ANKARA - The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, called on the EU yesterday not to build a "cultural Berlin wall" against largely Muslim Turkey by rejecting its application for EU membership.
"Turkey is necessary for regional peace. To realise this peace. .. it is of utmost importance not to rebuild new cultural Berlin walls," Ms Ciller told journalists and diplomats before a lunch for EU ambassadors. Ankara received a further blow to its membership hopes this week when leading European Christian Democrats spoke out against inviting Turkey to join the Union at a meeting in Brussels.