DOHA - Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that democracy was a dynamic process ever renewing itself: One that was impossible to define with a static frame of mind.
Erdogan who travelled to Doha, capital city of Qatar, to attend the 8th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development, and Free Trade as the Guest of Honour, made the opening speech of the forum.
"The Democracy should rest on social dynamics in order to become established and take root. For we know that changes and transformations can become permanent, as much as they rest on social dynamics and find support among the people," said Erdogan.
Erdogan said Turkey was a democratic, secular, social, state of law and pointed out that its struggle for democratization had a long history. He said Turkey had sound experience in this and despite the known fact that it went through certain stages of distress and hardships from time to time, it did not make concessions in this struggle.
"Turkey, successfully implemented the basic elements of democracy like rights and freedoms, pluralism, rule of law in the light of its cultural experience," said Erdogan.
Erdogan referred to the reforms they made since his party came to power in 2002 in order to meet the Copenhagen criteria required for starting accession talks with the EU and said Turkey met these criteria as early as 2004 and began negotiations in 2005.
"The process Turkey is going through and its experiences may not contain applicable formulas for all countries, but Turkey's experience of democratization is closely watched in a wide territory," said Erdogan.
-ISLAMOPHOPBIA AND TERRORRISM-
Erdogan warned against Islamophobia which he said had reached to the level of paranoia in certain countries, adding that Turkey had been exerting efforts to produce "an antithesis" to the arguments about "the clash civilizations."
"And the project for the Alliance of Civilizations is a concrete and a successful joint undertaking by Turkey and Spain under the auspices of the UN," Erdogan said.
"Everyone is aware that the world has been facing a polarization since September 11, and a resolution of the Council of Europe which states that Islamophobia is a crime against humanity, clearly shows how serious this problem is," Erdogan said.
The Turkish premier also said terrorism had gained a global dimension, urging joint effort against the problem.
"Now, it is impossible for any country to remain immune to terrorism, and no one can guarantee that terrorists, who targeted the U.S., Spain, Britain and Turkey, will not hit other countries in the future. We believe that solidarity and joint endeavour are of utmost importance," Erdogan said.
(OZG-IMB-AÖ)