5TH ANNIVERSARY OF TURKEY'S EU ACCESSION NEGOTIATIONS

Issuing a message on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the start of Turkey's EU accession negotiations, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis indicated that they worked on the way to membership with the same determination and enthusiasm and will continue to do so.

In his message Bagis said: "On 3 October 2005, accession negotiations with the EU were initiated after 45 years thanks to the leadership and determination of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan."

"Since then negotiations on 13 of 33 Chapters have been opened. Negotiations on 17 Chapters are blocked for political reasons. We will not make concessions to our determination and decisiveness even if the negotiation process is tried to be interrupted by political intrigues in such a way which has not been experienced by any candidate country in the past" said he.

Stating that they told In Europe, at every platform and on every occasion to their counterparts that this situation was not sustainable and Turkey reached the threshold of its tolerance, Minister Bagis said "Starting the negotiations was an objective. Yet, without any doubt, it was not our ultimate goal. Our final objective is membership."

Indicating that Turkey has experienced an important socio-economic transformation in the past 8 years and this transformation was still continuing, Bagis said Turkey became a more liberal country, a global actor and a stronger economy and as a consequence, the counter arguments on Turkey's membership lost their validity.

Bagis continued as follows:

"In the 5th year of the accession negotiations we are working on the way to membership with the same determination and enthusiasm and will continue to do so. But, the time has come for our European friends to make a decision. I would like to remind them that, "Turkey is not a country to be kept waiting at the door" as Prime Minister Erdoğan says."