Turkey eager to create regional union of countries for EU membership – ambassador

Our main goal is to attract other neighbors and create a small union of countries that want to join the European Union, Turkish Ambassador to Georgia Fatma Ceren Yazgan said at a Turkish-Georgian business forum on Friday.

She stated that Georgia and Turkey “are really European countries.”

“Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan are very important partner countries in our region. Our main goal is to attract other neighbors and create a small union of countries that want to become part of the EU. I think that Georgia is really a European state, just like Turkey. I believe that we [Turkey and Georgia] deserve to be members of the European Union, but in this expectation we need to develop this model in our countries and start implementing it. We have already started this process by removing the borders between our countries. Our citizens are able to travel without a passport and visa, we also have free trade. The main thing for us is to bring more prosperity to each other,” said the ambassador.

Turkey applied to join what was then the European Economic Community back in 1987, and in 1999 it was declared eligible to join the EU.

Turkey’s involvement with European integration dates back to 1959 and includes the Ankara Association Agreement (1963) for the progressive establishment of a Customs Union (ultimately set up in 1995), the EU says.

Accession negotiations started in 2005, but until Turkey agrees to apply the Additional Protocol of the Ankara Association Agreement to Cyprus, eight negotiation chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed.

Georgia officially applied for EU membership on March 3 of this year along with Ukraine and Moldova.

The trio are expecting the bloc’s decision on the candidacy status in the coming weeks.