WE OPPOSE THE DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE EU

Delivering a speech at the opening session of the 31th Turkey-EU Joint Advisory Committee Meeting held in Ankara, Egemen Bagis stated that they oppose the double standards applied by the EU against Turkey. 

In his speech Bagis said: “We oppose the double standards of the EU. Eight Chapters were vetoed because of the Cyprus issue. The Greek Cypriot Administration declared that 6 more Chapters would be vetoed. We are faced with 26 states which tolerate the impertinence of one Member State. The embargo on Northern Cyprus should be lifted. When Europeans keep their promises, we can open all our ports and airports to Greek Cypriots.”

Bagis declared that he had received positive messages in his visit to Ireland, which would take charge of the EU Presidency. He also said: “We observed that our Irish counterparts are well aware of the fact that the process is at a very critical phase for Turkey. We will visit Ireland again on January. In fact, we also received similar positive signals from France”.

Bagis stated: “the EU process is the common denominator for everybody in Turkey together with the young, the old, the women, the men, its Turkish, Kurdish, Laz and Circassian, Alewi and Sunni people, its trade unions, stock market, tradesmen, and farmers and it is very important to maintain this common denominator.” He also added:

“The main reason for the double standards applied to Turkey is the Cyprus issue. This issue did not pose an obstacle for the membership of the Greek Cypriots, but it is set as an obstacle although Turkey supports a settlement. While we were explaining the expectations of Turkey from the Irish Presidency at one of the most reputable think-tank organisations of Ireland, the Ambassador of the Greek Cypriot Administration to Ireland demonstrated the oversight to referred to a number of agreements regarding the Cyprus issue. Greek Cypriot representatives have frequently referred to such matters in Europe and have been responded to duly. Accordingly, in our recent visits to Europe, we have seen that they abstained from such questions. However, I think that the Ambassador of the Greek Cypriot Administration to Ireland was not aware of this when posing these questions, and as usual, the questions were given their due response.

President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey Rifat Hicarcıklıoğlu, President of the European Economic and Social Committee Staffan Nilsson, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union to Turkey Bela Szombati, Co-Chairs of the Turkey-EU Joint Advisory Committee Meeting Mustafa Kumlu and Arno Metzler also joined the meeting.

Source: AA