ANKARA
Turkey's European Union minister has said his country closely monitored a court trial over the killing of 10 foreigners in Germany between 2000 and 2007, string of murders blamed on a neo-Nazi terror cell.
"Turkey follows the process closely. Cagatay Kilic, head of the Turkey-Germany Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group at the Turkish Parliament travelled to Germany to monitor the case. Him and other Turkish MPs follow the case closely and inform us about any developments. [Turkish] Prime Minister Erdogan also tracks the case closely. I hope that our German allies will be able to erase the negative image caused by this case," Egemen Bagis told reporters in a meeting on Wednesday with Milan Zachar, Slovakia's ambassador to Turkey, in capital Ankara.
Bagis said he urged Maria Bohmer, Germany's minister of state in the Federal Chancellery, during a meeting last week that Germany should pay attention to "the sensitivities of the country's 3.5 million Turks. Otherwise, Germany cannot maintain balances in its domestic politics."
In response to a question over remarks by Gunther Oettinger, EU's commissioner for energy who had suggested that Germany and France -- two outspoken opponents of Turkey's EU entry -- would "crawl to Ankara on their knees to beg" Turkey in ten year's time to join the Union, Bagis said "Oettinger's words were not easy to say and they needed to be taken seriously.
"This is because 75 percent of Europe's energy needs is in Turkey's east, north or south. And when they realize this, they understand Turkey's strategic importance and their need to secure Turkey's cooperation to access to those energy resources," Bagis said.
Separately, Bagis met with Kristine De Mulde, director general of International Arts Festival, or Europalia.
De Mulder reportedly asked for support to promote Turkey's cultural heritage in the 2015 edition of the festival, which takes place every two years.
