Speaking during the Turkey-Europe Mutual Perception and Recognition: Integration Conflict conference being staged in the Spanish city of Barcelona, Aydin said certain politicians in Europe were quoting extremist sources to justify their opposition to Turkey’s EU membership. Among them were German Christian Democrats Hans-Gert Pottering, Andreas Schockenhoff and French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, he said.

“Unfortunately, there are institutions supporting these politicians and people believing in them,” said Aydin.

Acknowledging that it could be difficult to integrate Turkish culture to European culture, Aydin said that a person could be Turkish, Muslim and European.

Another to address the conference was Guler Sabanci, the chairperson of Turkey’s Sabanci Holding, one of the country’s leading corporations. She said that Turkey was being used as a tool in domestic politics in some European countries, such as Netherlands and France.

“European people are victim of a wrong assessment such as Turkey would become an EU member tomorrow and EU would be invaded by Turkish workers. They still could not understand that Turkey’s accession process will take eight to nine years,” she said.