Bagis attends meeting organized by federation of Rumeli and Balkan associations

A meeting was organized for the third time by the Federation of Rumeli and Balkan Associations over the weekend at the Sinan Erdem Sports Hall in Istanbul. Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Turkey's Minister for European Union Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said, "We have been exerting efforts under the instruction given by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan not only for Turkey's EU membership, but also to ensure that all of the Balkan countries, mainly Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia, become an EU member." Bagis added that the EU represented a very important process to ensure permanent peace in the Balkans as the most comprehensive peace project throughout history of humanity. "Thank God, Turkey is standing next to them. Turkey is moving forward in a quite different way so that stability and peace gets stronger in that geography," Bagis added. The meeting was also attended by Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin, Deputy Parliament Speaker Meral Aksener, Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Head of the Federation of Rumeli and Balkan Associations Ayhan Bolukbasi and a great many citizens. Speaking for her part, Aksener said that she was honored to meet with people from Rumeli.