LONDON - Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in British capital London, the second leg of his three-day tour to Berlin, London, Brussels, Dublin and Strasbourg early on Wednesday.
Responding to questions of journalists aboard the plane as he was heading from German capital Berlin to British capital London, Erdogan said, ''there is not any other candidate country which is not given a date for opening of accession talks except Turkey. In fact, Turkey is in a better situation than other candidate countries. It is an unfair attitude against Turkey.''
Referring to statements of EU Convention Chairman Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Erdogan said, ''I wonder whether these statements were practices of a strategy.''
''During our contacts in Germany, we explained our expectation from the EU to set a date for opening of accession talks with Turkey at the Copenhagen Summit in December. However, they told us that we should not expect it. As you know, the EU proposed us to set a date for giving a date to Turkey. Germany, France and Britain have undertaken important roles in Turkey's EU full membership process. Although Germany seems acting with good will, the German government is uneasy due to the negative attitude of Christian democratcs,'' he said.
Responding to a question, Erdogan said, ''the lawsuit filed in Turkey against German foundations was brought onto agenda during our contacts in Germany. German side expressed its uneasiness about the lawsuit. We told them that it is out of question to intervene in a judicial process, and called German people to rely on the judicial system in Turkey.''
When asked ''what will happen if a date is given to Turkey that will tell when the accession talks with Turkey will start,'' Erdogan said that ''we can accept that, but this will prolong the process. We must have higher demands now.''
Erdogan said that Turkey's EU membership process gets messed up in Cyprus issue, adding that the Cyprus plan of the U.N is not a plan that will be negotiated in a short period of time. Erdogan said that there is reciprocal ''give and take'' process on this issue, adding that Turkey attributes importance to leave the negotiation door open. ''Is this valid even if we don't get a date?'' asked a journalist upon Erdogan's words. Erdogan replied saying ''we should not talk about such a case, we must sit at the table and we must make reciprocal sacrifices.''
When reporters told Erdogan that Germany and Greece were not very warm about Turkey's EU membership, Erdogan said that he didn't understand that too. Erdogan stressed that there were 2,5 million Turks living in Germany, adding ''what will happen if we can't get the support we expect in Germany. I also told this to German Chancellor Schroeder.''
Erdogan said that Schroeder told him at the end of the meeting that ''I understood now why you had a landslide victory in the elections in Turkey.''
Erdogan said that he will meet with Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal about his contacts in Europe on Friday.