"Those who don’t want Turkey in Europe will be known in December"

Arinc met Portuguese Parliament Speaker Mota Amaral on Wednesday. Following meetings between delegations, two Speakers held a joint news conference.

Arinc said: "we have discussed Turkey’s EU membership during the meeting. Portugal has been supporting Turkey’s membership since the very beginning. Amaral told me that Portugal is for the membership of Turkey and they will continue to support us. He said they were pleased to see the success of Turkish government and Parliament in the EU marathon, as well as the reforms which Turkey has performed."

"Turkey has passed successfully its test for EU membership and got over the critical threshold. Now, Europe will pass a democracy test on December 17th," added Arinc.

Arinc noted, "Turkey can take its own decisions and can affect the equilibrium of forces in its region. Thus, we attribute importance to the construction of new Turkey and we will continue to work to strengthen it."

On the other hand Amaral said, "although Turkey and Portugal are far away from each other geographically, two countries have been working together nearly for a half century within NATO and European Council."

"We hope to be partner with Turkey within the EU soon. Portugal supports Turkey’s membership," added Amaral.

"I have the chance to closely follow the recent developments in Turkey," said Amaral.

Following the news conference, Amaral was received by Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and met Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul separately.