Bozkır Set To Visit EU To Discuss Accession Process And Syria

EU Affairs Minister and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır will pay an official visit to Strasbourg and Brussels to discuss Turkey's EU accession process as well as the Syrian crisis with EU officials.

Bozkır will attend an iftar organized by the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) on Tuesday in Strasbourg, where he will meet with Johannes Hahn, EU commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, Kati Piri, the European Parliament's (EP) rapporteur for Turkey, and Elmar Brok, chairman of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Bozkır, who will also have talks with Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah, will attend the ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica to be held at the EP. Bozkır will then move on to Brussels, where he will attend an iftar hosted by the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) Brussels branch.

He will have talks with European Commissioner in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova and EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides in Brussels.

Turkey and the EU opened accession negotiations in 2005 but the process has come to a standstill partly due to European reluctance to accept Turkey as a member of the union, the unresolved Cyprus issue and a regression in human rights and freedoms in Turkey over the past years.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)