President Gul received a king's welcome in UK

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II formally welcomed Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his wife, Hayrunnisa Gul, to London yesterday at a ceremony that took place near the Buckingham Palace. The queen and her husband, Duke of Edinburgh Philip, arrived at the field followed by a car carrying Gul and his wife, who arrived from the White Hall Gate. The two heads of state shook hands warmly as the hosts laid on the traditional pomp at the ceremony, which included a 41-gun royal salute and Gul's inspection of the lines of Coldstream Guards in their grey greatcoats. During the ceremony, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Home Secretary Theresa May accompanied the queen. Gul noted that talks between the EU and Turkey have been stalled for a long time, saying that almost all of the negotiation chapters have been frozen and that there is little possibility to open any of them at this time. "We have said that this hurts the EU's reputation greatly. This might greatly discredit the EU starting in the first half of 2012. Can you imagine? The Greek Cypriot administration joined the EU, violating all the principles of the union, in a half-done manner, in an incomplete way. This was their first example of violating the principles of this family. And now, this half-country, this incomplete nation, will serve as EU president. You have such a union, but the presidency will be that of half a country. It will be half a country leading a miserable union," Gul told Turkish journalists. Gul said Turkey would not participate in any meetings to be chaired by Cyprus but has no problems with continuing to work with the commission. Gul also said Turkey had no hidden agendas concerning Syria, stating: "We want security, economic stability and welfare. If there was enough wealth, everybody would take his share of that. This is all we want." He said it was impossible for a single-party state or other oppressive form of government to survive in this age. "The walls of fear have come down. This was what happened in Egypt, and what is happing in Syria. This is why we want this transitional process to be complete without damaging or weakening Syria, without causing any suffering to the people of Syria. We also think that foreign intervention is not the right way. We hope it won't reach such a point," he explained.