ITALY: THE LEADER OF THE PARTY SET TO FROM TURKEY'S NEXT GOVERNMENT SEEKS SUPPORT FOR TURKEY'S BID TO START EU MEMBERSHIP TALKS

Record ID: 584948

  • Title: ITALY: THE LEADER OF THE PARTY SET TO FROM TURKEY'S NEXT GOVERNMENT SEEKS SUPPORT FOR TURKEY'S BID TO START EU MEMBERSHIP TALKS
  • Date: 13th November 2002
  • Summary: (W5) ROME, ITALY (NOVEMBER 13, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV EXTERIOR OF PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. SLV CARS ARRIVING AT PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE 0.20 3. SLV/SV/MCU OF ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI SHAKING HANDS WITH TURKEY JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY LEADER RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN (5 SHOTS) 0.50 4. SLV/SV/MCU OF BERLUSCONI AND ERDOGAN SEATED (4 SHOTS) 1.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVAD32887M44UG0DIDQBHVOKRY01
  • Story Text: The leader of the party set to form Turkey's next
    government has launched a tour of European Union states,
    starting with a visit to Rome to seek support for Turkey's bid
    to start EU membership talks.



    In private talks with Italy's prime minister Silvio
    Berlusconi, Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep
    Tayyip Erdogan will discuss Turkey's bid to join the European
    Union.

    Turkey wants the Union to set a date for the start of
    discussions to finalise accession talks with 10 other
    candidates including Cyprus, a sticking point in Turkey's
    own progress.

    But a recent progress report said Turkey had not yet met
    the political criteria to start talks.

    Five big EU members -- Germany, France, Britain, Italy and
    Spain -- have agreed in principle to offer Ankara a firm date
    to review progress and decide when to open membership talks.

    Italy will take over the EU presidency in the second half
    of 2003.

    On his first foreign trip since his party's landslide
    election win on November 3, Erdogan said he would also discuss
    plans to push ahead human rights reforms in NATO member
    Turkey.

    Turkish newspapers made much of the fact that Erdogan,
    viewed with suspicion by some in Turkey for his background in
    political Islam, would eat lunch with the Italian Prime
    Minister, breaking his fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

    Erdogan is banned from being prime minister because of a
    criminal conviction for publicly reciting a religious poem
    deemed to be seditious. His party has yet to form a
    government.

    But President Ahmet Necdet Sezer is expected to appoint a
    member of Erdogan's party later this week to form a
    government.


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