Davutoglu talking about EU membership in his speech at European Policy Center conference

PanARMENIAN.Net - Agreements must be respected, whatever the outcome of the Irish referendum may be. The European Union is definitively bound for historic and geographic reasons to Turkey and this necessitates a political response: there will not be a future role as a global power for Europe without Ankara. And once these economic ties are established, the commitment made in 2004 must be honored, which promised access to the 27-member EU.



This was the message launched by Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, in his speech to a conference organized in Brussels by the European Policy Centre, before meeting with European Commission President, Jose' Manuel Barroso, ANSAmed reports. According to Davutoglu, the EU cannot barricade itself behind the current boundaries of the 27-member states because ''there is no Great Wall of China between the EU and non-EU countries'', explaining how Turkey plays a key role geopolitically on more than one common front with Europe: ''Turkey is a European country, but also the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Middle East, and at this point, the Gulf''.



There are only two elements that complicate the panorama: Cyprus and Armenia, for which we will ''continue to do everything possible'' and negotiations are continuing. This does not take away from the fact that Cyprus' entry into the EU has left a bad taste in their mouth. ''If the Cyprus issue had been resolved back then,'' said Davutoglu, ''today there would not be a problem with the Customs Union, with Turkey's ports and airports not being open to Greek-Cypriots and the embargo against Turkish Cypriots.



But Ankara is not giving up and hope that negotiations to enter into the EU will be restarted after having evaluated their ''continued efforts'' on a diplomatic level. Certainly ''we will not recognise Greek Cyprus if the matter is not resolved,'' concluded Davutoglu. And as for the result of the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, ''we are not worried because the European leaders' commitment to grant access to Turkey was assumed in 2004 and ''agreements must be respected''.