ANKARA/BRUSSELS - Foreign Minister Yasar Yakýs wrapped up his contacts in Brussels and returned to Turkey on Friday night.
Speaking in a news conference in Brussels where he participated in the European Convention meetings, Yakýs said that the common proposal of France and Germany regarding the decision to be taken at Copenhagen summit about Turkey can't be explained to the Turkish public opinion.
Yakýs said that he does not know how the proposal of France and Germany to start talks with Turkey on July 1, 2005 could take a form in Copenhagen summit, adding that he will make an assessment with the government and opposition members when he returns to Turkey and they will determine their attitude.
''Our party does not have the understanding of doing what we want as we are the ruling party and as we have the majority in the parliament. Our giving decisions by sharing views with the public opinion is a natural result of our pluralist and participatory democracy understanding. We think that we must try to persuade our European friends a little bit more.''
Stressing the importance they attribute to the views of the opposition, Yakýs said that ''we will certainly get the views of the opposition in such a vital issue.'' Yakýs said that he was with CHP deputy Kemal Dervis in his meetings with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Yakýs said that in these meeting, the French and German ministers could not tell anything new other than defending the decision taken by French and German leaders.
''We think that all the laws that will meet the Copenhagen criteria will be adopted by the parliament next week. We must give EU countries time to see the implementation of these laws. We think that six months is enough. We hope the EU to tell us in Thessaloniki summit that we can start negotiations. The funds from which Turkey will benefit will decrease in 2004. The ten countries which are candidates today will join the EU and we will be negotiating with 25 countries, not with 15 countries. There will other factors. A referendum can be in question regarding the enlargement of Europe. In 2004, the issues of conflict with Greece can also be taken to the International Court of Justice. AK Party regards joining the EU as the biggest modernization target, but we think that nothing should be hiden from the public opinion. The efforts we launch to abide by the political and economic criteria are the things we do to improve the living standards of the Turkish people. What happens if they don't admit us to EU? We will continue to live with good standards. Ensuring these standards are an advantage for Turkey,'' Yakýs said.
Yakýs noted that Turkey will object to EU's putting forward new conditions for its EU membership, stressing that Cyprus issue, relations with Greece can't be considered as a precondition in Turkey's accession into EU.
Yakýs said that they took up ESDP issue in his meeting with EU High Commissioner Javier Solana, adding that ''we don'tdelay the ESDP issue, there are certain problems. We expect the EU to approve the document which was adopted as a result of compromise reached with Britain.''
Yakýs also met with Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel the same day.