BAGIS MET WITH DANISH PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION

AK Party Vice-Chairman and Deputy of Istanbul, Egemen Bagis held a gathering with a delegation composed of Danish Parliament's EU Affairs Committee on March 4, 2008.

AK Party Istanbul MPs, Canan Kalsin and Ozlem Turkone, AK Party Cankiri MP Suat Kiniklioglu and AK Party Sanliurfa MP Abdulkadir Emin Onen participated in the meeting. EU membership negotiations of Turkey and the prevention of terrorism were debated in the meeting.

During the meeting, Denmark delegation underlined that their country supports Turkey's EU membership and appreciates Turkey's decisiveness to struggle with terrorism.

AK Party Vice-Chairman Egemen Bagis mentioned that Denmark is an important country for Turkey. Bagis said that Denmark as a member of EU is important regarding both Turkey's EU membership process and 55.000 Turkish citizens living there. He also emphasized that Denmark is important for our foreign trade.

Bagis reminded that Turkey is also important for Denmark. He stated "If Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 20 items on the agenda, 15 of them interests Turkey or these are main items of Turkey's agenda". He also mentioned Turkey's powerful position after AK Party governance.

Bagis also said that the two important elements that act as barriers to prevent Turkey's EU membership are opponents of change in Turkey and the image of Turkey in EU countries.

Bagis said "Nowadays, unfortunately, a mortgage has been carried out between the relations of our countries by PKK and Roj TV. This should be left as soon as possible".

Members of the delegation mentioned that Roj TV is a subject of Danish judiciary and Danish judiciary is independent; therefore, cabinet does not intervene to this issue.

The meeting ended with question and answer session.