NEW YORK - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sukru Sina Gurel attended on Wednesday the ceremony held at the Battery Park nearby World Trade Center (WTO) site, which was demolished in September 11th terrorist attacks killing thousands of people, on the first anniversary of the attacks.
The ceremony took place at a monument nearby Battery Park. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg lit an eternal flame in the memory of the victims.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was also in attendance at the meeting. All the citizens, representatives of the countries, the citizens of which died in the terrorist attack on WTC, lit the candles which they held in their hands.
FOREIGN MINISTER GUREL HOLDS BILATERAL MEETINGS
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sukru Sina Gurel who is currently in New York to attend the works of 57th Term United Nations (U.N.) General Committee began to hold bilateral meetings on Wednesday.
Gurel showed that Turkey would react to Greek Cypriot administration to be accepted as a member of the European Union (EU) during the meetings with the ministers of the EU countries.
Gurel said that questioning reform laws which Turkey accepted for the adjustment to the Copenhagen criteria was not true.
Gurel met with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, EU Term President Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schussel, Luxemburger Foreign Minister Lydie Polfer and Dutch Foreign Minister Janap de Hoop Scheffer.
Foreign Ministry said that Gurel informed the ministers about the reforms which the Turkish parliament approved on August 3 and added that he underlined existence of a powerful will which could not be questioned by the third sides on the implementation of the reform package. Gurel also informed his European counterparts about Turkey's expectations from the EU.
Diplomatic sources said that the reform package which Turkish parliament passed for the adjustment to the Copenhagen criteria and the steps which Turkey took impressed the EU countries.
Diplomats, who stressed that ''those countries were now trying to understand technical contents and political meaning of the reform package'', said that ''the EU was caught unprepared.''
The diplomats noted that ''the EU was trying to hush up its current situation by saying that 'it had to see the implementation','' adding that ''under the Madrid agreement, implementation was a precondition for only accession, it was not a condition for opening of negotiations.''
Foreign Ministry spokesman's office statement said that Gurel also took up Cyprus question during his contacts.
The statement noted, ''Gurel stressed that the unilateral EU membership process of the Greek Cypriot administration was against the international agreements on Cyprus and the sides that enabled this process would not seem as circles supporting the solution.''
Meanwhile, it was learned that the European ministers did not make any reaction to Gurel like ''if Cyprus question was not solved, Turkey's EU membership would not be possible.''
Iraq issue was another issue taken up during contacts of Gurel. This issue was mainly taken up during Gurel's meeting with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov. In parallel with this, European ministers stated that ''they were pleased with the constructive attitude of Turkey towards Iraqi issue and they expected Ankara to continue that role.''
In the meantime, Gurel will hold his most important meeting with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou on Thursday.
The sides decided to allocate one and a half hours for this meeting. Diplomatic sources said that the meeting could be prolonged if necessary.
Gurel will also attend the working meal to be hosted in honor of chairmen of the delegations by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Foreign Minister Gurel will meet his Irish, Romanian and Polish counterparts and receive members of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) later in the day.