COMMEMORATING PRESIDENT TURGUT OZAL

In the speech that he delivered for the death anniversary of the eighth President of Turkey Tugut Ozal, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said "This Nation will remember Ozal and, Ozal like people who see the world through eyes of his people, with gratitude and thankfulness, they will cherish the ones that strive to continue his heritage."

Declaring that the late Turgut Ozal challenged the status quo with his policy that put our people in the center, Bagis said that he made the people to regain their self confidence in such an era of anxiety, terror and paranoid. Bagis continued as follows:

"When he took over the government, Turkey kept on to live her dark days. This country has been colored with his reforms and caught up her time, flourished, diversified and welcomed the world by breaking her shell. In the 1980's, he declared that "The 21th century will be the century of Turkey." and he was right. In the opening of Turkey to the world and in the process effecting of constitutional rights and freedoms, Turgut Ozal has a leading role.

Primarily, Ozal made an analogy of "long thin road" by forecasting the difficulties that we have come across on the way of EU and he warned about the ones who have tried to deter us from this way and to throw up our hand.

With the leading of our Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has us take a great step in the process of the EU, we have been continuing to move on this long thin road decisively and commemorate Turgut Ozal with gratitude.