Bagis departs for Italy

Speaking to reporters at the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul before departing for Italy for official contacts, Turkey's Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis on Tuesday defined an EU decision to close its air space to Syrian planes as an important development. "The bloody-minded regime should become aware of certain things and put an end to wrong applications within its own country. The EU decision would be beneficial in terms of ensuring that the dictatorial Syrian regime and the international community which supports it understand certain things. We want tranquility in Syria.  Turkey is not hoping to go to war against Syria. We just don't find it right that the world remains a mere spectator to the Syrian state bombing its own cities and hundreds of thousands of people escaping to Turkey and other countries," Bagis said, adding that Turkey has been hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian brothers through its own means. Answering a question on the EU's "Turkey 2012 Progress Report," Bagis recalled that the EU is a continental peace project.  "However, there are still black holes and mountains in the continent. Once Turkey joins the EU, the continental peace project will turn into the global peace project. Turkey's EU membership will be a greater award than the Nobel Prize for EU," Bagis added.