Top business leader: "Turkey is rapidly rising to the economic major leagues"

Turkey is on the verge of a new era in terms of economic development in which it will take its place in the major leagues, Ferit Sahenk, the head of Turkey's Dogus Holding and chairman of the Turkish-German Business Council, said yesterday. Speaking at the first Turkish-German conference on investment and cooperation in Istanbul, Sahnek stressed the features Turkey and Germany share in common. "We're talking about the partnership of a country which made major contributions to reducing tension over the Eurozone in a critical period with its key role in policy coordination, namely Germany, with a country that recently emerged as a regional power both economically and politically, namely Turkey," he said. Considering the new dynamics of globalization, we can see how Turkey repositioned itself, Sahenk said, calling it one of the key players in the new global paradigm. Speaking at the same meeting, Chief Negotiator for EU Talks Egemen Bagis slammed what he called the unfair treatment of Turkey's EU bid by some member countries. Stating that 17 out of a total of 33 chapters in accession talks between Turkey and the EU are currently blocked over political reasons, Bagis said, "Not to open the energy chapter in talks with Turkey, which is a key country in terms of energy in its region, is a double standard in itself." Only one EU member has lived up to a pledge to end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots who supported a UN plan to solve the Cyprus issue, Bagis said, and added, "While the Greek Cypriot administration is doing trade with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), 26 EU member countries acting on the contrary and trying to block trade with the TRNC is another double standard." Bagis also made it clear that Turkey will open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic only when the TRNC's isolation is ended.