Tag: Bagis

  • Turkey will ignore Cyprus as EU president

    Turkey will ignore Cyprus as EU president

    Mr. Bagis made the remarks during a speech at the London School of Economics on Wednesday
    Mr. Bagis made the remarks during a speech at the London School of Economics on Wednesday

    TURKEY’S EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis has again said that Turkey would ignore the Republic of Cyprus, as EU president, adding “We will not take it as interlocutor as the rotating president of the EU this year.”

    Mr. Bagis made the remarks during a speech at the London School of Economics on Wednesday.

    When asked about Turkey’s stance towards the Republic of Cyprus which will undertake the rotating presidency of the EU in July, Bagis said that “Turkey would ignore the Greek Cypriot administration”.

    Bagis said: “We hope there will be a united Cyprus till July”, adding that “if there was not a united Cyprus till that date, Turkey would pursue its relations with European Commission, European Parliament and EU member states, but ignore the rotating president.”

    “EU candidate countries contact with EU president only if a chapter is opened to negotiations or during council partnership meetings”, said Bagis.

    He also said: “Turkey has 52 years of relationship with the EU, thus, six months is not a long time for Turkey.”

     

    Famagusta Gazette

  • BAGIS SAYS IN LONDON: “EUROPE MUST BE A COSMOPOLITAN, MULTICULTURAL, MULTILINGUAL AND MULTI-FAITH UNION.”

    BAGIS SAYS IN LONDON: “EUROPE MUST BE A COSMOPOLITAN, MULTICULTURAL, MULTILINGUAL AND MULTI-FAITH UNION.”

    E BagisAs a part of his visits in London, the capital city of England, the Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis made a speech titled “Creating a Common Future Together: Towards a Visionary Europe” in London School of Economics (LSE), one of the leading universities of the United Kingdom.

    Bagis said: “Today, we must discuss the future of Europe. Europe must be a cosmopolitan, multicultural, multilingual and multi-faith union. Although it has been going through hard times both economically and politically, the EU is the biggest peace project in the history of humanity and that’s why, Turkey intends to be a member of this Union”.

    In his speech, stressing that the EU had to keep up with the developments in the changing world, Bagis also mentioned Turkey’s economic growth. Stating that a great number of Muslims lived in Europe and the perception as “Europe is a club of Christians” was not valid anymore, he said: “The fact that Turkey is a Muslim country is an advantage for Europe”.

    Pointing out that Turkey would play a key role for Europe to become a global actor, Bagis said: “Many countries consider Turkey as a source of inspiration”. Stating that the new motto of Turkey throughout its accession process is “Hold tight Europe, Turkey is coming to save you”, he added: “The membership of Turkey will not make the EU pie smaller, but bigger”. Mentioning that Europe needed new markets and Turkey would be a solution within this respect, Bagis said: “The cosmopolitan approach of Turkey towards the global problems will help to make Europe a cosmopolitan union and Europe will turn into a better place with the accession of Turkey”.

     

     

     

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  • Egemen Bagis: Turkey and the EU Have a Common Future

    Egemen Bagis: Turkey and the EU Have a Common Future

    Adelina Marini, Sofia

    It is probably different when you have a friend in the EU institutions. Of course, it is important what that friendship is based upon and also whether there are expectations this friendship to deliver something specific. This is what I was thinking while I listened to the brief press conference of the Turkish chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bagis, and the new president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz. I relied on that news conference very much, because there were only photos and video footage from the other meetings of Bagis in Brussels. After all, Turkey is a strategically important partner of the EU, the oldest candidate for a full membership and at the moment a very influential player in the Middle East.

    bagis fuleA little context

    While I was waiting for that press conference to start, I had a few questions wandering in my mind. Without enlisting them in order of significance, the first that came across was related to an announcement I saw on Twitter yesterday (Feb 7), that against the backdrop of the expectations the Greek coalition government to finalise the text of an agreement with its creditors and the troika, Turkey had stopped the gas deliveries for Greece. The news is especially stressful because it is a signal that maybe Greece is no longer capable of paying even for its gas deliveries, which means that it is practically bankrupt. Besides, stopping the deliveries is happening at a time of one of the severest winters in Europe in general for decades. So, this question was important to be addressed – what were the reasons for halting deliveries, could the EU do something, etc. According to reports in the Turkish NTV, there were technical problems that caused the stop of gas deliveries from Azerbaijan to Turkey and Iran.

    The second question, of course, was related to Turkey’s accession process, which has been practically stalled since 2010 when during the Spanish Presidency of the Council was the last time when a chapter in the negotiations was opened. Since then, the meetings with Turkish representatives have been growing more and more uncomfortable for the EU and reveal the growing self-confidence of Turkey as a self-reliant regional power, which no longer needs the EU but which the Union needs more and more.

    Naturally, the third issue was the Syria situation, against the backdrop of the Russian and then Chinese veto on a resolution in the UN Security Council, that caused a wave of disappointment and even bewilderment.

    Syria

    The news conference started with pointing out the friendly relations between Egemen Bagis and Martin Schulz, the purpose of which remained unclear. The European Parliament chief outlined as an especially important topic of his discussions with Bagis precisely Syria. “We, as Europeans, have to be very grateful to the position Turkey chose regarding Syria”, he said, having in mind the support Turkey stated for the pro-democratic protests in the country, violently crushed by Bashar Assad’s regime. And Mr Bagis for his part underlined that this was the right position, because innocent people were killed. It is time the international community to work to convince the Syrian leadership to implement the necessary reforms so that all in Syria live in prosperity and freedom, he added.

    The international community is at the moment with tied hands. The US has closed its embassy in Damascus, followed by several European countries. The only connection with Bashar al-Assad’s government is being maintained by Russia. On February 7th, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, visited the country. A fact, which is obviously not to Turkey’s liking. On Saturday, Turkish Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at the annual security conference in Munich that there was a great danger nuclei of confrontation to be created in the region. “We do not want the Cold War logic in our system”, he said and called the Cold War structures in the region to be transformed.

    The role Turkey is playing in the region was an occasion Martin Schulz to say that, because of Syria, Turkey had again proven how important it was as a strategic partner of the EU “today and in the future”.

    Armenia

    What caused my perplexity was Schulz’s reaction to a question of a journalist, regarding an ongoing preliminary investigation in Switzerland, related to a remark Egemen Bagis made regarding the events of 1915, which Turkey denies were a genocide against the Armenian people. For unclear reasons this question evoked laughter with the European Parliament chief, who in the same time refused to comment on preliminary investigations. While Egemen Bagis was answering that question however, Martin Schulz continued to laugh, finding it hard to repress.

    The Turkish minister recalled that his country was ready to confront its history and to create a committee of international experts on the Armenian question and reminded about the letter of Premier Erdogan to the government of Armenia in 2005, in which he says that he is ready to confront his history and asks whether Armenia is ready to do the same. In fact, Mr Schulz did not leave the topic without a comment, saying that he wanted to make a recommendation in his capacity of a German and especially of a German president of a multinational European institution, who has to confront his country’s past everyday. “The demons of our past haunt us even today and every day I face my country’s past. Our generation is not guilty for crimes committed in the past but it is responsible to ensure that they do not repeat”.

    Turkey and the EU

    Was it for the friendly relations with Egemen Bagis or for his personal convictions, but Martin Schulz called on the European Union to stick to its promises for Turkey and its membership to the EU. He recognised that this was a long and difficult way but that was a promise the EU made for Turkey. Schulz explained that both discussed the term “European perspective” which, in his words, was often used for candidate countries. In fact this term is used especially frequently for countries the membership of which seems too distant, like for example the Western Balkan nations. According to Schulz, the European Perspective is a geographic game. This term means to stick to the commitments Turkey to become a member of the EU. For his part Egemen Bagis explained that the European perspective meant that it was time “together to look into the problems, not only because we have common past and heritage but a common future”.

    Cyprus

    With his words the Turkish minister for European affairs confirmed Turkey’s pledge to ignore the EU Council Presidency of Cyprus, which starts on July 1, unless a solution is found by then to the Cyprus question. He announced that he and the president of the European Parliament had committed to assist the presidents of the two communities – the Turkish and the Greek – to shake hands in agreement before July, “so that this does not turn into an issue but into a solution and an opportunity for the EU-Turkey relations”.

    For now it is not clear how Bagis’s meeting with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule went by but the video footage reveals very warm relations. As euinside wrote many times, for long it has been high time a brand new conversation between the EU and Turkey to take place on what the relations between them should be, especially against the background of the really impressing role the country is playing in the Middle East in a moment when Europe has its throat squeezed by severe fiscal and economic troubles. To which, by the way, Turkey also proposes a solution, articulated again by Egemen Bagis – remove the visas and thus you will boost your economy. Turkey is the only EU candidate country which is still under a visa regime with the EU.

    • Egemen Bagis: Turkey and the EU Have a Common Future
  • Egemen Bagis: ‘Europe needs Turkey’

    Egemen Bagis: ‘Europe needs Turkey’

     bagis1


    Turkey’s chief EU negotiator explains why his country wants to join an EU in the midst of a deepening economic crisis.

    There is a change going on in the European political landscape. Although their agendas vary from country to country, political parties appealing to some form of traditional or nationalistic values have recently garnered significant footholds in the parliaments of Finland, Norway, Holland, Hungary, Sweden and Italy.

