Turkey's Middle East Vision Has Many Similarities With Principles And Goals Of G-8

ANKARA - Turkey`s Middle East vision, aiming at making the region a peaceful, stable, democratic and prosperous geography, had many similarities with principles and goals of the Group of the Eight (G-8) initiative, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan said on Thursday.
Tan told a weekly press conference that Turkey`s Middle East vision aimed at strengthening principles like democracy, human rights, rule of law and good administration, and ensuring a free market economy.
The most important message of the G-8 summit held in the United States was that leading industrialized countries in the world were ready to support reforms necessary for development of humanity in the Middle East and North Africa, Tan noted.
Tan said, ``we have expressed our views about Broader Middle East Initiative in every occasion during development of the project. Within this framework, we stressed that the initiative should be based on partnership with regional countries, should not be compelling or imposing, should be based on regional demands for reforms, and should be backed by regional governments and people. We also stressed that developments to be recorded in solution of regional problems, particularly Arab-Israeli dispute, should have a positive impact on the reform process. We are pleased to say that the G-8 initiative has taken all these factors into consideration.``
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was invited to the meeting to express possible contributions of Turkey, as a neighbor democratic partner in the region, to developments in the Middle East, Tan noted.
Tan said, ``in this context, I would like to underline one thing. Turkey`s Middle East vision, aiming to turn the region into a peaceful, stable, democratic and prosperous geography, has many similarities with principles and goals of the G-8 initiative. Therefore, we have announced that we are ready to make original contributions to projects which are laid down by G-8 partnership and in which regional countries will be interested. As a country which has recorded significant progress in further improvement of democracy and which is very close to beginning of negotiations with the EU (European Union), we think that Turkey can share its experiences with regional countries.``
Turkey had undertaken co-chairmanship of ``democratic aid dialogue``, one of the mechanisms foreseen to be formed at the G-8 summit, Tan pointed out.
Tan said that this ``democratic aid dialogue`` would be a mechanism open to participation of G-8, EU, other countries and regional countries in order to ensure coordination in initiatives carried out in the region to strengthen democratic institutions, and in order to make joint projects.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan had the opportunity to share Turkey`s views about regional problems, particularly Arab-Israeli dispute and situation in Iraq, with leaders of G-8 and other countries during the summit, Tan added.
(BRC-AÖ) 10.06.2004