Azg Daily, Hakob Tsulikian, December 7, 2004: Vatican hasn’t made an official statement about Turkey’s membership to EU but, according to Archbishop Giovanni Lacholo, some leaders of the Catholic Church state that Europe should include "the whole territory stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals, The Armenian Mirror Spectator, weekly informed, referring to the news received from Vatican through Internet.

Vatican External Relations’ official stated in La Stampa newspaper that in case Turkey enters the European Union, the government of that country will have to meet all the political criteria that are met in all the other countries, including freedom of religion and belief. And this guarantee "should not only be fixed in the constitution and the legislation, but also protected in the social sphere," archbishop added. He emphasized that the Catholic Holy See doesn’t fear from the enlargement of Europe and supported the applications of many Easter European countries. "The guarantee that the new Europe will be deeply united and interconnected should be a decisive factor," he said advising the European leaders to pay attention to those European countries that have already expressed will to join the EU. He included Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in the list of the abovementioned countries. "These countries keep in line with the European cultural traditions," he underscored.