    There is often one common concern that unites these parties: Can Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, join the European Union?

    Turkey is at the doorstep of Europe and it wants to come in. Despite growing anti-Muslim sentiments and a deepening economic downturn in Europe, Turkey is still negotiating to become a full member of the European Union.

    On this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, we ask Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s minister for European affairs and its chief EU negotiator, if Turkey is still as interested in joining the EU as it previously was or whether its perspective has changed.

    He explains why, for Turkey, the process of joining the EU is “more important than the end result” and why aspiring to the standards of the European Union has been critical to his country’s development. 

    Bagis describes the EU as “the grandest peace project in the history of mankind” and shares his views on how Turkey would be able to “turn that continental peace project into a global one”.

    He also discusses press freedom and reform of the judiciary; the issue of the Armenian ‘genocide’ and Turkey’s relationship with France in the wake of the French senate’s decision to approve a bill that will make it illegal to deny that the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 was genocide; and Turkish foreign policy and his country’s position in the region.”If we had joined [the EU] we would have warned them and prevented them from going into these difficult [economic] situations. So maybe we could have prevented Europe from going down. Joining Europe doesn’t mean we are assuming their debts, that doesn’t mean we are assuming their unemployment. Right now, Turkey has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe and the fact that we will join the European Union, is not something that will happen tomorrow. By the time Turkey completes all negotiations, by the time all the chapters are completed, I’m sure this economic crisis will be over, because no crisis lasts forever. But even in the case that there are still difficulties, Turkey can contribute positively to closing the gap.”

     

    Al Jazeera

     

  • Turkey protests Swiss probe against minister

    Turkey protests Swiss probe against minister

    ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Monday summoned the Swiss ambassador to protest his country’s probe of a Turkish official who is alleged to have denied that Armenians endured a genocide.

    Swiss laws criminalizes denying genocide, but Turkey insists there was no systematic campaign in the 1915 killings of 1.5 Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

    Turkey’s chief European Union negotiator Egemen Bagis was alleged to have said in Switzerland, “There is no Armenian genocide. Let them come and arrest me.”

    A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking anonymously due to government rules, said Swiss Ambassador Raimund Kunz was told Monday the probe was “unacceptable.”

    Zurich prosecutor Christine Braunschweig confirmed officials have opened a preliminary investigation into the allegations.

    Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Monday called the probe “ridiculous.”

    “Bagis expressed his view in a country which apparently has no tolerance for freedom of expression,” he said.

    Turkey itself is under intense pressure from the European Union to increase freedom of speech and stop prosecuting writers, intellectuals and journalists for expressing their views.

    In Turkey, the killing of Armenians is an extremely sensitive issue. Some people, including Nobel Prize winning writer Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted for statements on the massacres of Armenians, but charges of insulting Turkey were dropped.

    In 2008, a Swiss court convicted three Turkish men of racism for denying the deaths amounted to genocide. The men have been fined but received no jail sentences.

    Most historians contend that the killings as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century’s first genocide, and several European countries recognize the massacres as such.

    But Turkey maintains there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the empire. It also says that death toll is inflated.

    Turkey’s relations with France have already been strained over a bill that also criminalizes denial that the killings constituted genocide. France’s Constitutional Council has been asked late January to determine whether that bill violates the constitution.

    Turkey suspended military and economic cooperation after the French lower house approval of the measure in December. The Senate gave it the green light in late January.

    President Nicolas Sarkozy — who personally backed the bill — must sign the legislation for it to become law.

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    Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed.

    via Turkey protests Swiss probe against minister.

  • “Armenian Government Not Courageous Enough To Accept Turkey’s Of

    “Armenian Government Not Courageous Enough To Accept Turkey’s Of

    Turkish EU minister said that the government of Armenia was not courageous enough to accept Turkey’s offer that archives should be examined by scholars.

    111111 inga bagisEU Minister Egemen Bagis attended a program “Talk to Al Jazeera” on news channel, Al Jazeera English.

    Recalling that Turkey offered that all archives of Turkey and Armenia must be examined by scholars, he said but Armenian government did not accept it.

    Asked whether he could apologize for what had happened in 1915 in the future, Bagis said, “if it is an unanimously accepted and historical truth, why not-”

    Bagis said the French law penalizing the denial of Armenian allegations regarding 1915 incidents during Ottoman Empire period limited free speech in France.

    Replying to questions on Turkey’s EU membership, Bagis said that the key word was Turkey for several problems in Europe, stating that it was key word in economic crises in Europe.

    Turkey is the fastest economy in Europe, he said.

    Bagis said that Turkey was proving that it had a solid base for strong growing sustainable economy.

    AA