Bagis: We Have Shared Information With Ministry Of Foreign Affairs

ANKARA - Egemen Bagis, a deputy of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) from Istanbul, said on Thursday, ''yesterday's briefing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not a warning. We shared information with ministry officials.''
Responding questions of the A.A correspondent, Bagis said, ''it is quite normal that our political party had exchanged information with bureaucrats.''
Giving information about the AK Party's foreign policy, Bagis said, ''the European Union (EU) full membership process is of great importance. It is a process worth of expending great efforts.''
''I do not believe that there are friends and enemies in international relations. Instead, countries have common interests with other countries. For instance, we have common interests with some countries with which we have good relations. There are also common interests with other countries which we could not notice yet. We should bring these interest to light, and set cooperation ties with these countries. For example, there is a significant potential in tourism between Turkey and Greece,'' he said.
Underlining importance of relations between Turkey and the United States, Bagis said, ''we will do our utmost to further improve these relations. Meanwhile, we do not want to consider Russian Federation our rival in Caucasus. We want to see Russia as a partner in our region.''
Bagýs said that they follow the developments in the Middle East closely, adding that close cooperation with Israel would continue.
Regarding a possible U.S. operation against Iraq, Bagýs said that ''no body wants a war in Iraq, but we don't want Saddam to threaten anybody, his people, his neighbours and particularly our people with biological and chemical weapons. We believe that the solution has to be in line with U.N. resolutions.''
Referring to the approach of AK Party to economy, Bagýs said that the priority of Turkey after EU membership is to solve problems of unemployment and poverty.
Bagýs noted that employment has to increase in order to overcome these problems, adding that the private sector, small and medium scale enterprises, and tradesmen have to be supported and the production has to start as soon as possible.
Bagýs said that they have two projects of construction one of 15,000 kilometers of highway and the other of 1.5 million dwellings to overcome the unemployment, adding that the construction sector which will revive by these giant projects that will activate 600 sectors. ''I believe that the economic crisis in Turkey stemmed from lack of trust,'' said Bagýs and noted that the feeling of stability and trust the AK party gave to people even before setting up the new government, had a positive effect on stock exchange market.
Referring to the relations with IMF, Bagýs said that ''IMF is an institution which is our partner, nobody wants its partner to lose because if it loses the other also loses. Turkey's overcoming its economic problems is to the advantage of IMF.''