Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Sept 30 2007
Turkish premier views Armenian claims, EU membership
New York, 30 September: "Turkey will not be remembered as the country
of military interventions from now on. Turkey has made its
preference, and it is democracy," Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said on Saturday [29 September].
"If we can see our differences as a richness, and if we can perceive
well and settle our principles such as democracy, secularism, and
social state of law, many issues can be solved," he told
representatives of Turkish community and Turkish citizens at the
Mariott Marquies Hotel in New York.
Erdogan noted, "we will go on our path to raise living standards of
our country, and to bring Turkey to the level of contemporary
civilizations as a democratic, secular, social state of law."
1915 Incidents
Stating that more than 1 million documents in Turkish archives have
been classified so far, Erdogan said that Turkey wants Armenia and
other countries to open their archives.
These documents should be examined, and a report should be prepared,
he pointed out.
"As politician, we can make a decision afterwards. If Turkey has some
mistakes, we can come to terms with our history. But are you ready to
do so? We are standing firm regarding this matter, and we will
continue to do so," he added.
EU membership
On the other hand, Erdogan said, "our government is determined about
EU membership. We have no hesitations. We have a president, a prime
minister, a foreign minister and a government who believe in EU
process. Therefore we are dealing with this issue altogether, and
continue to do so."
Erdogan pointed out that EU process is not an easy one, and said, "of
course, there will be some obstacles, but we maintain our efforts
despite those obstacles."
Turks In USA
Noting that US citizenship of Turks living in this country will have
positive contributions to Turkish-US relations, Erdogan said, "why
doesn’t a Turk become a member of the US Congress? I always think
that and long for that."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
