Erdoðan: Turkey considers Shanghai organization an alternative to EU

Erdoðan: Turkey considers Shanghai organization an alternative to EU

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan. (Photo: AA, Yasin Bülbül)
25 January 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, ÝSTNABUL

Turkey and the European Union have failed to make substantial progress
in their accession talks, pushing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan to once again say that Turkey is seriously considering seeking
membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an
alternative at a time when the EU’s future looks increasingly dim.
Speaking to reporters during a televised program aired in Kanal 24
late on Friday, Erdoðan said Turkey is now seeking alternative options
amid eroding hopes on the EU process with regard to adamant opposition
to Turkey’s membership by a number of EU member countries.

Touching upon a wide array of issues, Erdoðan said Turkey is seriously
considering being part of the SCO.

Turkey was accepted as a dialogue partner by the SCO at its annual
summit in Beijing on June 7.

“The fact is that we have not yet given up on the EU process. Egemen
Baðýþ makes his presentation on [Turkey-EU] relations at every Cabinet
meeting. He regularly travels throughout Europe,” Erdoðan said, citing
the government’s continuing interest in the EU despite the pessimistic
atmosphere.

Regarding ongoing peace talks with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), Erdoðan said he is ready to take any risk to end the
dispute that has claimed the lives of thousands of people over the
past three decades. “I’m aware of the risk I have taken. If there is a
fire, extinguish it with water. If I can’t, I try to push it away from
me, to a point where it cannot hurt me.”

He said Turkey is in the process of finding a solution and that the
government is ready to use any instrument in this process to come up
with a viable solution.

He also touched upon an ongoing discussion on the definition of the
nation in the Constitution. Erdoðan said his party is ready to discuss
a new definition and urged other parties to decide whether defining
the concept of nation will take place though a constitutional change
or if the matter will be settled through a minor change to existing
law.

“Some of our friends from the Peace and Democracy Party [BDP] have
called me and I told them that it upsets me if they doubt my
sincerity,” Erdoðan said, calling on BDP deputies to lower the tone of
their remarks. Erdoðan said he would not be able to bear the harsh
remarks.

“They deliver speeches in Diyarbakýr. At the end of the speech they
say, ‘The prime minister, who backs peace efforts, is bombing our
Kurdish brothers.’ Why should I bomb my Kurdish brothers?” Erdoðan
asked, underlining that Turkey bombs terrorists in the mountains.

Erdoðan also lamented the poor cooperation between the EU and Turkey
in the fight against terrorism.

“Nearly three years ago [former French President Nicolas] Sarkozy told
me in a G-20 meeting that he had a surprise thing to tell me. He told
me France would turn one of the prominent leaders of the terrorist
organization over to Turkey. Sarkozy is gone but no one was turned
anyone over to us,” Erdoðan said.