BAGIS ATTENDS BRUSSELS FORUM

Brussels Forum, annually organized by the German Marshall Fund was held on April 28-29. The forum was attended by former deputy undersecretaries Marc Grossman and Richard Holbrooke, EU Commissioner responsible for Enlargement Olli Rehn, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay. Egemen Bagis also took his place among the speakers.

The discussions locked on to Turkey due to the internet statement of Turkish General Staff the previous night. Prior to dwelling on the General Staff's statement Bagis evaluated the Presidential candidacy of Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah Gul. He mentioned that Mr. Gul had served as a Prime Minister and during his ministry he had signed many projects considered to be a milestone for the Turkish Nation. He also noted that Mr. Gul is one of the most important architects of the EU process and that he is popular and loved by the masses, therefore no one should doubt that he will do the job as a candidate for President. Bagis also stressed that Gul had received the highest votes any candidate had ever gotten on the first round of electing a President, and that CHP's policy of politicizing a crisis is childish.

Bagis replied to General Staff's statement "We all need democracy, everyone should guard it." Bagis also stated that Turkey being a secular, democratic and social state governed by the rule of law, one can not prefer one element over the other, hence, everyone should carefully calculate the results if one of these elements is damaged.