Bagis. Turkey is no longer the 'sick man of Europe'

Turkey is no longer "the sick man of Europe," State Minister Egemen Bagis, the country's chief EU negotiator, said at a ceremony in Istanbul yesterday. "Even though there are some circles in the European Union that oppose Turkey's membership, Turkey's friends within the EU, like Britain, outnumber them," he said. Bagis made the remarks at a signing ceremony for an agreement between Ankara and London on giving seminars to the local Turkish media about the EU. The pact was signed by Ambassador Haluk Ilicak, the head of Turkey's European Union General Secretariat, and British Ambassador David Reddaway.