EGEMEN BAGIS ATTENDS BRUSSELS FORUM

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis delivered a speech at the meeting on "Turkey, Zero Problems and the EU" at the Brussels Forum held by the U.S. think-tank German Marshall Fund.

Bagis emphasized that the EU was a peace project and added "EU will become a global peace project with Turkey's accession"

Bagis rejected the recent criticisms that "Turkey shifted its Western oriented foreign policy" or "The West lost Turkey" and said "Turkey, which has been a bridge between the East and the West for centuries, does not turn its back on the West. What we have been experiencing is the strengthening of that bridge."

Chief Negotiator Bagis criticized the EU saying "On the one hand, you keep telling Northern African and Middle Eastern countries to become a democratic and transparent rule of law while insisting on an unfair treatment for Turkey, which is an inspiration to those very same Northern African and Middle Eastern countries. You cannot explain this contradiction to them."

Bagis also urged the EU to invite Turkey to the Union's summit meetings as in the previous enlargement waves, if it was genuinely sincere in maintaining strategic dialogue with the country.

Bagis held a press meeting at the new Office of Permanent Representation of Turkey to the European Union in Brussels, and emphasized that the EU had to reconsider its approach to Turkey, if it wants to be taken seriously in calling the Northern African and Middle Eastern countries for human rights, democracy and transparency.

Bagis said "This is the EU's contradiction. Our aligns, who urge those countries to respect human rights and to become democratic and transparent, and who wouldn't avoid taking any risks in this respect are damaging the motivation of the country whose democratic transformation has been a source of inspiration for African and Middle Eastern nations in the streets fighting for those values."

Source: AA