"Mr Olli Rehn
Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enlargement
'Common future of the EU and Turkey: Roadmap for Reforms and Negotiations'
Meeting with business leaders
Istanbul, 8th March 2005
Meeting with business leaders
Istanbul, 8th March 2005
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very pleased to meet you here in Istanbul during my first official visit to Turkey as the Commissioner for Enlargement.
Istanbul has a particularly significant standing in the history of the civilised world, which is well alive and flourishing in the present day too, as a great political, intellectual and artistic centre. Few cities in Europe reflect so many centuries of shared history and identity. The shores of the Bosphorus inspired my countryman, Mika Waltari, to produce some of the most elegant and enjoyable pages of modern Finnish and, I should say, European literature. No wonder they have also inspired Orhan Pamuk, the local Nobelist-in-waiting, to write his realist and/or surrealist X-rays of contemporary Turkey and old and new Istanbul. His latest novel �Snow� has actually encouraged me to pay a visit to the city of Kars next time I com"
More:EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases
