IN HIS SPEECH IN ATHENS, BAGIS MENTIONS TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES

The Mediterranean Luxury Travel Summit in Athens, which was co-hosted by the International Herald Tribune and Kathmerini newspapers, received many participants from the Mediterranean countries. Having attended the Summit, Minister for European Union Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis delivered a speech titled: “Cooperation in the Region”.

Bagis criticized the visa policy towards Turkey and said: “EU Member States should apply visa exemption to Turkey”

Bagis invited Turkey and Greece to cooperate with the aim of rendering the Aegean, a sea of opportunities.  Pointing that luxury tourism might bring in important development opportunities for both countries, Bagis said that the related annual rates were estimated to be 1 trillion Euros.

Bagis declared that many Turkish people wanted to visit Greece as tourists and accordingly, he called the Greek government to exert more effort in convincing its European partners to remove the restrictions. Bagis said: "Tourists from Boliva enter the country without any visa but Turkish people wait in queues”

Minister for European Union Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis remarked the increase in the number of incoming tourists to Turkey and declared that the number of incoming tourists to Turkey was above 30 million in the previous year. He emphasized his expectation to increase this figure up to 50 million in 2020.

Bagis noted that Turkey showed good will in every matter and said that both parties should exert effort to diminish the communication problems.

Bagis mentioned the Western Thrace issue and said: "Rights of many Turkish people in Western Thrace are unfortunately denied. It is sad that the fundamental rights are denied in an EU member state, which is proud of with its democratic tradition.  It is a must to solve such kind of problems if we want to establish reliable and credible relations."

Source: CHA, AA