Wednesday, 4 November 2009http://www.usak.org.tr/fotolar.asp?id=50
The President of the Turkish Republic, Abdullah Gul, joined the staff members of USAK today to celebrate the grand opening of our new building; the first structure specifically built for a think tank in Turkey.
After taking a brief tour of the new establishment, President Gul gave a lecture on Turkish foreign policy. He declared that at present, Turkey has a very strong economy and is a regional power; it has developed democracy considerably by putting emphasis on the EU process and improving democratic reforms in Turkey. He argued that since Turkey has developed significantly in these areas, it is vitally important for Turkey to integrate with world economies and incorporate its neighbor's economies with the world, contributing to globalization. He stressed that Turkey tries to be a stabilizer for the region and tries to create a secure community with its neighbors and this is why he actively partakes in policies in the Middle East, Caucasus and Black Sea Region.
At the ceremony, President Gul spoke of the rising soft power of Turkey and said that it is one of the regional focal points that helps to transform the region via soft power instruments instead of military force. He cited the Afghanistan case as an example and stated that Turkey has been able to help transform the infrastructure of the state and has provided economic aid; adding that each year Turkey gives over one billion dollars in economic aid around the world.
Gul: "Turkey is Not Drifting Away From the West"
President Gul also put strong emphasis on Turkey's relations with the United States and the EU. He voiced his concern over those who say that Turkey is drifting away from the West. This is a wrong interpretation he argued, and in order to see the direction of Turkey, it is important to see the countries efforts to consolidate its free market economy, its foreign policy understanding and the importance placed on democracy.
Gul said that Turkey is improving its relations with the United States and these two countries are concentrating almost completely on the same issues around the world; they have similar agendas. In this regard, Obama's visit to Turkey established dialogue between his administration and Turkey and it is promising for the future. Turkey supports multilateralism in world politics and Obama's administration strongly underlines this point as well.
He also added that ethics and pacta sund servanda are the main pillars of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey would like its European counterparts to act in line with these principles. For example, he wants the European leaders not to go beyond the legal borders in Turkey-EU relations and he strongly rejected privileged partnership based on this understanding.
The President also congratulated USAK and the researchers working here while voicing strong support for the development of similar institutions in Turkey. President Gul said that USAK is important for Turkey to develop civil initiatives in foreign policy making; he supports think tanks like USAK in order to improve the high quality of research and analysis in Turkey and said that USAK fills a very important gap in doing so.
See the photos from the opening ceremony:
http://www.usak.org.tr/fotolar.asp?id=50
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Wednesday, 4 November 2009
JTW
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