Bagis: What Al-Qaeda is to the west, the PKK is to Turkey

Speaking at a gala dinner hosted by David Reddaway, British ambassador to Turkey, at Pera House on Friday evening, Turkey’s EU Minister and chief negotiator Egemen Bagis asked for more cooperation from Europe in Turkey’s fight against terrorism and conveyed that Turkey expects Europe to take more concrete steps on the issue. Turkey’s EU minister said that Turkey is unified in its fight against the terrorist PKK attacks and asked European countries to work together with Turkey to combat terrorism, adding, "What al-Qaeda is to the West, the PKK is to Turkey". Reddaway hosted the dinner prior to the 8th annual Bosporus Conference, which welcomed numerous participants from political, economic and academic arenas on Saturday and Sunday. Attending the gala as keynote speaker, the UK’s parliamentary undersecretary of state for energy and climate change and chairman of UK Trade and Investment’s Business Ambassadors group, Lord Jonathan Marland, stated he is deeply sorry over the latest terrorist attacks in Turkey, which resulted in deaths of 24 Turkish security personnel. Marland later added that Turkey has developed a lot in the last decade and that the trade volume between the UK and Turkey has increased enormously in recent years. Turkey’s EU minister said on Saturday that the PKK terrorism is also an enemy of Europe. Speaking to reporters at the Bosporus Conference, Bagis said that Turkey was deeply saddened by the most recent terrorist attacks in the southeastern province of Hakkari. The PKK is not only an enemy of Turkey, but also of Europe because while the PKK kills Turkish people with bullets, it is killing European youth with drugs, Bagis said. "All of us [the EU and Turkey] must fight against terrorism," he said. Referring to the Denmark-based Roj TV television station, one of the main propaganda tools of the PKK, Bagis stated that this TV station continues to call on Turkey’s Kurdish youth to join the terrorist organization. Bagis added that the Turkish nation is fed up with the refusal of European countries to extradite PKK members to Turkey. In regard to Turkey’s EU accession process, Bagis said: "I believe that both Turkey and the EU have things to gain from Turkey’s EU accession process. We will keep making the required reforms. Turkey is advancing on its path toward being a more democratic, more transparent and more powerful country."