allegations) as reasonable, and added, ``we consider these approaches positive, and we will extend every assistance we can.``
(BRC-A֩
2005-05-04