Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Giorgio Napolitano, the president of Italy, gave a lecture at Ankara University on Wednesday regarding the Turkey-EU relations during his official visit to Ankara, the capital of Turkey.
"It is ill-suited to accept in advance that the European Union should offer Turkey a status short of full membership by drawing on a presumption that Ankara's membership talks would not end with Turkey's accession to the Union," Napolitano told to he participants of the conference, which are mainly university students.
Napolitano made it clear that his formal visit to Ankara had occurred at a very crucial time because the European integration process had taken an important step in its history. It is expected that the Lisbon Treaty to come into effect in a very short period of time.
"There are new opportunities ahead for Europe to strengthen its union and to have a say in global matters. And as a fierce defender of the European integration, I think that problems of the Turkish-European relations should be considered within that perspective," Napolitano said.
"What I mean by Europe is not a continent, a specific part of the globe or a union of a specific race. What I mean by Europe is an undisputable and an undeniable union of history which is made up of differences," Napolitano said.
"The borders of Europe are the borders of the European civilization. And the borders of the European civilization are not fixed," he said.
Napolitano remembered that the Ottoman Empire was having good relations and getting closer to Europe especially during the 19th Century and these developments have been followed by the Republic of Turkey as well.
"Those who engage in polemics with the long history of the Ottoman Empire should not forget that the empire had begun Europeanization in the 19th Century," Napolitano said.
"Turkey's role in this vast and critical geography is one of the basic elements of the mutual interest in the improvement of the cooperation between Turkey and Union with an eye for integration. And Turkey's relation with the Islam and the Muslim world is another basic element which is deeply involved today in many European countries," the Italian president said.
