TOP ADVISER: TURKEY MANAGED TO HAVE ZERO PROBLEM-FOREIGN POLICY
Anadolu Agency
Oct 29 2008
Davutoglu said that all frozen clashes were occurring in the geography
where Turkey was situated, and the real problem was how a new world
order could be established.
A Turkish adviser said on Tuesday that Turkish-U.S. relations would
be a success story.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the chief foreign policy adviser to Turkey’s Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the new era with the United
States would be a success story whoever was elected the new president
of that country.
"The new president of the United States will be Turkey’s best friend,"
Davutoglu said during a meeting on "Turkey, the region and U.S.-Turkey
relations: Assessing the challenges and prospects" at the Brookings
Institution in Washington D.C.
On Turkey’s relations with Armenia, Davutoglu said that Turkey was
ready to discuss negative problems and two countries should seize
recent opportunities in their relations.
Davutoglu expressed his expectation that the Armenian diaspora should
support the process between Turkey and Armenia, and said this new
process had not caused concerns in Azerbaijan and relations among
Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan would go on synchronously.
The adviser said that there was need for courage and creativity to
solve the Upper Karabakh dispute, and no one could wait for 20-30
years more to resolve the issue.
Davutoglu said that all frozen clashes were occurring in the geography
where Turkey was situated, and said the real problem was how a new
world order could be established.
The Turkish adviser said that a new economic order should be
established and the world needed a new global order.
"Nobody should perceive different cultures as a threat. This is the
wealth of the entire world and humanity," he said.
Davutoglu said the main principle of Turkish foreign policy was
to establish a balance between security and freedom, and told the
gathering that one should not be sacrificed for the other.
"Security means NATO for Turkey, and freedom means the democratization
process in the EU," the adviser also said.
Talking about Turkey’s relations with its neighbors, Davutoglu said
Turkey had managed to have zero problems with its neighbors and told
the participants of the meeting that Turkey had good relations with
Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia and Syria.
Davutoglu said that Turkey had established a strong relationship with
Iran, and also said that Turkey had made progress in its relations
with Armenia and in settlement of the Cyprus issue.
The Brookings Institution and SETA Foundation for Political, Economic
and Social Research will host a conference to examine Turkey’s domestic
and foreign policy challenges and prospects.
After the keynote address by Ahmet Davutoglu, Ibrahim Kalin,
founding director of SETA; Nonresident Fellow Omer Taspinar,
director of the Turkey Project at Brookings; Visiting Fellow Mark
Parris, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey; and Talha Kose of George
Mason University are expected to moderate a series of discussions
featuring a distinguished group of Turkish and American experts,
officials and scholars.
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization
based in Washington D.C. Its mission is to conduct high-quality,
independent research and, based on that research, to provide
innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad
goals:Strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social
welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans and secure a more
open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system.