Turkey’s Chief Negotiator Condemns 9/11 Attacks on Their Anniversary

Chief Negotiator Egemen Bağış condemned the 9/11 terror attacks in remembrance of their anniversary.

Bağış related that the 9/11 attacks demonstrated that terrorism is an international problem, a claim Turkey has been making for years.

In his speech marking the anniversary of 9/11, Bağış stated that the 9/11 attacks stand as one of humanity’s most bloody and tragic events, and that as a country that has been combating terror for decades and has lost thousands of its people to terror attacks, Turkey has a deep understanding and sympathy for the tragedy America faced on 9/11.

Bağış claimed that, “just as Turkey has been asserting for years, the 9/11 attacks showed us once again that terrorism is an international problem.”

Bağış remarked that the measures against terror taken by the EU following the 9/11, Madrid and London attacks demonstrate the importance of international cooperation. He added that the PKK is listed on both the EU’s and the U.S.’ terror lists, and that international cooperation will be required in order to cut off the PKK’s European sources of finance and ban the propaganda network, Roj TV.

Bağış added that he is pleased to see various European countries begin to take action against the PKK, especially given that these countries had been unaware of the PKK threat in the past.

Bağış stated that, “Just as PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tells us, terrorism has no language, religion or ethnicity.” He went on to say that one of today’s greatest dangers is posed by conflating terrorism with ethnic and religious identities, when in fact, the perpetrators of 9/11 do not represent Islam any more than the PKK represents the Kurdish people.

Reminding his audience that terror’s essential target is to disrupt peaceful society and strike a blow against cultures that allow people of different groups to live alongside one another, Bağış offered the following remarks:

“The proposal to build a mosque on the site where the Twin Towers were destroyed is actually an explicit challenge against terrorism; it breaks the rules that terrorists want to play by. I look at Turkey’s National Unity and Brotherhood Project in much the same way, as a challenge to terrorism. Showing respect for our differences and living tolerantly in our beautiful nation is the best answer to terrorism.”

Within the context of Ramadan, Bağış offered a harsh condemnation of the 9/11 attacks, solemnly remembering all the innocent lives lost to terror in Turkey and around the world.