CONFIDENCE IN THE EU HAS DROPPED

Receiving Ms. Isil Akbaygil, Head of Iznik Tile Foundation, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis answered the questions of journalists in many fields from terrorism incidents to the bomb attack in Gaziantep and to Turkeys’ confidence in the EU.

Upon a question regarding terrorism incidents, Minister Bagis said “Unity and solidarity are the most important trump cards of us against terrorism. Emphasizing that the trouble of terrorism would be expelled through unity and solidarity, Minister Bagis said “ It is obvious that the terrorist organisation becomes a subcontractor of someone in recent times. But the unity and solidarity of Turkey will set back such attempts. All the citizens of this country will collaborate without making any discrimination and find a solution to this problem with cooperation. Bagis underlined that people who keep close relations with the terror organisation were also accountable for what has happened in Gaziantep and the lately rising terrorism incidents.

In accordance with a survey’s results, it is indicated that Turkish citizens' confidence in the EU and their will to be an EU member were dropping. Upon this, Minister Bagis said:

“That the Turkish citizens' confidence in the EU is being dropped comes on the scene as a result of the surveys conducted by us. The reality is that this is not related to Turkey's credibility, it is related to the EU's credibility." The EU caused to lose its reliability in terms of Turkish public opinion by taking the Greek Cypriot Administration into the Union who says ‘no for the solution’, and ostracizing the Turkish community who says ‘yes for the solution’, by not inviting any of the candidate countries to the EU summits in the last 7 years,  by not taking necessary steps to render the cooperation in the fight against terrorism, by applying double standards to Turkish citizens on the visa issue which have never been applied to any other country, by trying to put up a wall before Turkey through blocking many chapters in a way that have never been experienced during the negotiation processes of other candidate countries before. Those who have to examine this problem are the authorities in Brussels and in the EU member countries. If the negotiation process proceeds in such a way, the greatest question in Brussels in a couple of years will be “Who lost Turkey?” I hope that the recent surveys conducted will be an occasion for the Europeans to correct this mistake.