ISTANBUL - Turkish General Staff Chief General Hilmi Ozkok has said, ''when we examine regions of crisis in which stability could not be provided, we see that Turkey is located in close proximity to those regions. Turkey has a quite significant position. Turkey's position and proximity to those regions constitute a significant chance for the international society.''
General Staff Department of Military History and Strategical Studies held a symposium in Istanbul on Thursday on ''Regions of Crisis from the Perspective of Turkey, NATO and European Union (EU) and Their Impacts on Turkey's Security''.
Sending a message to the symposium, General Ozkok said, ''after the Cold War era ended, threats have changed rapidly. However, the same rapid change has not been achieved in the security.''
''Especially the countries molded by philosophical infrastructure of the warfare, could not determine new requirements of rapidly changing atmosphere of international security. Number of regions of crisis have increased considerably in recent years. Under the influence of the globalization, these regions have begun affecting national interests of the other countries negatively. Such developments have entailed us to accelerate our security efforts,'' he stressed.
Chief of General Staff Gen. Ozkok said, ''this change in philosophical and structural field of NATO in the past 10 years and its turning into a transformation and efforts of the EU to develop their own security policies were results of the gradually growing security concerns of international community.''
Gen. Ozkok said, ''it is particularly important that NATO and the EU should be in close cooperation in prevention of crises and fight against terrorism, and they should complement each other when necessary and reach an understanding on problems.''
Gen. Ozkok said, ''when the crisis regions and the regions where stability could not provided are examined, it is seen that Turkey is situated in a geography close to those regions. Turkey's closeness to those regions is an international chance. Turkey has the position of bridge with its universal values, stable structure, secular and democratic characteristics.''
(UK-AY-AÖ) 27.05.2004