Turkish President Abdullah Gül has said Turkey's bid to become a full member of the European Union is stronger than ever despite its ailing economy and the increasingly growing opposition of member states to Turkey's accession.
Gül, in an interview with British daily Financial Times, said Turkey's membership bid is strong both on economic and political grounds, stressing that Turkey will continue to enact required reforms despite the reluctance of some member countries to see Turkey a member of the 27-nation bloc.
“Some people may think that Turkey would be a burden for the EU, but I believe it to be just the contrary: Turkey would be the engine for the growth of the EU,” he said in the interview.
Gül said Ankara is “in no way” considering anything less than successfully completing negotiations or becoming an EU member. Turkey also warned that its EU membership bid “will be frozen if there is no solution to the Cyprus conflict by mid-2012, when Greek Cyprus is scheduled to take the EU's rotating term presidency, representing the entire island.”
The Turkish president said although Turkey was told when it began membership negotiations in 2005 that it was not yet a functioning free-market economy, it had long maintained that “we had a better functioning market economy than some of the member states of the EU at the time.”
Gül added, “I always say that if, due to various political reasons and … the narrow-minded [approach] of some of the EU member countries, the accession negotiations are taken hostage, then we should … continue as we are, opening and closing [negotiating] chapters.”
“I always tell our friends in the EU: If a Muslim country that is economically strong and democratically strong [joins], would that be to your advantage or disadvantage? First think about it and then decide,” he said, Today’s Zaman reported.
