TURKEY DOES NOT CHANGE ITS AXIS, IT JUST REMEMBERS ITS ORIGINS

Paying a visit for 2 days to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis delivered a speech at the conference titled as “The Potential Economic and Commercial Impacts of Turkey’s EU Membership on Middle East and Islamic Countries”. 

In the first day of his visit in Jeddah, Minister Bağış held a meeting with the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and participated to the conference held by OIC and by the Jeddah Chamnber of Commerce in the second day.

In his speech that he made during the conference, Minister Bagis, indicating that Turkey had cultural, historical and economic ties with all Middle East countries, said that Turkey’s axis did not shift towards Arabic region. Bagis implied “One of our axis is in here just as our relations with the regions all around the world. No one can determine how Turkey will carry out its foreign relations with whom and when. Turkey’s and Arabic region’s political and economic motives are similar.”

Minister Bagis, underlining that Turkey was the only country which was the member of both OIC and NATO and carried out EU negotiations, said “We are a country which can establish dialogue both with East and West and North and South. We cannot ignore the existence of one side while we are having dialogue with the other. EU will be stronger with Turkey’s membership, thus new opportunities will emerge. It is broadly accepted that with this features, Turkey is the best remedy in the face of “collapse of civilizations” theory.”