Gul: "I hope Macedonia will soon be a member of NATO"

In Macedonia, President Abdullah Gul yesterday met with his Macedonian counterpart Branko Crvenkovski. At a joint press conference afterwards, Gul said that Turkey had tried its best at NATO's recent Bucharest summit to bring Macedonia into the bloc, but to no avail. "I hope Macedonia will be a full member of NATO as soon as possible," he added. For his part, Crvenkovski said that Turkey has consistently supported Macedonia since it gained independence. "The sole reason Macedonia was unable to get into in NATO at the Bucharest summit is because the right to veto was exploited," he added.