Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke about Turkey's role in the world at the iftar dinner hosted by the Turkish owner of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun, two nights ago in New York.


Said Erdogan, "We had contributed great steps towards Turkey's opening up to the world since 1992. In recent years, our region has become a heated o­ne. The situations in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine have all heated up since September 11. And with the average number of deaths daily in Iraq in 2006 at around 70 people, we are facing a truly seriuos situation. We must use our forces to stop this path we are o­n. Turkey has become a country which creates not enemies in the region, but friends."

Commenting o­n speculation that Turkey had slowed down or become too relaxed in its pursuit of full EU membership, Erdogan had this to say,

"There are those in the EU who wish to treat us unfairly. All we want is that we be treated the same way other countries in the EU have been treated. Some of the political stances which are struck towards us sadden us. It is not possible for us to consent to those playing these politics with us. Just as you cannot come up with new rules in the middle of a football match, new rules cannot be pulled out for us either. The steps Turkey is taking down the road to the EU are being watched carefully by the Islamic world of 1.5 billion people. They are applauding. And Turkey's entrance into the EU would be just as beneficial to the EU as it would be to Turkey."

Erdogan heads for London following meeting with Bush

Following the iftar meal at New York's Carlyle Hotel, Erdogan left with his delegation for Washington, DC, where he was met at Andrews Air Force base by American authorities, as well as Turkish Ambassador to the US, Nabi Sensoy. After his meeting with President George W. Bush in the White House today, PM Erdogan will leave for London, where he is to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Are they for real? Changing the rules? Have they seen their own laws in Turkey and thier Human rights record as well as the Cyprus issue?

Let them stay out where they belong, and the EU should also kick them out of Europe and back over the Bospherous Straits.

u know jimmy,nothing would please me than to see blood dripping in their region..

im that sort of guy.call me a romantic.

but.

u have two ways for turkey to go.

one is with the muslim extremists.

the other is with europe.

turkey doesnt have to be greeces enemy.
it can be greeces ally.

by combining their two strengths its ossible to dominate the region.
the muslim and orthodox balkans.

its not inconceivable.

i think this is a better option.

look to turkey for an alliance not to serbia or russia.

Yes but there is too much history between Greece and Turkey

Acts and events that people just cant forget

In theory very good idea

pontio,

people believe what theyre told to believe..

i think everything can be viewed in a positive or negative light.

the romans came and slaughtered greece but noon has a problems with them.

becuase we were slaves and we were their favorite slaves,it was ok...

the french and english in the crusades were DIRECTLY responsible for weakening and destroying the byzantine empire.they set the scene for the fall to the ottomona turks.
if it wasnt for the crusaders the empire could have withstood the attacks.

noone has a problem with these people.

we hear of the slaughter of smyrni.

but do we hear that the english and french ships sat and watched the greeks massacred and REFUSED TO ACCEPT ANY GREEKS ON BOARD TO SAVE THEM.

in fact,and this is historically true,anyone swimming to the ships trying to board would have their hands and feet cut off by the french and english troops..

the deal at the time was for these ships to save the greek populations..

do we ever hear anything about the french and english?

in the post war shakeup in 1919,it was the american woodrow wilson who refused to entertain for greece to have any spoils such as constantinople.
lloyd george the pm of england was the only one who supported venizelos.

in the end america and russia and french won the day and the turks were supported under ataturk with very favorable terms.

should we not attack these countries again.

why just turkey?

why not france?


why not russia,who everyone touts as our friend?

we can go on and on.

at the end of the day,we must think of the future.
an alliance with turkey isnt a bad idea.

thik about it.

we can dominate the region...

no fucking way, Greece should only make one alliance in the region, and that is with Serbia -

With such an alliance or union, that Milosevic wanted to achieve, Greece and Serbia together would the leading power in the region and would defiantly have a greater say in world politics since being THE dominant power in the region, and possibly one up there in Europe with Russian backing

i cant believe u want the slavs to over run our country..

trellathikes?

what is it with u and the serbs?

r u popping some serb woman r u?

relax with the serbs.

greece if it is to have an ally,should have an alliance with turkey.
we get the americans on side.
we get a whole range of investment opportunties in a country which is 70 million plus.
it buys us credibility with the muslims who see to be running the world these days since they have all the petrol money..

