The FINANCIAL — US President Barack Obama has reiterated his support for Turkey’s European Union membership and said the US is convinced that a Turkey that meets conditions for entry would be beneficial to Europe, according to Today's Zaman.
Obama told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Europe gains from the diversity of ethnicity, tradition and faith and that Turkish membership to the European Union would only broaden and strengthen Europe’s foundation, according to excerpts in Turkish carried by an Anatolian news agency on November 22.
Obama’s remarks came at a time when right-wing parties are on rise in even liberal European nations, raising concerns over the fate of immigrants in the continent and Turkey’s possible EU membership.
Saying that accepting Turkey into the union is not something the US decides, the US president added, however, that Washington continues to strongly support Turkey’s EU accession. He said he hopes Turkey will march forward in realizing the reforms necessary for the membership in the open-ended negotiations.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this summer that the European Union’s refusal to offer Turkey a swift accession process has partly caused Ankara’s foreign policy to shift and its relations with Israel to deteriorate. “I personally think that if there is anything to the notion that Turkey is, if you will, moving eastward, it is, in my view, in no small part because it was pushed, and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought,” Gates then said.
Obama also added that he is confident that a Turkey that has acquired the capability to fulfill the EU membership criteria will contribute to the bloc itself and added that efforts to fulfill these criteria will also benefit Turkey.
“As I said in April of last year in Ankara,” Obama noted, “Turkey is bound to Europe by more than bridges over the Bosphorous. Centuries of shared history, culture, and commerce bring you together.”
In his historic address to the Turkish parliament on April 9 of last year, Obama said that the US strongly supports Turkey’s bid to become a member of the European Union and his country speaks not as a member of the EU, but as a close friend of Turkey and Europe. “Turkey has been a resolute ally and a responsible partner in transatlantic and European institutions,” he then told Turkish deputies.
Obama underlined in his interview that there is a necessity to speed up Turkey’s membership negotiations and at a time when Turkey’s EU membership talks are stalled, he calls on both sides to redouble efforts to go forward.
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