Turkish premier says Turkey has awaited change in German chancellor's stance on Turkey's EU membership

BERLIN (A.A) - November 3, 2011 - Turkey's prime minister said on Thursday that Turkey had waited for a change in German chancellor's stance on Turkey's European Union (EU) membership for a long time. Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had expected Angela Merkel to change her stance on its EU membership bid for a long time. "However, nothing has changed so far," Erdogan told German Bild newspaper in an exclusive interview. Erdogan said Turkey's negotiations had been frozen by some strong EU members, and the union was not fair to Turkey. "The EU has admitted memberships of 12 countries, and even the Greek Cypriot administration since I became the prime minister of Turkey. We are no more invited to EU summits, which we used to be invited before Chancellor Merkel and French President (Nicolas) Sarkozy came to power," Erdogan said. Erdogan said Turkey would go on with negotiations, and Turkey was fulfilling accession conditions better than countries that were EU members today. Premier Erdogan said Turkey would not do anything that could jeopardize its economic stability when asked if Turkey would think of helping Euro zone countries that were facing economic problems.  "We have reduced Turkey's debts to 45 percent from 73 percent since we came to power, and we will not make any concessions of fiscal discipline," he said. Erdogan said Turkey would think about whether or not to start using Euro had it become an EU member country, and would not immediately return such a possibility. Moreover, Erdogan said Israel harmed Turkish-Israeli relations with Israeli soldiers' raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine Turks. "This could openly be a casus belli since it was made in international waters, however we behaved calmly," Erdogan said. Erdogan said Israel should apologize, pay compensation to families of victims, and end embargo on Gaza Strip, and said then everything could be normalized. Premier Erdogan also said Israel should change its policy, and also Palestinian state should be established to ensure a real peace in the Middle East.