April 17, 2007 - 16:12 AMT
Reuters: Turkey will not join EU until 2019
Turkey will join the European Union not sooner than in 2019. This is the result of the poll conducted by Reuters. The survey was conducted among of 31 financial and academic institutions. The survey was taken before a rally of 300,000 protesters in Ankara on Saturday against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's potential candidacy for the presidency. According to the poll 25 percent of those surveyed said the European Union may fully suspend negotiations with Turkey over its membership to the organization. During the last survey of public opinion such an opinion expressed 35 percent of responders. Another 25 percent think Turkey will pull out of talks itself, Turkish Daily News reported.