BRUSSELS (A.A) - 24.06.2002 - Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister Mesut Yilmaz said on Sunday that if a decision to open full membership negotiations with Turkey was taken this December, Turkey could become a European Union (EU) member in 2007-2008 together with Bulgaria and Romania.
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) hosted a dinner in Brussels, where a TOBB delegation is lobbying for Turkey's EU accession.
Yilmaz, who spoke at the dinner, informed the participants about Turkey's EU accession process and how the EU was formed.
Deputy Prime Minister Yilmaz said that the Europeans faced with their their own history when forming the Customs Union but Turkey could not do the same thing.
Yilmaz noted that Turkey could not keep up with the west those days. He said that when there was industrial revolution in Europe, Turkey took loans, built Dolmabahce and Yildiz palaces.
Although Ataturk won the war against the west, he saw that Turkey's future was in Europe, Yilmaz stated.
Yilmaz pointed out that Europe's point of view towards Turkey changed following the EU Summit in Luxembourg. After this summit, Yilmaz said, the EU members started to ask themselves how an EU which excluded Turkey could be.
Stressing that the EU's wish to become a world power could not be achieved without Turkey, Yilmaz said that the EU had seen that it could not be a global power without Turkey.
Yilmaz who stated that Turkey was found in the most critical point of the 50-year EU adventure today said, ''in fact we are in a closest point to the EU. But there are still some obstacles in front of us.''
When asked what those obstacles were, Yilmaz said that the reasons of those difficulties were Turkey's fight against the terrorism.
He said that the other difficulty was the fear to turn back to dark days of Turkey again on the condition that some criteria which were valid for the membership to the EU today were fulfilled.
Yilmaz went on to say that some circles shared this view and some were not and added that but those concerns prevented this consensus which was necessary for Turkey's taking the following steps.
Mesut Yilmaz stated that Turkey had not shown a compromising image in its relations with the EU so far and added that they believed that Turkey would reach compromise at the meetings in following period.
Yilmaz said that Turkey's membership negotiations with the EU would be difficult but they would not last long.
He added that Turkey would start the negotiations earlier than the other countries.
Yilmaz said that Turkey's full membership negotiation process with the EU would not last longer than full membership negotiations of other candidate countries.
''If the EU sets a date for the beginning of full membership negotiations with the EU during its summit meeting in Copenhagen in December, Turkey can become a full member of the EU in 2007-2008 together with Bulgaria and Romania. The beginning of full membership negotiations will be an important signal in efforts to solve problems of unemployment and economic growth, and in drawing attention of foreign investors,'' he said.
Yilmaz noted, ''Nearly 850 million U.S. dollars of foreign capital came to Turkey last year. The total amount of foreign capital in Turkey reached 3 billion U.S. dollars. Turkey has been living through an extremely critical period.''