PARIS, Dec 3: European Parliament President Pat Cox, in Paris to persuade French leaders that Turkey should be included in the soon-to-be-expanded European Union, said on Sunday that “Turkey does have its place” in an expanded EU”.

Indeed, notes the Speaker of the Strasbourg-based European Parliament, “the EU is engaged to Turkey, we do have a ‘marriage contract’ with them and we just can’t wipe out all traces of the past”.

True, adds Pat Cox, “we can await from Turkey that she lift some of the blockages that stand in the way of her taking part in the EU joint policy on security and defence, also that she seize the chance for peace that is presented in Cyprus, that she respect our democratic ideals and the idea of human rights.”

Referring to a recent meeting with Turkey’s new strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Pat Cox makes use of the same characterization utilized years earlier by Margaret Thatcher in speaking of Mikhail Gorbachev: “Erdogan is somebody with whom you can do business.”