İçeriğe geçmek için "Enter"a basın

groong: Former German chancellor Schmidt: Turkey does not belong in E.U.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturDecember

13, 2003, Saturday

BERLIN – In a position putting him at odds with his Social Democratic
Party(SPD), former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has told the
Sundaypaper Bild am Sonntag that he did not believe that Turkey
shouldbelong to the European Union.In an interview made available
in advance to Deutsche Presse Agenturdpa, Bild am Sonntag cited
the former West German chancellor(1974-1982) as saying his view was
not based on culturalconsiderations, but rather geo-political. “Not
mainly cultural grounds, or because most Turks are Moslems, butrather
because Turkey has other interests oriented towards its ownregion,”
Schmidt said about his opinion on E.U. membership.”Full membership
(for Turkey) would confront the E.U. withneighbourly problems with
Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon,” hesaid.”In addition, there
is the problem of the Kurdish people who aredistributed among three
states,” Schmidt added, referring to Turkey,Iran and Iraq.Schmidt’s
view puts him at odds with his SPD party, which backs atleast keeping
the door open to Turkey being able one day to negotiatewith the E.U. on
gaining membership, provided Ankara can meet E.U.rules in such areas
as human rights and parliamentary democracy.Germany’s conservative
Christian Democratic Union/Christian SocialUnion opposition is
opposed to Turkish E.U. membership, with thoseparties generally
citing cultural concerns given Turkey’s majorityMoslem population.
The recent spate of terror bomb attacks inIstanbul was also cited
by the opposition against Turkish membership.The issue of Turkish
membership in the E.U. is a particularlysensitive one in Germany,
with some two million ethnic Turks livingin the country, making up
the biggest foreign minority group. dpa dssc

Yorumlar kapatıldı.