Turkish President: Europe is not the whole world

Turkish President Abdullah Gul gave an interview to the French media
on the eve of the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Turkey.
Gul said that EU membership for Turkey “does not really matter." He
also said that Sarkozy had created an image of Turkey which does not
correspond to reality, TRT reports.

The French president arrives in Turkey in late February. The purpose
of his visit, in general, is securing support on the agenda of the Big
Twenty, which is currently headed by France.

The French newspaper Le Figaro has published negotiations on Turkey's
full membership of the EU. In an interview to the newspaper, Gul
stressed that membership of the Union does not have great importance
for Turkey.

Abdullah Gul said in an interview that the world does not only consist
of Europe and emphasized the multidirectional foreign policy of
Turkey.