Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan traveled to Khartoum in March 2006 to attend the Arab League Summit, where he addressed a conference focused on civilizational dialogue.
In his remarks, Erdoğan cautioned against allowing tensions between the Muslim world and the West to escalate into a broader clash of civilizations, arguing that some actors were deliberately framing Muslims as adherents of a violent faith. He called the offensive Prophet Muhammad cartoons published in European newspapers impossible to justify under freedom of expression.
Erdoğan also pushed back against the phrase "Islamic terror," which gained currency after the September 2001 attacks in the United States, describing it as a harmful and inaccurate pairing of words.
He pointed to the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, which he co-launched with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero, as a constructive framework backed by numerous governments and international organizations. He added that Türkiye's bid to join the European Union carried broader significance for cross-cultural understanding.
On the security front, Erdoğan called for stronger intelligence-sharing among nations, stressing that international cooperation was essential to combating terrorism effectively.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in March 2006, in its own words.