Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 14 2004

Turkish PM: EU Membership Would Link Islam and West

Turkey’s prime minister says allowing his country to join the
European Union would contribute to what he called the “harmony of
civilizations.”

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells Britain’s Independent
newspaper, in an interview published Monday, that giving membership
to the Muslim majority nation would help reconcile the Islamic and
Western worlds and prove the European Union is not what he calls a
“Christian club.”

E.U. ministers will decide whether to open formal membership talks
with Turkey at their summit this week in Brussels.

As a condition for those talks, France says it wants Turkey to
acknowledge the massacre of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as
genocide.

Mr. Erdogan says Turkey has met all the E.U. membership requirements,
including eliminating torture and the death penalty.

But some European leaders have misgivings about Turkish membership,
citing its human rights record.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress