EU chief Bağış meets his top image makers
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Caroline Stern
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 07, 2009 00:003dk okuma
ISTANBUL - The guest of honor, Turkey’s top EU negotiator Egemen Bağış responded to sometimes heated critiques of the government over dinner last week in Istanbul for 30 foreign opinion leaders on Turkish matters in Europe.
A group of 30 foreign journalists, writers and business leaders based in Turkey joined newly appointed chief negotiator to the EU, Egemen Bağış, in a sometimes heated discussion of the status of Turkey’s EU integration last Friday at the Rahmi M. Koç Museum’s Halat restaurant in Istanbul.
Attendees were told that the gathering was the third in a series of "community forums" geared toward establishing more open channels of communication between professional groups in society and the young American-educated Turkish negotiator. The meeting was the first in the series to focus on influential foreigners living in Turkey. Guests included foreign correspondents reporting on Turkey for leading news organizations in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Alongside Gareth Jenkins and Nicole Pope, authors of books on modern Turkey’s political horizons, sat top executives from foreign companies such as UPS and Cisco Systems, major multinationals which have invested heavily in Turkey. Bağış told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on the phone Tuesday that the meeting was "nothing more than a private gathering over dinner" at a friend’s invitation and that he was "shocked there was anything newsworthy about it". He noted that he had told the group Friday that everything he said there was "off the record." According to invitees, after his address, Bağış responded to comments about what participants characterized as the successes and shortcomings of the ruling Justice and Development Party during the past five years.
The friend under whose auspices the dinner was held was Mutlu Zalkan, a longstanding figure in Turkish business and deputy general manager of Malkan Makine, a heavy machine manufacturer which exports to 74 countries. Business attendees who spoke to the Daily News held a generally positive impression of the meeting, which Roberto Luongo, director of the Italian Trade Center, described as "very fruitful".
’Make or break’ diplomacy
The International Crisis Group called 2009 a "make or break" year for Turkey’s EU accession in their latest report. With Bağış’s appointment, the AKP seems to have stepped up the eight-decade process of officially becoming part of the Europe. Bağış is the first fulltime EU negotiator, a post moved from under the umbrella of the Foreign Ministry into the Prime Ministry’s domain.
It is frequently noted that Bağış is not wholly a bureaucrat but more of a diplomat who seems to favor communication over paperwork. This claim is supported by Luango’s description of the meeting as the "first of its kind" in the sense that attendees were free to ask questions and be assured of receiving frank answers about the status of the integration process and the orientation of current foreign policy. Luongo told the Daily News that all 35 chapters necessary for Turkey’s accession would be resolved eventually, stressing that impediments to ascension would not come from the business sector. "No problems will arise in commercial or investment fields," he said.
Jennifer Gökmen, editor of international bestseller "Tales from the Expat Harem", described the debate surrounding the "open, frank dialogue" as varied and occasionally heated. Toward the end of the evening, she added, the group seemed to agree on recent progress in Turkey’s infrastructure including overhauling the tax code, foreign direct investment laws and plans to amend the commercial code. Also noted were Turkey’s attempts to fully implement the EU’s Copenhagen Criteria that calls for preservation of human rights and democratic governance.
Attendees were told that the gathering was the third in a series of "community forums" geared toward establishing more open channels of communication between professional groups in society and the young American-educated Turkish negotiator. The meeting was the first in the series to focus on influential foreigners living in Turkey. Guests included foreign correspondents reporting on Turkey for leading news organizations in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Alongside Gareth Jenkins and Nicole Pope, authors of books on modern Turkey’s political horizons, sat top executives from foreign companies such as UPS and Cisco Systems, major multinationals which have invested heavily in Turkey. Bağış told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on the phone Tuesday that the meeting was "nothing more than a private gathering over dinner" at a friend’s invitation and that he was "shocked there was anything newsworthy about it". He noted that he had told the group Friday that everything he said there was "off the record." According to invitees, after his address, Bağış responded to comments about what participants characterized as the successes and shortcomings of the ruling Justice and Development Party during the past five years.
The friend under whose auspices the dinner was held was Mutlu Zalkan, a longstanding figure in Turkish business and deputy general manager of Malkan Makine, a heavy machine manufacturer which exports to 74 countries. Business attendees who spoke to the Daily News held a generally positive impression of the meeting, which Roberto Luongo, director of the Italian Trade Center, described as "very fruitful".
’Make or break’ diplomacy
The International Crisis Group called 2009 a "make or break" year for Turkey’s EU accession in their latest report. With Bağış’s appointment, the AKP seems to have stepped up the eight-decade process of officially becoming part of the Europe. Bağış is the first fulltime EU negotiator, a post moved from under the umbrella of the Foreign Ministry into the Prime Ministry’s domain.
It is frequently noted that Bağış is not wholly a bureaucrat but more of a diplomat who seems to favor communication over paperwork. This claim is supported by Luango’s description of the meeting as the "first of its kind" in the sense that attendees were free to ask questions and be assured of receiving frank answers about the status of the integration process and the orientation of current foreign policy. Luongo told the Daily News that all 35 chapters necessary for Turkey’s accession would be resolved eventually, stressing that impediments to ascension would not come from the business sector. "No problems will arise in commercial or investment fields," he said.
Jennifer Gökmen, editor of international bestseller "Tales from the Expat Harem", described the debate surrounding the "open, frank dialogue" as varied and occasionally heated. Toward the end of the evening, she added, the group seemed to agree on recent progress in Turkey’s infrastructure including overhauling the tax code, foreign direct investment laws and plans to amend the commercial code. Also noted were Turkey’s attempts to fully implement the EU’s Copenhagen Criteria that calls for preservation of human rights and democratic governance.