THE REFORMS PACKAGE WILL RAISE THE STANDARDS OF TURKEY TO THE EUROPEAN LEVEL

During his official visits in Brussels, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis made statements to the internal and foreign press agencies like Reuters and the Anadolu agency. In his speech, he stated that Turkey would accomplish the reforms necessary for the EU membership until 2013 and that Turkey's membership would also be beneficial for the EU.

Regarding the arguments that the EU and Turkey have cultural differences, Egemen Bagis pointed that Turkey's membership would be beneficial for the EU and he said: "This is an opportunity for the Union to prove whether it is a club of elites or Christians, or a union of values."

Bagis said: "EU cannot continue without any enlargement, we should be realistic on this issue." Bagis said that the "privileged partnership" suggested by some countries was a libellous and appalling term.

Stating the need for a judiciary that nobody would doubt its independence as well as its impartiality, in fight against gangs in Turkey; Minister for EU Affairs Bagis declared that the constitutional amendment package was an important step towards a transparent judiciary.

As for the EU's view on "Ergenekon" case, Bagis said:

"We are passing through a judicial process that is important for Turkey's becoming transparent. The issues which used to be accepted as taboos and about which people used to avoid talking and even thinking are now examined by the justice, and the discussions on such issues have become a part of our daily life. These are very important steps for Turkey's becoming more democratic and transparent, and for improving the human rights standards in Turkey.

In the previous progress report of the EU Commission, investigation on 'Ergenekon' was defined as ‘raising serious concerns', but in the latest progress report, it is seen that it was replaced with ‘opportunity' for Turkey's becoming more transparent. This means that even the authorities in 27 member states, who are responsible for the enlargement and who draw up this report, were impressed by the found evidences, documents, information, explosives, bullets, guns and missiles, and therefore they thought and stated in the report that the Ergenekon case was an opportunity for becoming more democratic and transparent."

Indicating that the adoption of the constitutional amendment package would be beneficial for Turkey in many respects, Bagis said: "At least it will provide the Constitution to be considered by the citizens as their own. It will be a constitution which embraces all our citizens who have different ethnic origins and religious beliefs and different political tendencies."

Indicating that the constitutional amendment would strengthen the rights of women, children and public officers and it would lead to the implementation of the judicial reform strategy which had been prepared with the support of all judicial institutions in order to realize a judicial reform at EU standards, Bagis said, with the constitutional amendment, the workload of the Constitutional Court would be relieved and dissolution process of political parties which was unbecoming to our country would be in conformity with European standards and Venice Criteria.

Bagis continued as follows:

"This constitutional amendment will raise the standards of Turkey to European level in all respects. The European officials whom I met in Brussels expressed that they considered the encouragement of Turkey to make such a comprehensive amendment to the Constitution was the indicator of its decisive attitude towards reaching European standards. This made us happy. I hope the government and the opposition parties will reach a consensus on the text and we will adopt the amendment in TGNA, maybe not unanimously but by the majority of the votes."

In relation to his visit to Brussels, Bagis met the representatives of Turkish NGOs in the Istanbul Centre and in his speech he delivered there pointed to the decision of the Swedish Parliament. Egemen Bagis said:

"The affair that took place in the Swedish Parliament is a great shame for all of us. There are no buts about it. It is not acceptable that our brothers who were elected to the parliament with the votes of the Turks living there supported a draft humiliating Turkish nation. Our conscience has been hurt. We hope they make efforts to recover from that error."

Source: AA