BAGIS ON NEWSNIGHT BBC

Paying an official visit to London, Minister for EU Affairs and the Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis attended the news programme called “Newsnight” at BBC 2 and responded to the questions of presenter Gavin Esler.

Indicating that the EU was a peace project but this peace project was still a continental one, Bagis stated that with Turkey’s membership to the EU this project could turn into a global project. Bagis said that the number of countries which sincerely believed Turkey’s accession to the Union was more in the EU. Minister for EU Affairs Bagis noted that Turkey and the EU would come together on the basis of some concrete needs in the long run and this would be to the benefit of the both sides.

Referring to the concerns of some countries concerning migration resulting from the enlargement of the EU, Bagis said:

“I don’t think that these are realistic concerns.” We are hearing the Polish plumber concept for years. I saw many Polish plumbers neither in England nor in France. There are great fears that lots of Turks will come to Europe. However, according to the statistics of the German Government, there are more Germans immigrating to Turkey than Turks immigrating to Germany. Following the economic crisis, living in Romania, Bulgaria or Turkey could be better than living in some of those concerned countries.”

Pointing out that many English citizens also purchased real estate in Turkey, Bagis said, “We have the Mediterranean sun shining 300 days of the year. With their pensions, the English are able to live a better life at better standards in Turkey compared to England.”

In response to a question asking whether the USA and Europe did enough concerning the Syrian issue, Minister for EU Affairs Bagis stressed that an average of 100 people a day were being killed by their own government in Syria. Noting that no one was safe unless everyone was safe, Bagis said, “If we allow the current bloodshed to continue, this will cause all of us harm. Therefore, we must persuade Russia and China, the two members of the UN Security Council, to exert the necessary pressure on dictator Esed in Syria.”

Source: AA, BBC