ISTANBUL - Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that no serious lobbying activities were carried out for Turkey's EU membership process to date, adding that ''EU membership needs launching of serious efforts.''
Speaking in a meeting at Marmara University Theology Faculty's Foundation restaurant, Erdogan said that there are serious difficulties in the country and outside.
Erdogan said that he visited European countries whenever his party came to power, adding that the result of his visit to EU countries was very important. ''The thing that is important is that Turkey is on the world's agenda. We told EU countries that they will be tested too during the Copenhagen summit while taking a decision about the membership of Turkey. We told them that Turkey waits to become the member of the EU for 40 years, and the EU should not keep it wait anymore. As Luxembourg Prime Minister clearly told, EU should not be insincere and hypocritical towards Turkey.''
''A decision will be given in Copenhagen summit between 12-14 December about the future of Turkey. Wehteher a positive or negative decision is taken, Turkey is on the agenda of EU,'' said Erdogan.
Drawing the attention that 75-80 percent of Turkey, its parliament, majority of political parties outside the parliament wanted EU, Erdogan said, ''if you give a negative decision, people will say that they had earlier noted that the EU is a Christian club. People will say, 'we are Muslim and Turk. Turkey is a big country. Turkey has a big population and they will not admit us.' You will prove that you are a Christian club with this attitude and prove Huntington. We do not want to make them right. We are saying that they should give this decision and find the opportunity to integrate and compromise among civilizations instead of a conflict among civilizations. To achieve this, they have to give a date to open negotiations with Turkey. Otherwise, they will incite a conflict among civilizations.''
Erdogan noted that they would negotiate results of their contacts with 14 countries during his meeting with Danish Prime Minister.
Some iniatiatives would be concluded in the parliament after the Feast of Ramadan, Erdogan stated.
Erdogan said that they would show that Turkey did everything and noted, ''these criteria are necessary for fundamental rights and liberties and living standards of our people even if they admit us or not.''
Economic indicators were positive, Erdogan noted and stated that internal and external debt could be extended to long term with low interest rate.
Erdogan pointed out that stock exchange increased and foreign investors had more confidence in Turkey.