(4 Feb 2014) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that she supports moving forward talks on Turkey's membership of the European Union, but she remains sceptical about whether it should join and won't put a time limit on the process.
Turkey's talks on joining the 28-nation bloc began in 2005 but are barely moving, mainly due to Turkey's dispute with EU member Cyprus and unease about admitting a populous, largely Muslim country.
Merkel said after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday that she supports opening those sections of Turkey's membership negotiations that address justice and human rights "as soon as possible."
She also prodded Turkey over judicial independence, which has been called into question by Ankara's handling of a recent corruption scandal.
Merkel has long opposed full Turkish EU membership, but she has governed since 2005 in a series of coalitions that were divided over the issue.
Her government's policy is to support the talks but stress that membership isn't a foregone conclusion.
Erdogan asked for more support from the international community to help with the refugee crisis stemming from the conflict in Syria.
"There are over 700-thousand refugees in Turkey, 220-thousand of these live in so called tent cities. The rest live spread out all over Turkey in houses and apartments. So far we have allocated 2.5-billion dollars for this. And what kind of support have we had from the UN? Only 130 million dollars," he said.
During the visit to Berlin, Erdogan will also meet German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier.
Later on Tuesday he will give a speech to several thousand Turkish-Germans in the Kreuzberg district of the German capital, one of the major centres of expatriate Turks in the world.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
