"ALL DIFFICULTIES CAN BE OVERCOME WITH UNITY AND COOPERATION"

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis pointed out that there might be people who do not want to accept the power and potential of Turkey and said: "If we stand against them altogether in patience and cooperation and unity as a nation, we can overcome all difficulties and Turkey reaches the point that it deserves."

Bagis held a private meeting at Secretariat General for EU Affairs in Ankara with Aleksander Vondra, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and then they attended a working lunch with the participation of delegations.

At the joint press conference held after their meeting, Bagis expressed his pleasure for receiving Aleksander Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister for European Union of the Czech Republic, a friendly an allied country.

Bagis indicated that he had sincere talks with Vondra on the Chapters planned to be opened in the upcoming period, Turkey-EU relations and political developments in Czech Republic.

Thanking Vondra for the friendship and close relations they maintained both in the history and during the Presidency of Czech Republic, Bagis expressed his gratitude in advance for the support which he believed Czech Republic would continue to give during their Presidency period.

Upon a question in the press conference, Bagis said, being a member of a political party governing for 7 years, he found Turkey's foreign policy having been carried out for 7 years extremely successful. Stating that the foreign policy carried out successfully by all the foreign ministers served in that seven years period provided significant improvements in terms of EU process, Bagis said:

"Turkey has become the mediating country between Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Russia and Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, India and Pakistan and Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

Turkey was being ignored from the discussions regarding the developments in the Middle East which is very near to Turkey; however today Turkey is the co-president of the Alliance of Civilisations and has become the first country for the leaders of the Middle Eastern countries who can not establish a dialogue, to ask for mediation. This is very important in terms of indicating the point which Turkey has reached.

When we come to the point what the problem is, there might be people who do not want to accept the power and potential of Turkey. If we stand against them altogether in patience and cooperation and unity as a nation, we can overcome all difficulties and Turkey reaches the point that it deserves."

Aleksander Vondra, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic said that they observed Turkey manoeuvring to open a place for itself within the framework of the reform process; the reform process was continuing and Turkey would not lose speed on its way to EU membership because they believed the future of this country will be within the EU.

Resource: AA