The Italian President reportedly said that Turkey belongs to Europe and that Cyprus accession created difficulties to Turkey’s EU bid
Turkish daily Today’s Zaman (29.01.14) reported that Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has extended strong support for Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, saying that Turkey belongs to Europe and that Italy wants Turkey’s EU accession negotiations to continue consistently and continuously.
He made these statements during a joint press conference with the Turkish President Abdullah Gul who is currently paying an official visit to Italy.
“Turkey belongs to Europe, and the global security map also confirms this,” said the Italian President, as he slammed other European countries for raising obstacles to Turkey’s path to accession. According to Today’s Zaman, Napolitano was referring to the Republic of Cyprus and France when he made the following statement: “The decision to start negotiations [with Turkey] was taken unanimously. However, after this decision, some events happened that we don’t agree on. Some European countries affected the negotiation process negatively by blocking the chapters and slowing their opening: “Speaking about the obstacles on Turkey’s path towards the EU, the Italian President talked about Greek Cyprus’ status and said that granting EU membership to Greek Cyprus has made things hard for Turkey”, Today’s Zaman wrote.
Reporting on the same issue, Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (30.01.14) reports that Napolitano further said that unfortunately while they were prepared for the integrity of Cyprus, the Annan Plan was not approved and this was the result of a complicated situation.
