BAGIS THANKS ESTONIA FOR ITS SUPPORT IN TURKEY'S EU PROCESS

Visiting Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, as the second leg of his visit to Baltic countries; Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis attended the luncheon organized in honour of himself by Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet and then he held a joint press conference with Paet.

In his speech, Bagis stated that the main aim of his visit was to thank Estonia for its support to Turkey during the EU negotiations. Bagis emphasized that Turkey attached importance to this geographical part of the world and he reminded that the bilateral relations with Estonia had started in 1920s, even before the EU.

Declaring that Turkey had never approved the occupation of the Baltic countries; Bagis stressed that within the framework of the Turkey's new visa approach towards the Baltic countries, they expected an important increase in the number of incoming tourists from Estonia.

Minister Bagis thanked Estonia for its support in the EU negotiations and he added that he would suggest Turkish Airlines to launch direct flights to Tallinn and this would improve the bilateral relations between the people of two countries.

Egemen Bagis stated that he would inform the Prime Minster, Tayyip Erdogan about invitation of Estonian Prime Minister and he pointed to the fact that Mr. Erdogan would be the first Turkish Prime Minister to visit Estonia.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet delivered a speech and said that though Turkey was a very important country as regards Europe's energy security, the EU hasn't opened the energy chapter with Turkey yet and that it should open it as soon as possible. Paet also added that the majority of the Estonians supported Turkey's EU membership.

Paying a visit to Prime Minister Andrus Ansip under his Estonia program, Bagis delivered a conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Foreign Policy Institute in Tallinn on the same day and explained Turkey's EU membership process.

Thanking Estonia for its support in Turkey's EU negotiations, Bagis said that the two countries always maintained perfect relations and they had no problems.

Reminding that Turkey didn't recognize the Soviet occupation of Baltic countries in 1944, Bagis said "As the Foreign Minister Mr. Urmas Paet mentions, Turkey was the first NATO member country from the Mediterranean Region to protect the air space of Estonia and the Baltic countries and Turkey continued to protect it further than the usual time."

Stating that Estonia and Turkey cooperated in many operations of the peacekeeping forces under the umbrella of NATO and UN, Bagis said "We attach great importance to strengthen economic and commercial relations with Estonia. Our commercial capacity steadily increased and reached 500 million dollars in 2008. Unfortunately, this ratio fell down to 208 million dollars in 2009, due to the global economic crisis."

Upon a question about the solution of the Cyprus issue, Egemen Bagis said Turkey tried to encourage both the President of TRNC Mr. Mehmet Ali Talat and Greek leader Mr. Demetris Christofias for a permanent and fair solution and added "For the first time in history, the governments of Turkey, Greece and both sides of Cyprus are for a solution."

Upon another question, Minister Bagis pointed that Turkey opened 12 chapters to negotiations so far and that there were still 21 more chapters to be opened and said "Unfortunately, 17 or 18 of these chapters are blocked due to political reasons. Therefore there are 4 chapters left. Even the energy chapter which doesn't require any criteria is blocked by the government of Southern Cyprus. We cannot open it to negotiations, especially in a period in which energy is the most important issue of Europe and Turkey serves as the transit point for 70% of the energy Europe requires."

Source: AA