Westerwelle arrives in Ankara

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is set to attend the 14th Kronberg Talks to be held in Istanbul today, paid a working visit to Ankara yesterday. Speaking at a joint press conference held with his German counterpart, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu responded to reporters’ questions. In reply to a question if Turkey is hopeful for its membership talks with the EU and what sort of an attitude will be followed during the Greek-Cypriot administration’s EU term presidency, Davutoglu said election of Francois Hollande as new president of France, as well as his positive statements with regard to Turkey’s EU membership bid were promising for everybody especially in terms of opening new chapters. "Turkey will not make any contact with EU term presidency, as from the Greek-Cypriot administration undertakes term presidency," said Davutoglu, adding that Turkey’s membership talks with the EU will not be affected by this situation. Davutoglu said bilateral relations, Turkey's EU accession process and visa-free travel of Turkish citizens across Europe were the main issues discussed during his meeting with Westerwelle, and that Turkey expected the EU to grant necessary authorization to hold talks on visa exemption. For his part, Westerwelle said Turkey had a breath-taking success story both in economic and political aspects, and thus Germany wanted to improve its political and strategic ties with Turkey. Westerwelle described Turkey as a growing economy, saying, "If we would like to accelerate our growth in Europe, we need to have close ties with major growth centers like Turkey."