ANKARA, 10 October 2004 — Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday long-awaited membership negotiations with the European Union must inevitably lead to Turkey joining the 25-nation bloc, even if the process is very long. “Once the negotiations start, there’s no question of stopping them and waiting,” Gul told reporters in Kayseri, his hometown in central Turkey.
Gul said joining the EU would be “a very long process” but Turkey would eventually succeed in ensuring that it complied with all EU standards, Anatolia news agency reported.
On Friday evening, Gul had predicted Turkey could join the EU in 2015, after a decade of negotiations. “Turkey will be full member of the EU in 10 years,” he told Turkish television channel Sky Turk. “The train will leave in December and its final destination will be the European station,” he insisted. EU leaders are expected at a summit in Brussels on Dec. 17 to give conditional approval to the start of membership talks with Turkey, following this week’s recommendation by the commission.
