MINISTER BAGIS EXPLAINS TURKEY-EU RELATIONS ON LIVE TV
Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis appeared live on CNN Turk and answered the questions of Hande Fırat -Ankara Representative of the Channel- on Turkey-EU relations.
Answering the question whether Turkey and the EU are obstinate with each other, Minister Bagis said: "We better not call it being obstinate with each other because we are in a negotiation process and we are carrying out negotiations. We are learning their approach on the issue and explaining our approach to them."
"Turkey is the side that seeks solution in Cyprus issue. We are determined to find a fair and sustainable solution which is based on political equality in Cyprus. If that solution is achieved it would be beneficial for all sides; if not, Turkey clearly stated that it would neither give up its goal of accession to the EU due to Cyprus issue nor would it throw off Cyprus for EU accession."
Upon a question about the words of the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle who stated that the reason for non-implementation of the additional protocol should have been asked to his Turkish colleagues, Bagis said:
"This is because we made an official statement when we put our signature there. We stated on that date that it was impossible for us to carry it into effect as long as isolations and embargos imposed on TRNC continued. Our Prime Minister openly said that to Papadopulos's face, the late President of Southern Cyprus.
When the speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu was reminded and upon a question whether the relations would be suspended, Bagis said:
"Poland is the president today. Of course, under present conditions, it would not be reasonable to expect Turkey to have relations with Cyprus as close as it had with Poland. However, that would not affect our relations with the Commission much because the Commission can come in contact with Turkey independently of the Presidency."
Indicating that there could be some initiatives to prevent the opening of some chapters to negotiations, Bagis said: "The chapters may not be opened but our Prime Minister gave the answer of that question at first hand when he submitted the government program to the Parliament. We are determined to make reforms without considering whether they open the chapters to negotiations or not because we make those reforms not for the EU but for our own citizens' sake."
With regard to the works carried out for preparing a new constitution, Bagis said:
"We believe that Turkish society should take the steps towards an advanced democracy all together. I have stated repeatedly that Turkey cannot be an EU member state with its present constitution. It is a waste of time to expect Turkey to take place among the most democratic states with such a constitution which still carries the spirit of a military coup. It is time for Turkey to have a constitution that is appropriate for the 21st Century. I hope the opposition parties would take our Prime Minister's hand which he offered to make cooperation."
"If you take a look at the activities of the parliament in the last month before the elections, we made legal amendments on more than 3200 articles for instance in the code of obligations and the code of commerce and we, as the government, achieved this in collaboration with the opposition. Normally it would take 5 years for the parliament to adopt 3200 articles; however, we managed to do that in 5 days. I don't see a loss of enthusiasm in this situation, on the contrary there's an increase in our enthusiasm. I have just mentioned you that I found it important that our opposition parties did not misuse the EU process in the public squares during the election campaign. The steps to be taken in the upcoming period are already clear because our citizens gave us an instruction. They gave this instruction in the 12 September referendum. A very clear and straight national will has been expressed to us regarding certain amendments on the constitution and now we will do what is necessary. Our people told us to found the Ombudsman Institution; we will create the necessary legal infrastructure to found it. Our people wanted the personal data to be under constitutional security, now we will adopt the laws for that. Our people paved the way for giving priority to certain sections; we will make legal amendments regarding them also. We will work on all of these; if necessary we will work on the criminal code and other laws and take the steps necessary to bring Turkey to a point of advanced democracy all together."
Answering the questions regarding the arrested MPs, Bagis said: "Our opposition parties made them candidates knowing that they were arrested just for enabling them to have an immunity shield though they have always criticized the immunities granted to the MPs. I don't deem right to make comments on the issue without having information about the content of the cases. However, if there are some highly serious claims, there is nothing more natural for the courts than evaluating the evidences and the documents."
Source: AA
