WARSAW

Turkish Prime Minister Recep TayyipErdogan said at a conference themed “Turkey-EU relations” in Warsaw, Poland that an EU without Turkey will remain as an incomplete political project.

Erdogan said Europe is a union that rejects religious, sectarian and ethnic origin differences and Turkey’s being a Muslim country is never a hindrance to become an EU member and leaving such a country outside is against the union’s own self and reason to unite and be present.

“Turkey’s becoming a full member to the EU will pave way to a new integration between the EU and Islamic world and erase the question marks from minds,”Erdogan added.

Erdogan went on to underline dropping support from people for EU and said “Broken promises and double standards unfortunately diminish Turkish public’s trust in the EU and support for the EU process when the first steps were taken for negotiations was 70-75 percent but now it dropped down to 30-35 percent.”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued as follows: “Despite all hindrances and negativities put in front of us we carry on this process with patience. We make reforms, not only for adaptation to the acquis but also for our country, nation and future. Our works on democratization and human rights are, indeed, a result of our citizens’ expectations on those issues.”

Erdogan emphasized that Turkey has already unified with the EU politically, economically and physically as a necessity of history and geography.