{"id":36962,"date":"2011-07-02T12:37:55","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T09:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=36962"},"modified":"2014-01-06T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T08:00:09","slug":"davutoglu-westerwelle-speak-of-rescuing-turkeys-eu-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/07\/02\/davutoglu-westerwelle-speak-of-rescuing-turkeys-eu-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Davuto\u011flu, Westerwelle speak of rescuing Turkey\u2019s EU bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, stressed in \u0130stanbul the need to rescue Turkey\u2019s European Union membership talks that are currently at standstill, reiterating \u201cstrong bilateral ties\u201d both countries enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Foreign
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle had talks in \u0130stanbul on Friday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle had talks in \u0130stanbul on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have discussed Turkish-EU relations,\u201d Davuto\u011flu told a news conference after his bilateral talks with Westerwelle on Friday, who is a foreign minister visiting Turkey after July 12 vote that brought Davuto\u011flu\u2019s party to power for the third time in a landslide victory.<\/p>\n

Turkish foreign minister said he shared with his German counterpart that one of most important agenda item in Turkish foreign policy after June 12 vote is the candidate country\u2019s ties with the EU.<\/p>\n

No single chapter was opened in the past 12 months which further made Turkey lose its already declining apetite for a membership in the 27-nation bloc.<\/p>\n

Wary of stalled process, Davuto\u011flu pointed to a necessity for a \u201cnew strategic viewpoint\u201d in Turkish-EU relations, immediately stressed that Turkey already has one: Turkey sees its future in Europe and it has a will to make it whole with the EU in the shortest time period.<\/p>\n

Davuto\u011flu said Turkey rejects agenda items that are not related to the negotiation talks and calls for opening negotiation chapters. \u201cTurkey wants strategic decision that was made by the two sides in 2004 to be realized,\u201d Davuto\u011flu underlined.<\/p>\n

Turkey opened accession talks with the EU in 2005 but has been able to begin talks on only 13 chapters, out of 35, so far. The EU Commission has suspended talks on eight chapters due to Turkey\u2019s refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU member Greek Cyprus. In addition, France, a vocal opponent of Turkish membership, also blocks talks on five chapters that it says are directly related to accession.<\/p>\n

In a sign of even further deterioration, Turkey and the EU have been unable to open talks on any chapter for the past 12 months. Talks were planned to begin on the competition chapter last year, but were postponed due to what the EU says insufficient preparations on the part of Turkey. With the government unwilling to take painful measures required to meet EU criteria to open talks on the competition chapter, it is not clear whether talks on that area could begin soon.<\/p>\n

Davuto\u011flu said Turkey has fulfilled its responsibility regarding Cyprus problem and other areas, noting that Turkey has faced with double standards.<\/p>\n

Davuto\u011flu thanked Westerwelle for his \u201cclear position\u201d on Turkey\u2019s EU membership and said Turkey attaches importance to Germany\u2019s position in upcoming period as it will be determining the future of Turkish-EU relations.<\/p>\n

Westerwelle also said he supports speeding up Turkey\u2019s EU membership talks based on certain criteria, stressing that the sides need to treat with each other with fairness and respect.<\/p>\n

Speaking about Turkey\u2019s importance in the region and bilateral ties, German foreign minister said Turkey is a strategically key country in solving global and particularly regional problems and that Turkey is a good partner and friend for Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey\u2019s regional vicinity is experiencing a historic transformation and Turkey is playing a key role in this. This is a necessary reason to discuss Turkey\u2019s full membership in Europe in a fair and respectful way,\u201d Westerwelle said, adding that it is not a positive development that no any chapter opened in the past year.<\/p>\n

via Davuto\u011flu, Westerwelle speak of rescuing Turkey\u2019s EU bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, stressed in \u0130stanbul the need to rescue Turkey\u2019s European Union membership talks that are currently at standstill, reiterating \u201cstrong bilateral ties\u201d both countries enjoy. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle had talks in \u0130stanbul on Friday. \u201cWe have discussed Turkish-EU […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":36965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[3729],"class_list":["post-36962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu-members","tag-westerwelle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}