'TURKEY IS WELL AWARE OF ITS OBLIGATIONS AND ASSUMES THE RESPONSIBILTY OF THEM'

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis stated that Turkey was well aware of its obligations and assumed the responsibility of them. He added that Turkey had the right to expect that its addressees fulfil their own obligations.

In his statements to AA reporter Bagis pointed to the comments regarding Turkey of Dora Bakoyanni, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece in an interview with the Greek newspaper İmerisi.

For the statement of Bakoyanni saying: "Turkey should fulfil its obligations" Egemen Bagis replied that Turkey was a country who was well aware of its obligations and assumed the responsibility of them. Bagis emphasized that Turkey had a history of state and diplomacy culture, and knowledge; and governed a wide geographical area and great populations.

Bagis said: 'Doubtlessly our addressees are aware of the history". He added: "Turkey's international relations did not start by means of the EU or owing to the EU. Moreover, as opposed to Greece whose sole and first agenda item is Cyprus, Turkey has many other issues on its agenda, other than Cyprus."

Pointing to the fact: 'Turkey's diplomacy history dates back nearly a thousand years before 1974" Bagis added:

'As for the issue of obligations, I want to say that Turkey is aware of its obligations and has the right to expect its addresses fulfill their own obligations.

International agreements are not the obligations imposed by the ones shouting loud or more. Our addressees manoeuvring for our disadvantage may be at the advantageous side, but they are not right. Firstly you should be right.

Equity, conscience and justice are now the most sensitive issues of the world, especially the Muslim world which is closely following the EU's approach to Turkey. Equity and justice positions of countries are taken into account.

Agreements should be implemented based on the equity, justice and reciprocity principles. Turkey will be outside the sphere of propaganda and turmoil of this issue.

We think that the heroic statements in the media uttered in order to make the national public opinion uneasy are far from being serious; and we do not care with these statements. If they do want to give a message to us, they should know that we cannot regard these facetious statements as messages. They can only be domestic issues. We also do not prefer the way of communicating through media. '

Resource: AA