EGEMEN BAGIS PAYS AN OFFICIAL VISIT TO BULGARIA

Paying an official visit to Bulgaria, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis met with the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Liliana Pavlova and the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Nickolay Mladenov on the first day of his official visit.

Within the scope of his programme in Sofia, Minister Bagis met also with the Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva and Mr Tomislav Donchev, Bulgarian Minister for EU Funds. Bagis completed his official programme for the first day by giving a speech at the conference on “Turkey-EU relations”.

Evaluating his official visits at the press conference which was held in Sofia, Minister Bagis said, "Bulgaria is bothTurkey’s neighbor, friend, ally and one of the greatest powers and friends of Turkey within the EU" by emphasizing the great value he attached to the level reached in Turkish-Bulgarian relationship.

Minister Bagis made the following explanation about his respond to Pavel Şopov, a member of ATAKA Party in Bulgaria who tries to provoke the meeting and claimed 10 billion dollars compensation from Turkey in return of property left by Bulgarian origin citizens that immigrated to Turkey in 1913: "We gave an appropriate respond to some politicians who don’t have any project or idea to recommend, and think racism is a big deal."

Minister Bagis went to Kircaali after his official visits to Sofia, and he participated to the cognate meeting which was held with extensive participation by the people of the region.

Source: AA