TÜRKÇE
  Updated: 11/12/2017

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik held a Press Conference in Brussels

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik held a press conference at the Permanent Delegation of Türkiye to the European Union following his meeting with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and his participation in Türkiye-EU Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) Meeting in Brussels.

Stating that Türkiye considers JCC Meetings quite important, the Minister for EU Affairs Ömer Çelik noted that this Committee is one of the mechanisms of the longest term between Türkiye and the EU.

The Minister for EU Affairs Ömer Çelik remarked that they discussed the Cyprus issue during JCC Meeting and said:" It is certain that Türkiye wishes for a solution of this issue; however, despite the positive attitude of the Turkish side, the last opportunity for a solution has been missed.  This is because of the uncompromising attitude of the Greeks."

Indicating that the EU officials acted as observers during the previous meetings on Cyprus, the Minister for EU Affairs Ömer Çelik said:" Everyone detachedly witnessed that Türkiye is very ready for and favours a solution and adopts a positive attitude in this respect."  

Minister Ömer Çelik mentioned the commemoration of the martyrs and meeting with the veterans of the July 15 coup attempt and welcomed moment of standing in silence for the martyrs in the JCC meeting. Minister Ömer Çelik said:

"I have participated in a lot of meetings on the EU since July 15 coup attempt. For the first time I have witnessed a minute of silence for our loss at such a platform.  I believe this is a good way of explaining our vision.  In other words, a coup attempt was undertaken in Türkiye, a country having accession negotiations with the EU, a European country, a member of NATO and OECD and one of the founding members of the Council of Europe. More than 250 people were killed and in their memory, a minute of silence was observed at the 36th meeting of JCC for the first time.  I have underlined that this should set an example for the other European institutions and platforms."

Noting that they called the relevant counterparts to reach the impetus on the accession negotiations again, the Minister for EU Affairs Ömer Çelik said: " Of course, there is a voluntary settlement plan; in other words, certain EU countries would have specific refugee quota after the migration issue was sufficiently dealt with.  Yet, we have unfortunately witnessed that the EU states have failed in this respect."

The EU Minister Ömer Çelik indicated that Europe did not have and did not implement a joint plan and said: "Considering the recent crises, the only success story may be the 18 March Türkiye- EU Statement. No other decision has been taken and implemented except for this Statement."

Remarking that some institutions needed reforms to solve the internal crisis in Europe, Minister Ömer Çelik said that a failure in this respect would result in introvertion of the EU, considering the management of the major issues. 


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Updated: 11/12/2017 / Hit: 6,065