BRITAIN'S SUPPORT FOR TURKEY'S EU MEMBERSHIP PROCESS CONTINUES

Visiting London to attend the seminar titled "Turkey's Role in the Rising Network World", Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis attended the reception given by Chris Bryant, UK Minister for Europe and Deputy Foreign Minister, within the framework of his contacts there.

Delivering a speech at the beginning of the reception, Bagis indicated that it wasn't easy to defend Turkey in Europe and defend Europe in Turkey and thanked the United Kingdom for its support for Turkey's EU process with all its political parties.

Noting that he didn't think that no other country would continue the negotiation process when more than half of the negotiation titles were blocked, Bagis said:

"We have a saying in Turkey, ‘Start a work like a Turk and finish it like an English'. We are trying to do this in our EU negotiation process. We started like a Turk and what a coincidence that those who criticised the accession of the United Kingdom to the EU are the same ones who criticise Turkey's membership now. If you have a prescription for dealing with this issue, please share it with us."

Touching upon the "strong relations" between Turkey and the United Kingdom, Chris Bryant noted that they were thinking that Turkey would be the "tiger of Bosporus" and would become one of the largest economies of the world in the coming 10 years. Bryant stated that they were looking forward to continuing to be the partner of Turkey during that process and added that there were benefits that two countries would mutually provide for each other.

Organizing a press meeting in Turkish Embassy in London related to his contacts, Bagis noted that UK was one of the countries that "publicly supports" Turkey's EU process. He said that they were so much pleased to see that all the political parties in United Kingdom were in agreement on the subject.

Bagis said: "Turkish-English relations make up a good example of the cooperation of the two countries which are on the two opposite ends of Europe, for the benefits of Europe."

Source: AA