Deputy Prime Minister and Motherland Party (ANAP) leader...

Deputy Prime Minister and Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz said that he was losing his hope about fulfilment of European Union (EU) criteria. Speaking at the group meeting of his party, Yilmaz said that a commission would be set up to examine the bill of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) on abolition of death sentence. Yilmaz noted that the EU was a big civilization project and stated that it was obligatory for Turkey to fulfil political criteria before the Copenhagen Summit to be held in December. Yilmaz said, "people become hopeless as some parties speak differently in front of the President and in front of the public. We are losing our hope due to internal policy discussions in Turkey. If we think that a very short time is left to the parliament's recess, I am losing my hope about fulfilment of EU criteria."