EU will lose if it leaves Turkey out

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union would make a mistake by rejecting Turkey as a member, the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.



"What we are saying is regardless of whether you accept Turkey or not, we are already in the EU. There are five million Turks in EU countries already. You will only lose by leaving us behind," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Friday a televised interview on English-broadcasting news channel, Russia Today. Erdogan said Turkey would not become an additional burden for the EU, but it would actually lift some of the existing burdens the EU had.



"There are countries already in the EU which cannot compete with Turkey in terms of freedom and economy. Why do not they accept Turkey? When you take a closer look at this, you see political reasons," he said.



"If the European Union makes a permanent decision not to accept us, then Turkey will make its decision based on that. But since we are holding talks with the new EU chairman, we are about to enter a new stage. During this new period we can take many different steps. We can make progress on many aspects, I believe," Erdogan said.



Responding to a question on relations with Armenia, Erdogan said that in 2005 he had sent a letter to former President Robert Kocharian, proposing that historians should investigate the issue of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, but did not receive reply, Anadolu Ajansi reported.