|
|
|
|
| Turkey's top official for European Union membership talks has pledged that his country would make more reforms in 2010 as well as opening new channels of communication with the EU countries. "We will continue to take steps that we need to raise the standards of our nation and to secure that they live in a more modern, civilized and transparent country," Egemen Bagis told the Anadolu Agency on the occasion of the first anniversary of his taking the chief EU negotiator post. Bagis emphasized that Turkey would launch more communication projects in a bid to overcome both domestic and foreign prejudices against the country's accession to the Union. "We need to stop anti-EU people from poisoning the public opinion with false information and also we need to free European minds of their anti-Turkey biases. Turkey is now a European country more than it ever was," Bagis said. Bagis said Turkey made many reforms last year including the launching of broadcast in Kurdish on state-run television network, as well as radio broadcasts in Kurdish and Armenian, the proclamation of May 1st as official holiday, and the opening of the EU negotiations chapter on taxation. "Turkey is the most western country in the Orient and it is the most oriental country in the West. And the world appreciates that as we are able to hold the secretariat-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference while we hold the co-presidency of the Alliance of Civilizations, hold a seat at the UN Security Council and at the same time negotiate for our accession to the EU," Bagis said. Bagis criticized opposition parties in Turkey for being "unfit to a country that reaches for higher European standards and becomes a more democratic regime." "I hope they will come to their senses and cooperate to solve Turkey's problems together on a common ground," Bagis said. |