“It's hard to understand. I have good relations with my all counterparts including [French] President [Nicolas] Sarkozy,” Erdoğan was quoted by the Anatolia news agency in the interview with Corriere della Sera published Tuesday, as he noted that Sarkozy had been inconsistent, showing more openness to Turkey's accession in private talks than in public.
His remarks came when he was asked what the reason was for Sarkozy's harsh attitude.
On a recent survey which showed that 51.9 percent of Turkish people would vote for EU membership if a referendum was held, Erdoğan said three fourth of Turkish people were in favor of EU membership when the accession negotiations were first opened in 2005.
“We came to this point upon ‘no's, ‘perhaps' and ‘but's. Everything will change if [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and President Sarkozy say ‘OK, we're ready to accept Turkey when it fulfills all recommended conditions.' Even this would lead to ascend of that percentage among people,” Erdoğan said.
“We have been waiting for fifty years for entering Europe. From now on, we want a sharp answer. Some of the leaders are first saying something, and then they make a correction and claim that they didn't say so. We have been tired of comedies. I will never accept a privileged partnership. We want full membership into the EU. We don't want anything else than full membership.”
Corriere della Sera, meanwhile, said “Turkey is fed up about waiting Europe to say ‘yes',” while announcing the interview with Erdoğan on its front page, Anatolia noted.
