AK Party Deputy Chairman Salih Kapusuz said Turkey, as an independent country, has the right to consider other options if the EU insists on keeping the doors closed to Ankara.
Kapusuz's remarks came after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised the SCO as a likely alternative given possible deadlock in the EU process during a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday.
http://www.todayszaman.com//news-337367-senior-ak-party-official-turkey-may-seriously-consider-shanghai-five-as-alternative-to-eu.html
23/1/14
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EU membership indispensable goal for Turkey, says EU Minister...
ReplyDeleteWhile describing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent visit to Brussels as “extremely successful,” EU Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said EU membership is an “indispensable goal” for Turkey, despite certain flaws and mutual resentments.
Ahead of the visit, some suggested that Turkey’s EU membership negotiations would be halted and that both Erdoğan and Turkey would receive very harsh warnings, “but today, Turkey is a very important country for the European Union,” Çavuşoğlu said on Jan. 23.
“The European Union is also an indispensable process and goal. So, as long as this understanding prevails on both sides, sometimes there may be problems and sometimes flaws and sometimes we may have mutual resentments. It may be within the family and it may be within the party but what matters is not diverging from this goal, and definitely not taking a step backwards from this goal,” he said.
Çavuşoğlu was speaking at a ceremony at the AKP headquarters where he handed over his post as the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) deputy chair in charge of external affairs to Yasin Aktay, an academic who is member of the AKP’s Central Executive Board (MYK) and Central Decision and Executive Council (MKYK).
The Jan. 21 visit to Brussels was the first visit to the EU capital by Erdoğan in five years, and he faced sharp criticism from EU leaders over a recent crackdown on the judiciary and police that has rattled investors.
For his part, Aktay agreed that the EU was “not a dispensable direction” for Turkey, but also added that Ankara could also consider other choices. These should not be assumed as an alternative to EU membership, but could be regarded as a choice “in addition to EU membership,” he said.
Çavuşoğlu, a former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said his impressions while holding bilateral meetings in Brussels on Dec. 22 had strengthened his view that Erdoğan’s one-day trip to Brussels on Dec. 21 had been “extremely successful.” .................http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/eu-membership-indispensable-goal-for-turkey-says-eu-minister-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=61465&NewsCatID=338
23/1/14