PEOPLE OF THE REGION PREFER THE ONES WHO PROVIDE SERVICES BUT NOT THE ONES WHO SUGGEST VIOLANCE

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Bagis, together with Huseyin Celik, Minister of National Education, participated in the workshop of "Development of the Human Resources through Vocational Training Project – (IKMEP)" which is carried out with the collaboration of Higher Education Council (YOK) and Ministry of National Education.

Recalling that Van was the city that received the most approvals for EU projects, Minister for EU Affairs Bagis stated that the thing which was important was not to benefit from the EU funds and he added that, it was also possible that these funds be provided by the state.

Bagis pointed out that the essential thing in EU funded projects was to make use of experience and knowledge. Bagis noted that, throughout Turkey, there was an excitement about the EU negotiation process.

Stating that every people in the country, from east to west, including the military, the civilian, the young and the old, were so much excited about EU. Bagis noted these:

"We all observe that Turkey has grown more stronger and both its economy and democracy have progressed in the course of EU process .When the membership processes of the 27 EU member states were initiated, the economies, human rights and the democracies of these states grew stronger. Today, we have been carrying out the EU negotiations and the General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Turkey where the prime ministers were executed 50 years ago after the military coups, where the books of Kafka and Dostoyevski were collected 30 years ago and where the mayor of the Turkey's biggest city were sent to prison for reading a poem taken from text books 10 years ago. This is the outcome of Turkey's honourable and never collapsing identity.When we apply it in the internal policy, we realize the things that are counted as impossible in Turkey.

Stating that Turkey was one of those rare countries in the world the banks of which did not make a loss in the global financial crisis, Bagis said, "While the banks in USA and Europe went bankrupt, banking sector in Turkey made a net profit of 12 billion dollars at the end of 2008".

Bagis continued his speech saying:

"That is to say, we left behind a period in history when we had to pay 8 thousand percent interest after a constitution booklet had been thrown. We now trust our nation, our people, our determination and our values and we are at peace with one another, we don't question one another and we take each other as we are. An EU related activity to attract this much participation and enthusiasm in Van is the most concrete example for the expectation that our country will be successful on its way to the EU with the same confidence and determination".

Reminding that Adnan Menderes, one of the former prime ministers, made the first application to the European Economic Community in 1959, Bagis stated that he took over his assignment at the 50th anniversary of this application and great success was achieved with the start of the negotiations after a 45 year period in which no date for negotiations could be received.

Bagis visited Ozdemir Cakacak, the governor of Van, in his office, and he later, together with Minister Celik, paid a visit to AK Party Provincial Election Office.

Indicating that they provided service without any discrimination all over Turkey and that they carried out important work in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia, Bagis continued his speech saying:

"People living in this region prefer the ones who bring roads and water to their villages, who distribute books and computers to their children free of charge, who provide the health services in hospitals and who deal with their problems and not the ones who exploit their identity. Our people aren't deceived by the promises any more. People from this region prefer the ones who broadcast in the language they understand on TRT 6 and not the ones who organize them to close the shutters, break the windows and provoke violence".

Resource: AA