Brussels, 25/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Turkish foreign minister, Ismail Cem, called for huge pragmatism in relations between the European Union and Turkey, which is more a marriage of convenience than of love as far as Turkey is concerned. Invited to speak alongside Commissioner Barnier on Monday by the new Europe-Turkey Foundation on the subject of Turkey and the Future of Europe, Mr Cem laid great emphasis on the need to tone down the EU-Turkey discussions and debate inside Turkey itself. The greatest dynamic for accession, according to Ismail Cem, were the convergent interests typical of a marriage of convenience . He said Turkey was "not a usual candidate", if only in terms of its population. He criticised various people and various political circles in the EU that opposed Turkey's membership either because they feared competition from Turkish labour or because they feel that Europe is a Christian, Roman area, or because they have an "exaggerated" view of various aspects of the democratic process in Turkey where it is lagging behind. Mr Cem also slammed a "colonial" attitude in some circles. He said that Turks were sometimes over-emotional about their relations with the European Union, ascribing it with responsibility for everything that goes well, or badly, in Turkey, irrespective of reality.
Even involuntarily, he said, the EU attitude encouraged the Greek Cypriots to be intransigent. The Turkish foreign minister criticised the EU telling Greek Cypriots that no matter what they did in the discussions with the Turkish Cypriots, it wouldn't have any impact on their membership of the EU. He said the EU had a moral and legal obligation towards both parts of Cyprus. He also complained about some of Turkey's concerns not being taken into account. Without directly mentioning the PKK, he said that various terrorist organisations in Western Europe were not considered terrorist in other countries.
In his speech, Commissioner Michel Barnier did not respond to what he described as Ismail Cem's extremely frank questions, but concentrated on the challenges and aims of the Convention on the Future of Europe, highlighting the importance of the candidate countries' involvement in the debate, and encouraging Turkey to intensify its explanations to the EU. Late in the afternoon Ismail Cem was due to meet the Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen.