EU Minister Bağış vows to close ranks within the gov't at handover ceremony

ANKARA

EU Minister Egemen Bağış greets his successor Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu at a handover ceremony in Ankara, Dec. 26. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The government is aware they should close the ranks more against the powers that want to divide them and create trouble, EU Minister Egemen Bağış said at a handover ceremony to his successor Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

“There has always been and will be powers who want to create trouble. We will disappoint these traps altogether,” Bağış said on Dec. 26 speaking at the ceremony following the Cabinet reshuffle on Dec. 25, which came hours after the resignation of three top ministers due to their involvement in a graft probe.

There will be fellowship with the Prime Minister “till the grave,” he noted.

“We are aware we should close the ranks more. We will pull together to develop this country with those who bless us, not the ones that curse us,” Bağış said in an indirect reference to the Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen, whose video tape indirectly cursing the government was released recently.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the new Cabinet which included changes on 10 portfolios following a meeting with President Abdullah Gül on Dec. 25.