"I Saw Him Banging His Fist On The Table"

Akgun said, “Prime Minister Schröder and Olaf Scholz, the Secretary General of SPD, are sincere and honest about their desire to see Turkey as an EU member. I have no doubt about that. We, as a party, support Turkey’s full membership. PM Schröder repeatedly voiced this in our meetings. I personally witnessed that he asserted, against those who objected to Turkey’s membership, that “We should give this chance to Turkey. This our duty!” Let us tell this, SPD, and hence the German government, will be supporting a Turkey, which accomplished necessary reforms, in 2004.”

Regarding the view of German deputies about Turkey, Akgun said that there was no full consensus among them and that, “Governing parties approach to Turkey’s membership warmly, while opposition parties do not share the same view. Those, who object to Turkey’s membership, are in majority in CDU-CSU group. Nevertheless there are those in this group, who support Turkey. Moreover, we also have one or two persons who object to the membership of Turkey.”