![\"7854744.bin\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/7854744.bin_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nBy Jennifer Campbell, Ottawa Citizen January 22, 2013<\/p>\n
Turkey eager for admittance to European Union<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gov. Gen. David Johnston received credentials from three new ambassadors Jan. 18 at Rideau Hall. Pictured here are Nancy Ndiaye Ngom of Senegal, Johnston, Riadh Essid of Tunisia and Jean-Louis Wolzfeld of Luxembourg.<\/p>\n
Photograph by: Cpl Roxanne Shewchuk , Rideau Hall<\/p>\n
The new Turkish ambassador to Canada says his country\u2019s interest in gaining admittance to the European Union has waned among members of the public but it shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
He said Turkey is Western in view and the EU is the \u201cpersonification of that.\u201d He said it could be argued that Turkey\u2019s transition toward democracy started in the late Ottoman period. \u201cThere were lots of reforms and Ataturk stated (his interest) in bringing the Turkish nation and state to the contemporary civilization level. That goal is also personified in the EU accession process.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it takes two to tango and, as you know, in 1996 Turkey became the only country that has the customs union without being a member. In 2005, we started our accession negotiations, at the same time as Croatia, and Croatia is already given a date for admittance to the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
He congratulated Croatia and said their success has nothing to do with Turkey\u2019s stagnation, but the Turkish people, he said, don\u2019t understand why Croatia is acceding and Turkey isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s about principles, Turkey deserves to be a EU member,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are hopeful in the Irish presidency to open up new negotiating chapters. Only science and research has been completed. At this pace, it will take a long time to complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the EU stands to gain by Turkey\u2019s membership, both in terms of the EU becoming a multicultural, multi-religious global actor and also because Turkey\u2019s economic performance, in light of the global economic crisis, has shown the EU that it will not be a burden but rather, \u201ca catalyst for the EU\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing relatively well in terms of the global economic meltdown. The EU is still our major trading partner but we\u2019ve diversified into trade relations with our neighbours as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that the German finance minister recently noted that there may be a time in the future when the EU regrets not having Turkey as a member.<\/p>\n
Asked about Turkey\u2019s relations with its Kurdish minority, he said there have been some promising developments. \u201cThere are high hopes with talks going on between the BDP (party associated with Kurdish rights) and the PKK (whose leader is jailed in Turkey) so I hope that this is one of the important chances to settle the issue and have armistice. Everyone is very much in favour of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to press freedom, he acknowledged the system isn\u2019t perfect but said \u201cmost\u201d of the journalists in jail in Turkey aren\u2019t there because of something they reported but rather because of \u201cterrorist activities\u201d such as \u201cwounding and killing security officers\u201d or being involved in such activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cPortraying this as a simplistic freedom of speech issue isn\u2019t the correct way to portray it,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone writes everything in Turkey. There is no taboo that can\u2019t be discussed anymore and this is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said there can always be improvements to the judicial system \u2014 the fifth reform package is before parliament and it will give more protection to journalists. Some, he said, who are not in jail for terrorist activities, may then be released.<\/p>\n
via Turkey eager for admittance to European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jennifer Campbell, Ottawa Citizen January 22, 2013 Turkey eager for admittance to European Union Gov. Gen. David Johnston received credentials from three new ambassadors Jan. 18 at Rideau Hall. Pictured here are Nancy Ndiaye Ngom of Senegal, Johnston, Riadh Essid of Tunisia and Jean-Louis Wolzfeld of Luxembourg. Photograph by: Cpl Roxanne Shewchuk , Rideau […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[491,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada-north-america-english","category-eu-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63616","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=63616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}