what do the serbs have other than a lousy reputauion internationally as people who massacred the muslims and no credibility with the yanks..

were just heading for trouble with those cone heads..

re mini.
go to argos or nafplio for a holiday and relax...

but please dont insult our country by showing it being united with the serbs..

the Serbs did not genocide the Muslims

really?

they fell in front of machine guns by themselves did they?

get out of the serb forums mini.

ull end up marrying some slavic bitch and ull end up having kids looking like cone heads..

find urself a good looking greek girl and forget the cone heads...

oh yeah, like how the 8000 bodies were found in Srebrenica *note the sarcasm*

IVE TOLD U FIND A GOOD GREEK GIRL THERES PLENTY HERE AND FORGET THE SERBS..

KAT LA SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD GIRL,WHY NOT TAKE HER OUT ON A DATE?

OR WHAT ABOUT KATHISTERIMENI?

FORGET THE FCCKEN SERBS..

Just wondering mini, not taking any sides here, but what do the serbs have to offer?

How, by uniting Greece and Serbia, would make them a leading power?

Population wise, theyd have the biggest population in the region, and together theyd have joint control over the banks and businesses over Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary and possibly even Slovakia and Romania

We have everything to loose from Turkey in the EU.

For example, the are refusing to co-operate by opening up ports in NC for Republic of Cyprus vessels.
They are refusing to acknowledge the Republic of Cyprus until we recognise the "TRNC" which is an illegal state.

If we compromise this Turkey will realise they can get their way 100% of the time - and become a terrorist state forcing the will onto Greece again, an EU turkey will be like going back to Ottoman days.

Turkey should be barred from Europe until a Government comes in that stops mistreating Kurds, recognises the Republic of Cyprus and normalises trade and communication with them and recognises the Armenian genocide. Germany don't take pride in their tyrant (Hitler) or their crimes, but Turkey still take pride in their Tyrant (Kermal) and their genocides.

Greeks and Serbs have more in common than with Turks and historically have much better relations, but financially Greece has more to benefit with 2007 EU members Romania and Bulgaria.
Turkeys economy has been stagnant for the best part of a decade. They have no future.

economies come and economies go.

at the end ofthe day,there is some pimple ridden dork that decides to write a report on a country and all of a sudden it becomes "hot".

what turkey has is position position position.
the worst house in the best street as the real estate agents say.

build the country up,stop it from flowing over to the arapides,and u have a wonderful place which can dominate the region and greece can benefit from this..

70 million feeding mouths which one day will be reasobale consumers buying all the shit that we all buy,makes them valuable to all of us..

serbia has nothing but nationalistic crap to offer,and to entangle greece into more ideological and religious wars..

also,we dont need to chose..
we can have both on side...

why chose?

why not continue the good relations with turkey and expand,and also continue the great relations with serbia?

the cyprus issue isnt all one sided people..

greek cypriot hands are not clean here either..

the makarios era was such a disaster..

and they could never work out what to do and what direction to take..

they were happy with the english why they became so obcessed to be independent and follow the papa to oblivion is beyond me to undrstand..

anyway thats ancient history...

if they were smart now they would agree to a separate parition of the island a turkish side and a greek sypriot side...


otherwise they will have the same problems in 20 years time...

they never learn..

they will learn, difference is, a puppet pro-American government wont be in palce, and Greece will commit troops to Cyprus

commit troops?

i dot think so.

if any troops committed it will be peacekeeping troops by the u.n

unfortunately this same old formula was tried in the 60s after clashes between the greek and turkish cypriots.

it is the wrong answer.

they hsould just separate the two sides and create two states.

Greece should exist for Greece only. Turkey and Greece may form an alliance in the future but the relations will stay the same. If Greece let's it's guard down then we'll lose the islands as well and half the Agean. An alliance with serbia is alright, but merging the countries is not a good idea. And as for getting America's backing if we ally with Turkey...I don't know if you know this, but under NATO Greece and the US are allies already, that doesn't mean they like us nor did it stop them from recognising Vardarska as 'The Republic of Macedonia' so what makes you think they'll change their stripes if we form an alliance with Turkey.
Greece should sort out it's internal politics which have been holding us down for thousands of years and then concentrate on the externals...

quite a reasobale answer i think blaze.

food for thought.

.

the turks are not the devil.

in fact the devil isnt bad either...but thats another issue.

we should be thankful they want to join.