TURKEY CANNOT REMAIN SILENT AGAINST KILLINGS OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS IN GAZA, BABACAN

Today’s Zaman
Jan 22 2009
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister said on Thursday that nobody should expect
Turkey to remain indifferent to killing of children, women and elderly
people in Gaza.

In an exclusive interview with private TGRT News channel, Foreign
Minister Babacan said, "Turkey had intensive talks in Cairo, Egypt
and Damascus on the matter and carried out a diplomacy traffic in the
UN Security Council to quell the weapons. Turkey also had talks with
Israel. Turkey’s proposals were adopted after some changes."

Responding to a question about new U.S. President Barack Obama,
Babacan described his election as historic.

"Expectations from Obama are very high. His team includes very
important names. Turkey is pleased over Hillary Clinton’s becoming
Secretary of State. Foreign policy agendas of Turkey and the United
States overlap each other. Names in the cabinet related to economy
know the markets very well," Babacan said.

Commenting on the pledges Obama made to Armenians regarding 1915
incidents, Babacan said, "the statements made during election campaign
and the statements that would be made when they sit at table may
be different."

"Nevertheless, I can not say there isn’t any risk," Babacan said
and expressed hope that the new administration in the United States
would not assume a posture that would impede the dialogue process
that started between Turkey and Armenia.

Asked to comment on Turkey’s EU process, Babacan said Turkey’s reform
process was delayed in 2007 and 2008 because of internal political
developments, "however, map of next 4 years has been sketched with the
National Program that was made public at the end of 2008," he remarked.