Westerwelle meets with Davutoglu and Erdogan

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle yesterday met with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Prime Minister's office in Istanbul. Reportedly, regional developments especially in Syria, Turkish-EU relationships and fighting terrorism were discussed during bilateral and inter-delegation meetings. Speaking at the press conference which was jointly held with Westerwelle following the meetings, Davutoglu described Germany as the closet ally and friend of Turkey. Davutoglu said that positive developments were also covered by the Progress Report which was published by the European Commission on Tuesday, but that Turkey was disturbed by their "one-sided point of view" particularly in terms of the Cyprus issue. "We firstly expect Germany to take the lead in a strategic reevaluation and pave the way for Turkish-EU relations as the backbone country of the EU," said Davutoglu, adding that Turkey shouldn't carry the visa burden anymore. Speaking in his part, Westerwelle said that the report published by the European Commission should be analyzed in detail and that a respectful and fair stance by the EU as part of these membership talks is more important than Turkey's EU membership. "This process shouldn't slow down, but progress with the same speed," said Westerwelle, adding that Germany attaches great importance to fighting terrorism and considers the PKK as a terrorist organization, which could never be tolerated. Westerwelle also said that Turkey's standing stance about the Syrian government was appreciated by Germany and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now had to ensure transition to democracy.