"PRESENT CONSTITUTION IS LIKE A MAGNET PULLING US BACK"

Meeting with the representatives of the broadcasting organizations in Istanbul, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis discussed Turkey's EU accession process.

Bagis emphasized the need for a constitution not ruling over the nation but aiming to serve the nation. Bagis reminded his call to all the parties for preparing a draft constitution displaying Turkey as they imagine. Bagis said: "As I have mentioned many times, the present constitution is like a magnet pulling us back to the past."

Bagis also said: 'Let them provide us with a constitution that suits Turkey and that everybody can embrace and say ‘my constitution'. I have been making this call for weeks but have not received a reply yet. It is not important for me to receive a reply, but it is important for the history because the future generations will definitely question these times"

Bagis stated that despite acting as a mediator for many countries in their disputes; and being the co-chairman in the Civilizations Alliance Project, and a member of the UN Security Council; Turkey could not reach a consensus in itself for a constitution.

Bagis reminded that in the 2009 Progress Report, infringement of human rights, unsolved murder cases, torture, or a list of politicians, journalists, intellectuals being under custody were not mentioned as it had been in the previous reports. Bagis said: "Thank God there is not such a shameful list in this report. In the report, they have stated Turkey's process as an opportunity, and mentioned some technical deficiencies and proposals for the strengthening of democracy".

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Bagis declared that in 2010, they had adopted a new EU Strategy for Turkey's accession process, which had four pillars.

Bagis stated that the first pillar of the strategy focused on the works for the continuation of the ongoing official negotiation process; and the second pillar on the opening of the chapters blocked politically by some of the countries.

Bagis said: "the third pillar focuses on the political reforms which ensure the improvement of the political atmosphere in Turkey up to the European standards; and therefore, these reforms should be maintained."

Bagis stated that the fourth pillar focused on the communication. Bagis mentioned the deficiencies in the communication between Turkey and the EU and said that also the EU Member Countries had serious communication problems among themselves regarding Turkey.

Bagis explained their works to increase the enthusiasm in Turkey for the EU and he mentioned about the new symbol of EUSG, which brought the Turkish flag together with the EU flag in the shape of a crescent.

In his speech, Bagis said:

'I want to emphasize once more that the Republic of Turkey will not be able to be a member of the EU with the present constitution. For Turkey to be a modern, secular, social state under the rule of law, there should be a common text which all parties agree on. It will be difficult for us to reach the EU standards without achieving a consensus on such a text. Today, when we look at the news headlines, we can admit that these headlines do not suit Turkey, which carries out accession negotiations with the EU. I do not criticize the journalists writing that headlines. It is worrisome that these headlines are being discussed in Turkey. It is incredible that the negotiations are being carried out in a country where people are talking about military coups; where allegations regarding the assassination of the Deputy Prime Minister are mentioned as magazine news; where politicians declare the need for democracy but still utter sentences with ‘but' or ‘however'. Therefore, it is high time that we leave sentences with ‘but', ‘however' behind and have a constitution that will ensure Turkey to reach the level of contemporary civilizations as Ataturk pointed as a target."

Source: AA