ISTANBUL - AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that a negotiation date has to be given to Turkey and this date should not be later than 2003.
''What are your expectations from your visit to the U.S.?'' asked journalists to Erdogan, who said ''I have many contacts in the U.S. The membership process of Turkey to the EU, Cyprus and Iraq will be on our agenda. Our expectation is to get a date from EU. This date should be given to Turkey until the end of 2003, it should not be later than 2003. There is only Turkey left among other candidate countries which could not get this date for 40 years. All countries either got this negotiation date or they are about to become EU members. Therefore Turkey has to start the negotiation process by getting the date for accession talks as soon as possible. If there are shortcomings, Turkey will overcome them in this period. There is a stable government and there is a sound structure in Turkey where the ruling and opposition parties are in consensus of opinion about this issue. Turkey is resolved and 75-80 percent of its population wants to join the EU. The EU is having a test, I think it must be successful in this test.''
When asked his view about the statement of TRNC President Rauf Denktas who said that he was not optimistic after reading the objections of Clerides to Annan plan, Erdogan said ''I find the approach of Clerides as negative, he should have been more compromising.''
ADVERTISEMENT PROMOTING TURKEY'S EU MEMBERSHIP STARTS TO BE PUBLISHED IN EU COUNTRIES
The advertisements prepared by the Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen (TUSIAD), Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), Union of Turkey's Travel Agencies (TURSAB) to support Turkey's EU membership, started to be published in newspapers of EU countries.
Issuing a written statement on the issue, TUSIAD said on Sunday that the advertisements were published today in the language of each EU state and they will also be published on Monday and Tuesday.
The advertisements also put the pictures of prime ministers of some EU countries.
The advertisement which has the picture of EU Commission President Romano Prodi will be published in European Voice nawspaper (published in Brussels) on December 12.
The advertisement says that ''the things that are done explain more things than words,'' and continues ''we launched intensive efforts to undertake brave, democratic and economic reforms.''
''We are already accepted to Europe in many aspects. We are the only country which signed customs deal with EU without being a EU member. We are in the Council of Europe, we are member of the Economic Cooperation and Development Council. One of our soccer teams became the UEFA champion. Ten million Europeans preferred Turkey to spend their holiday last year. We are a milestone for NATO. We have a constitution tradition since 1876 and a multi-party system since 1946. We are a young and dynamic country which is politically stable, and which is ready to contribute to European peace and prosperity. Even if we accept that we have many more things to do, we have a wide national consensus about this issue and we record progress. Please don't miss the historic opportunity to open the way for Turkey in Copenhagen summit,'' it was noted in the announcement.
It was added that Turkey fulfilled majority of the conditions that are necessary to be admitted to EU.