Istanbul - Selen Tonkus
Turkey’s European Union (EU) Affairs Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said that Turkey was a country which had already opened environment chapter, one that most of the candidate countries left as the last one.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) at EU Istanbul Conference organized by Turkey’s EU Affairs Ministry at Swiss Otel in Istanbul, upon the question whether Gezi Park protests affected the course of the conference or not, “Despite the pressures by some circles, none of the EU state officials, speakers and participants cancelled their participation in the conference,” said Bagis.
He added, "Even there were those who talked about disgusting scenarios such as the possibility of a coup in Turkey. Unfortunately, majority of them were extremely willing circles to risk their own peace, welfare and comfort within Turkey.”
Stating that the conference had presented a very significant platform for the EU to reconsider its own problems and find solutions for them, besides discussing Turkey’s membership, Bagis said, “At the same time the conferene came to a platform where our prime minister gave messages about the Gezi Park, one of the current topics in Turkey now, which led the stock market to boom,”, referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opening speech on June 7.
Bagis underlined Erdogan’s adressing to the protestors as, “My environmentalist brothers” and “I am your partner in environmental issues.”
Emphasizing that Turkey opened environment chapter to negotiations with the EU, on which several EU candidate countries left to last, Bagis said, “This was facilitated by our prime minister’s decisiveness.”
“Turkey signed Kyoto Protocol during AK Party rule” added Bagis, and underlined, “Largest forestation of Republic of Turkey has been done during AK Party rule. We planted 2.5 billion trees, it is a very important amount, although some circles underestimate it.”
englishnews@aa.com.tr
