EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn: Crisis in Georgia has increased Turkey's importance / "Gürcistan krizi Türkiye'nin önemini artırdı"

Source: cnnturk.com (Turkish)


I was thinking the same thing. The war in Georgia has actually turned out to be a beneficial factor in Turkey's EU bid, as a concrete example of how Turkey is strategically important to the union. Turkey's official problems with joining the EU have to do with finer details such as customs, judiciary, fishing and all the rest, but in terms of public opinion in the EU it's a good thing.

One other thing to remember is that with Bulgaria's large Turkish-speaking population (over 700,000) and the now more and more probable reunification of Cyprus, that the EU already has a certain number of Turks within the union, and eventually the idea of Turkey as a very foreign country to Europe could begin to fade (assuming no unexpected events happen in the meantime). Kind of in the same vein in which a lot of the fears that citizens from new EU countries would flood into richer countries and take a lot of jobs never really happened. It seems that most people just like staying in their own countries.

"Gürcistan krizi Türkiye'nin önemini artırdı"

"Crisis in Georgia has increased Turkey's importance"

AB Komisyonu'nun genişlemeden sorumlu üyesi Olli Rehn, Gürcistan krizinin Türkiye'nin Kafkaslar'daki ve birlik için stratejik önemini güçlendirdiğini belirtti.

Olli Rehn, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, said that the Georgia crisis has strengthened Turkey's strategic importance in the Caucasus and for the union.

Rehn, Helsinki'de düzenlediği basın toplantısında, Türkiye'nin bölgedeki siyasi sorunların çözümüne yardımcı olduğunu, ayrıca Suriye ile Avrupa arasında yeni bağlar oluşturduğunu söyledi.

Rehn spoke in a meeting in Helsinki, where he said that Turkey was an aid in solving political problems in the region, and that it has created new ties between Syria and Europe.

Türkiye'yi Avrupa ile İslam dünyası arasındaki önemli bir köprü olarak niteleyen Rehn, Türkiye'nin İsrail ile Filistinliler arasındaki ilişkilerin gelişmesine yardımcı olmaya çalıştığını da kaydetti.

Rehn described Turkey as an important bridge between Europe and the Islamic world, also mentioning that Turkey was working to aid development of relations between Israel and Palestine.

Rehn, "Yani son haftalardaki olaylar, AB'nin bakış açısından sadece Türkiye'nin stratejik önemini artırdı" dedi.

Rehn said that "The events in the past weeks from the EU's point of view have only increased Turkey's strategic importance."