TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER EXPECTS EU TO COME AROUND ON MEMBERSHIP
Desmond Butler

AP Worldstream
Published: Feb 08, 2007

The Turkish foreign minister said that the European Union will
eventually offer membership to Turkey.

Despite the EU’s recent decision to partially freeze talks on
membership, Abdullah Gul said his government expects a long process
ending in Turkey’s accession.

"I believe that the EU will realize the strategic importance of Turkey
soon enough and reverse its negative approach," he said in a speech
at the German Marshall Fund.

Gul said that Turkey’s importance to Europe as a Muslim-majority
country on the cusp of the Middle East with rising importance to the
West as a transit point for energy sources would make it irresistible.

"The effect of EU membership will be felt across the world," he
said. "There is too much at stake to fail."

Gul also repeated warnings he has made throughout a visit to Washington
against a proposed congressional resolution that would recognize the
World War I era killings of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman empire
as genocide. He said a resolution would insult the Turkish people.

"Do you think the people in Turkey will understand when their boys are
in Afghanistan and are together with your troops?" he said referring
to the 800 Turkish troops operating in Afghanistan under NATO command.

The congressional resolution, which was introduced for consideration
last month, is opposed by the Bush administration, but has been
supported by the Democratic leadership. Gul said this week that if
it was passed, it would damage relations between the two countries.

In talks with top U.S. officials, Gul has also raised Turkish
frustration with U.S. policy in Iraq, particularly concern that the
U.S. is not doing enough to help root out militants from the Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, holed up in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

Gul has expressed Turkish nervousness about the status of the northern
Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Turkish officials have said they will not rule
out military intervention amid growing tensions among ethnic Turkmens,
Arabs and Kurds in the oil-rich region around Kirkuk. Kurdish leaders
want to annex the city, which lies just south of the autonomous
Kurdish region stretching across Iraq’s northeast.

Iraq’s constitution calls for a referendum on the issue by the end
of this year.

Gul said that Turkey would like to see Kirkuk remain a multiethnic
Iraqi city.

"This one city, this important city does not belong to one group,"
he said.

"There are no borders within Iraq."
From: Baghdasarian