OUR ONLY AGENDA IS DEMOCRACY

Making a written statement, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis referred to the CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu's criticisms on the EU policy of the government.

"We could not understand clearly the CHP's standpoint on the EU. At the congress, where Kilicdaroglu was elected as the chairman of the party, a parallelism was drawn between the EU accession process and our War of Independence and also between the victory of Dervis Eroglu in TRNC and Turkey's accession process. However, now they say: "We are not opposed to the membership, but…" They give an impression identical with the standpoint of the MHP on the EU, even falling behind it. From which perspective does the CHP and its leader who, as in many subjects, hasn't yet been able to determine his own orientation and decision on the EU process and its requirements, and whose various explanations make it clear that he is even unaware of the essence of the matter, evaluate the performance of the AK Party government, and regard himself entitled to report as a teacher? At first, the knowledge level and the opinions of the CHP leader on the EU are required to be determined. And we are ready to help him on this matter" noted Bagis.

Bagis, who told that they would send a note regarding the works carried out throughout the period since he was appointed as the Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator, mentioned that it would be seen that qualifying the performance of Turkey on the EU relations as unsuccessful is unfair, if the report was examined objectively.

Stating that the EU process was not the one which could be performed by the government on its own and only with its effort, Bagis said: "In this process, we need sincere participants confident of the EU accession process from every stratum, from every sector, and of every political view. Hereby, we would like to ask him to inform us of the matters we haven't accomplished in the EU accession process but regarded as deficiencies by him.

Noting that Kemal Kilicdaroglu also admitted that we are at such a point where we can give the message "we do not need the EU" if necessary, Bagis added: "He is speaking of a hidden agenda. We have been in power for 8 years. How on earth could that kind of a hidden agenda remain secret in 8 years? Everything is evident. Our whole agenda is about freedoms and the democracy. We have proved this in 8 years."

Source: AA